NYFW: Opening Night at The GreenShows with Luis Valenzuela

Luis Valenzuela at The GreenShows (photo: Abigail Doan)

Luis Valenzuela at The GreenShows (photo: Abigail Doan)

Luis Valenzuela at The GreenShows (photo: Abigail Doan)

 Luis Valenzuela at The GreenShows (photo: Abigail Doan)

Luis Valenzuela at The GreenShows (photo: Abigail Doan)

Luis Valenzuela's eco fashion presentation for the opening night of The GreenShows was perhaps a bit more staged theater than fashion, but this is to be expected given the designer's background in studio painting and installation art of the fresh green variety. 

With winks to Issey Miyake's Pleats Please and ruffled high collars of yore, there was an interesting mix of exotic glamor crafted with recycled materials that might otherwise suffer the fate of textile leftovers and shiny trim discards. The event's crowd seemed energized by the promise of NYFW's green offshoot and the spectacle that Valenzuela artfully served up.

Luis Valenzuela at The GreenShows (photo: Abigail Doan)

Star model of the evening was definitely this sweet nymph of a girl. Eco fashion for the next generation?

Luis Valenzuela at The GreenShows (photo: Abigail Doan)

Stay tuned for more coverage from Day 2 and 3 of The GreenShows at The Metropolitan Pavilion in NYC. You can also read my round up of all of the designers showing for SS 2011 on Eco Fashion World.

GreenShows Preview: Dress Reform

I will be heading to the farm upstate mid-week for some much needed downtime and an opportunity to celebrate my Mom's felted creations at the local Labor Day craft fair. I am excited to be back next week as NYFW gears up, and The GreenShows kick off soon thereafter. These luscious images from Dress Reform's S/S 2010 collection really express something about summer that one hates to see fade away. I cannot wait to see what they have in store for 2011.

Designer Krystal Hoffacker "draws in myriad inspirations when she designs Dress Reform. Her imagination is kindled by nature, ethnic garb, vintage clothing and textiles and the arts of collage, quilting and shibori. Her exacting hand designs sustainable and stylish garments that are at once contemporary and timeless."


A designer after my own heart. See you on the other side of September for more green fashion inspiration.


*images courtesy of Krystal Hoffaker at Dress Reform (photographer: Jon Uriarte)

House of Organic & Eko-Lab in Black and White

Mika Machida: totally original screen print dress

Meiling Chen': beautifully draped black wool coat

Eko-Lab and Jennifer Wen Ma art/fashion collaboration

Eko-Lab: wool ensemble (love the belt)

Eko-Lab: adorable black hemp coat with recycled glass

Several of my favorite picks from the House of Organic/Eko-Lab runway presentation at The GreenShows last week. The community-based, collaborative design collective is as strong and bold as the black and white pieces pictured here.

Rock the New Year with Joann Berman

Good riddance faded palette of 2009, hello bold and groovy textiles of 2010. Joann Berman rocks the house with these recycled textile creations. Word is, she might even be making a showing at The Green Shows this February.

*The designs featured above are available via her online store.

Tara St. James Democratizes NYFW

'Gold Fringe Zipper Necklace' by Tara St. James

'Striped Jersey Fringe Necklace' by Tara St. James


'Ruffled Pearl Necklace' by Tara St. James

Eco Fashion designer Tara St. James of The Square Project and the new collective Study NY will be showing her latest sustainable creations as part of The GreenShows at New York Fashion Week today. The professed math nerd and totally innovative designer did not get to the shows by simply hobnobbing, though. Her resourceful spin on the discarded bits of the fashion industry have found new life in her latest collection with its wink to the 'beauty in numbers' method of her designs.

Determined entrepreneur that she is, Tara also rallied community support by asking friends, neighbors, and like-minded 'sustainalistas' to contribute to the fee for showing at NYFW. It seems as if fashion week has not only been cleaned up and greened up this year, but democratized a bit for the masses who are hungry to take part and implement change. Good luck to Tara and all of the other GreenShows designers, who I will be highlighting over the next week. Stay tuned also for a fresh green surprise from the sustainable style team over at Inhabitat, who have a bit of fashion democratizing going on as well.

The Square Project from Jesse Benjamin on Vimeo.