After this week’s Earth Day, the fashion world is getting their eco-conscious on, particularly with news of Vancouver’s Eco Fashion Week. Yep, a whole week of being good and green will be set aside for the week’s eighth edition, which from what I’m gathering so far, is promised to be the biggest yet.
On the docket for this year’s event is cultural maven Obakki, who will be showing its latest spring-summer 2014 collection of sustainable pieces (silk scooped and sexy pencil dresses) that will go on sale at Holt Renfrew as part of the H Project. What’s that you ask? H Project is a shop of extraordinary products curated by Alexandra Weston, Director of Brand Strategy, who will also be in Vancouver for the event. A portion of the night’s proceeds will go to The Obakki Foundation, Obakki’s philanthropic counterpart, which focuses on providing clean water and education in Africa. Also to be featured at Vancouver’s Eco Fashion Week will be H&M, the mega-retailer that’s been working hard to turn a corner with regard to its reputation for disposable fashion. The effort can be seen in the store’s trade-in clothing scheme, for which H&M’s senior sustainability specialist, Pierre Börjesson, will be in Vancouver to give a keynote speech on the Garment Collecting Initiative.
Finally, the trend-focused Value Village Thrift Chic Challenge will also be returning for a fifth year. The fan-favourite event will give three stylists a $500 allowance to create ten runway-worthy outfits using only gently-used clothing from Value Village. There’s also another contest, entitled the 68 Pound Challenge, in which Young Oak designer Tammy Joe will be tasked with creating a brand new fashion-forward collection from 68 pounds of reworked clothing from Value Village. 68 pounds here represents the amount of clothing and textiles the average North American throws away each year!
The three-day event will be at SFU Woodward’s, the plush Fairmont Waterfront, and Holt Renfrew, from April 27 to 29. Now go prove Kermit wrong and show how easy it is being green…
