Make Cotton Sustainable

BOOK  / ECO FASHION BY SASS BROWN

Eco Fashion At The Tipping Point

‘As with other social and political statements through commercial art, eco fashion is a reaction to social and ecological conditions’, writes Sass Brown in her new book “Eco Fashion”. Eco Fashion has got mixed responses so far. There are people who go gaga over it and those who do not. However, as the earth becomes hotter, people ought to do all they can. Brown also says “Very few products, let alone garments, fulfill the concept of sustainability in its entirety. But we all have to start somewhere.”

According to Brown, Eco-fashion has reached a tipping point, where the best of the best are simply the best in the industry. No matter how you slice it, something is obviously working—it has to. In the end, green design is good design, and fashion is just another product to be viewed through that lens.

The book talks about companies that are making the world realize that eco fashion is not boring. Gone are the days when eco fashion was all about organic cotton t-shirts or bohemian pants or plain clothes. However, people still think that eco friendly clothes are not fashionable. Now companies are producing desirable and well-designed apparel and accessories with a conscience. The book demonstrates the range of products available around the globe. It also explains the stories behind them and the communities they support, as well as showing how and where they make a difference.

Says Brown, "One of the strongest trends in fashion is the expression of ecological, social and community consciousness through for-profit fashion design corporations, which most recently have moved upscale from organic cotton T-shirts and hippy-ish drawstring pants to high fashion. There is now a wide range of companies offering well designed merchandise, from one-off art, recycled and redesigned clothing, organic and sustainable textiles and garment production, to a range of community and indigenous support cooperatives bridging the gap between traditional craft and high fashion."

Originally from London, England, Sass Brown is a full-time professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She has worked with women's cooperatives in Latin America, most notably COOPA-ROCA in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.