Ecouterre

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Beneath the pomp and glitz of New York Fashion Week lies one disquieting fact: Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world, second only to oil in terms of its environmental impact. Besides consuming an inordinate volume of water, energy, and physical resources, it also generates a tremendous amount of waste—15 to 20 percent of the fabric used to construct a typical garment is tossed into the landfill, for instance. To illustrate the excess, Yoxi summoned artist Justin Gignac to create 12 Fashion Week "waste cubes" using remnant materials from designers Rogan Gregory of Rogan and Loomstate, Charlotte Ronson, Bibhu Mohapatra, and Boy Meets Girl's Stacy Igel. Auctioned off at Yoxi's "Trim the Waste of Fashion" event to benefit DonorsChoose.org, the plastic hexahedrons offer a snapshot of our clothing's hidden toll.

Missed the excitement of New York Fashion Week? Ecouterre braved blistered toes, sleepless nights, and undereye bags the size of miniature dachshunds to bring you, dearest of readers, the blow-by-blow action. And don't forget to check out the inaugural (Sustainable) Fashion's Night Out and the results of the second annual CFDA/Lexus Eco-Fashion Challenge.

EDUN didn't have to look far to find a few good men to model its Fall/Winter 2011 collection. Kicking off its "Pioneers" project at New York Fashion Week, the ethical label tapped actors, artists, activists, and entrepreneurs—including TOMS's Blake Mycoskie, TreeHugger's Graham Hill, and Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa of Warby Parker—for a viral campaign that will also drive awareness for the pioneer's cause of choice. "All these pioneers are all chosen because they're men who have style with substance," says Ali Hewson, who co-founded the brand with her husband, U2 frontman Bono. "I think intelligence is the most attractive thing about styling."

September 8 proved a milestone in sartorial history: the very first (Sustainable) Fashion's Night Out. Verde-haute vendors and brands gathered at Manhattan's Textile Arts Center so New Yorkers could participate in Fashion's Night Out without the retail-guilt hangover the morning after. Hosted by EcoSalon, Of Rags, and the New York City Fair Trade Coalition, the lively and jam-packed event featured clothing, shoes, accessories, and more from sustainable designers such as A.D.O. Clothing, Afia, Erin Considine, Love is Mighty, Ohm-Mongo, Feral Childe, and Shabd. Missed out on the festivities? Our slideshow puts you front and center amid the glamour and excitement.

Photos by Jasmin Malik Chua for Ecouterre

Compared with the inaugural Council of the Designers of America/Lexus Eco-Fashion Challenge in November, its sophomore outing had far less pomp and circumstance, resembling more a car showroom more than a showcase of sustainable design. Held at a sparsely decorated (and barely filled) ground-floor space at Milk Studios on Monday night, with the 2013 Lexus GS350 prominently in view, the award ceremony crowned three fashion designers for producing at least 25 percent of their proposed fall collection in an eco-friendly manner: Marcia Patmos of M. Patmos, John Bartlett, and Johnson Hartig of Libertine. The winners each received a hefty $25,000 check to bring their Fall/Winter 2012 collections to New York Fashion Week in February.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Wall Street may be experiencing more tumbles than a roomful of tots at Gymboree, but the mood at Duro Olowu's Spring/Summer 2012 show at New York Fashion Week was anything but downbeat. The U.K.-based designer had camera bulbs flashing wildly as models preened and posed in front of a stark white backdrop at Milk Studios on Saturday. Inspired by the work of photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue and the West Indian immigrants who arrived in England in the '50s—Olowu's mother among them—the collection is a visual feast of reclaimed silks and vintage fabric trims in eclectic, contrasting patterns.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

As one might expect from its rock-star provenance, EDUN offers altruism with an edge. But although U2 frontman Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, founded the label to buttress the languishing economies of Kenya, Uganda, and Mali, it's shied away from making its African connection too literal in its clothes. At the Spring/Summer 2012 show at New York Fashion Week on Sunday, however, Sharon Wauchob, a year into her creative directorship under Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, appears to have belayed that order by presenting one of EDUN's most "ethnic" collections to date.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Mara Hoffman is known for her bohemian flair, so the presence of a live mariachi band at her Spring/Summer 2012 show wasn't the least incongruous. Presented at the Box at Lincoln Center during New York Fashion Week, Hoffman's self-described "Mexican Mamas" featured a bevy of designs inspired by the women of Mexico, particularly legendary painter Frida Kahlo. Using custom-designed silk prints manufactured in-house in the United States, Hoffman interlaced woodcut, tribal, woven, and geometric designs with neon embroidery and seed-beading to create a sultry, tropical-infused lineup of jumpsuits (long and short), sheer skirts, caftans, and tea-length column dresses.

Photos by Jill Fehrenbacher and Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Against the onslaught of real housewives and Kardashians, Leanne Marshall's brand of youthful elegance fills a precarious but necessary niche. And, at the showing of her Spring/Summer 2012 line at New York Fashion Week on Saturday, the Season 5 Project Runway winner showed us why sophistication will always trump flash. Billowy confections, architecturally sculptured in layers of traditional silk, hemp silk, bamboo jersey, and organic cotton, fluttered down the runway in searing combinations of ivory, lavender, and highlighter yellow. "I was inspired by the feeling of going to the beach or vacationing in the South of France," Marshall tells Ecouterre. "I wanted to capture the way the wind moved through the sand."

Photos by Jill Fehrenbacher for Ecouterre

With their matching plaid-flannel shirts, suspenders, and full beards and mustaches, Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra are unlikely advocates for femininity. Yet you'd be hard-pressed to describe their Spring/Summer 2012 lineup at New York Fashion Week on Friday any other way. Dresses of every description, clad in heady florals or lustrous solids, slinked across the runway. "We kept thinking of this one word; we kept thinking of 'romance," Tagliapietra tells Ecouterre.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

As one of Project Runway's most polarizing contestants, Gretchen Jones can't be blamed for feeling a little, well, persecuted¹. So it's perhaps fitting that her Spring/Summer 2012 show—her first solo presentation at New York Fashion Week—took the form of a police lineup; her way of acknowledging, perhaps, the controversy with a giant wink and nod. Accompanied by the bluesy twangs of the Nouveau Classical Project and the unlikely services of a smoke machine, the 20 models presented a layered array of drapey, color-block separates in desert hues; ankle-grazing prairie skirts in hallucinogenic prints; and pinstripe-denim pageboy shorts, hems angled precipitously to suggest one of Jones's signature motifs, the chevron.

¹Jill's note: And we don't blame her, considering that Project Runway was edited to create drama out of less-than-dramatic circumstances.

Photos by Jill Fehrenbacher for Ecouterre

No one can accuse Organic's John Patrick of being a Johnny-come-lately. Showcasing his Spring/Summer 2012 collection a full day before New York Fashion Week's official launch, the eco-fashion pioneer invited his guests on a journey of exploration and adventure to untouched lands far away. Amidst the eclectic historical decor of the West Village's sailor-shack-turned-hotel The Jane, onlookers reveled in one of Patrick's most streamlined collections yet: classic, timeless, and chic, yet devoid of excessive trendiness. (Like the desert-boot wedges that the models donned, the pieces espouse utility with flair.)

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Marcia Patmos likes to keep things compact. She's speaking about her supply-chain footprint, which favors domestic production, local yarns, and zero-waste techniques, but the term could easily refer to the tidy Spring/Summer 2012 lineup that debuted at New York Fashion Week on Thursday. "I try to do as much as I can, as compactly as I can," she tells Ecouterre from the High Line Room of The Standard. Awash with pale neutrals, punctuated by smatterings of citron, navy, and shimmery metallics, the collection takes a laid-back tack, coupling sleek silhouettes with an open-knit, handworked vibe.

Cab it to New York Fashion Week? How gauche. The only way to roll is on two wheels. No need to tune-up your Schwinn for the long haul, however—you can borrow one of 30 bespoke bicycles customized by fashion's finest, including Diane von Furstenberg, Nanette Lepore, Prabal Gurung, Elie Tahari, and Isaac Mizrahi, courtesy of the Fashion Center Business Improvement District. Hand-built in New York City by Bowery Bicycles, each spiffed-up cruiser gaily reflects the personality of its modder: a rice-paper parasol and rear doggy basket for Lela Rose, an explosion of pink roses for Betsey Johnson, splatters of graffiti for Carlos Falchi. Hit pedal to the asphalt with an exclusive look at Tour de Fashion's hautest wheels.

Designer Suzanne Rae sent Lincoln Center crowds dancing with her new collection of "victorian gone grunge" at New York Fashion Week. Both feminine and strong, Rae's Fall/Winter 2011 collection offered a combination of sustainable, end-of-roll, and deadstock fabrics, including herringbone tweed, wispy silks, hemp jerseys, and plaid flannels—all made in the United States.

New York Fashion Week may have come to a close, but the hottest looks from the eco-fashion runways are still fresh in our minds. (It doesn't hurt that we have so many exclusive pics to refresh our memories, either). From cozy knits to flowy dresses, click through our photo gallery to check out six of our favorite green designers who gave sustainable style a good name this season.

Tara St. James of Study NY schooled the New York Fashion Week crowd on eco design on Monday when she presented her Fall/Winter 2011 collection at the High Line Room of the Standard Hotel, as part of New York Fashion Week. As the recipient of the 2011 Ecco Domani Award for Sustainable Design, St. James made apt pupils of us all with a bevy of models clad in locally sourced recycled polyester, hemp, Tencel, organic cotton, and reclaimed wool. The lessons of the day? Sustainable fabrics, fair-trade production, and frugality make for good design.