Greenspaces and Be Social Change hosted a terrific ecofashion panel on Tuesday 11/29/11 to discuss how we change the way fashion is produced to reduce the negative impacts on both the environment and workers. The panel was organized by professor Carmen Artigas who teaches Ethical fashion at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and Parsons. Speakers included Summer Rayne Oakes, ecofashion pioneer and model, author of the book “Style Naturally,” and Founder of Source4Style. She shared the importance of helping designers find sustainably produced fabrics, and also pointed out that some big name brands like Levi’s are actually doing their part to increase trace-ability of fabrics down the supply chain.
David Radparvar, Holstee, spoke about his upcycled clothing company’s unique attitude about selling– their website encourages people not to buy items they don’t really need. Deirdre McGuigan, Indego Africa, spoke about her work with connecting women designers in Africa to well known stores in the United States. Erica Wolf, Save the Garment Center, spoke passionately about supporting goods that were made right here by talented workers in the garment district of New York, where clothing manufacturers, somewhat surprisingly, still do exist.
See: greenspaceshome.com (a shared office space for eco-minded entrepreneurs in NYC)
source4style.com (Source4Style 2.0 is about to launch december 2011!)
