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Project Earth Day Fashion Show, 2009: Student Competition

The first part of the Project Earth Day Fashion show included the student competition, which was stronger this year than ever! I was really impressed with the range of design aesthetics and materials used. Colors, neutrals, textures, patterns; they were all on display, and all Earth-friendly too.

Judges for the competition included Drew Becher, Executive Director of the New York Restoration Project, Janine James, Founder and Creative Director of design think tank, The Moderns, John Schroeter, President and CEO of Applied Textiles, and Josh Dorfman, The Lazy Environmentalist himself. Scroll down for all the entries, and then the winning design.

How did they judge? According to Inhabitat: “Judges, clipboards in hand, were asked to rate student designs on Creativity & Concept (50%), Technical Execution (25%), and Eco Design Principles Checklist (25%). We thought it was quite clever that the Eco Design Principles portion included criteria such as Sustainable “Sites”, Energy and Atmosphere and Innovation in Design, mimicking the checklist that sponsor USGBC NY uses for LEED certification of buildings!”

The first look in the student competition- starting it off with a visual BANG!

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Project Earth Day Fashion Show in NYC

By Olivia Zaleski and Starre Vartan

The above video, filmed by Brian Clark Howard, with Olivia Zaleski as host and Starre Vartan as producer, was recorded the night before the fashion show. Check it out to hear from some of the designers who showed their stuff, as well as learn about the sustainable aspects of the show’s set design.

NEW YORK, Thursday, April 19th – Who knew organic cotton, hemp, and recycled soybean fiber could be so hot? Well, we at Eco Chick had a pretty good idea, but thanks to EGBNY’s Project Earth Day Fashion Show, the rest of the world is catching on. The show featured two sections: a student-design competition, and a local NYC eco-designers showcase, proving once and for all that green is beautiful, sexy, and fashion-forward, not frumpy.

Set & runway designer Amber Nelson
Image by Starre Vartan

Organized by EGBNY (which stands for Emerging Green Builders New York, and is part of the national US Green Building Council), and co-sponsored by Teknion, Green Drinks, and 02NYC, the event pulled out all the green stops by reducing, reusing, and recycling on all levels, including a sustainable runway made from 100% recycled plastics, re-using shipping pallets (which will be returned to the warehouse after the show), and modular carpet samples made from recycled fibers. Even the hardware securing the runway was salvaged.

Project Earth Day fashion show coordinator Molly Garretson says, “EGBNY wanted to host a fun annual event to celebrate Earth Day and to encourage learning, networking, and sharing new ideas about green interior design and eco-fashion.” Mission certainly accomplished!

Part One: The Student Competition

The winning student design, by Xay Xiong
Image by Josh Wiese

Second-place winner from designer Kacie Rushton
Image by Josh Wiese

Rear detail of Rushton’s recycled polyester pants and hemp jacket
Image by Starre Vartan

Third-place winner Jennifer Kim’s futuristic creation
Image by Josh Wiese

Red Dress
Image by Starre Vartan

Back of Red Dress
Image by Starre Vartan

An Honorable Mention went to for this Chanel-print-inspired coat by Caroline Hur.
Image by Josh Wiese

Dress made with recycled fabrics and a bodice woven from a plastic bag

Student designers with their models
Image by Starre Vartan

The judges’ table (from L to R): Jennifer Busch of Contract Magazine, Randy Fahey of Gensler, Christian Larsen from MoMA, Jill Danyelle, of FiftyRX3 (and a designer herself) and Margaret Lydecker of GreenDrinksNYC.
Image by Starre Vartan

Part Two: Local NYC Eco-Fashion Designers

Bahar Sharpar dress

AuH2O reworked top (from men’s pants) and skirt
Image by Josh Wiese

AuH2O restructured/recycled dress
Image by Josh Wiese

Doie dress
Image by Josh Wiese

Dress from Ekhovarhuset
Image by Josh Wiese

Dress from Ekhovarhuset
Image by Josh Wiese

Yellow Loyale frock
Image by Josh Wiese

Image by Josh Wiese

Image by Josh Wiese

Image by Josh Wiese

Men’s organic cotton denim jumpsuit
Image by Josh Wiese

Charcoal Hemp Suit
Image by Josh Wiese

For more pictures, check out the Flickr photostream.
For more coverage, go to Inhabitat

Project Earth Day Fashion Show

By guest-blogger Josh Wiese

A few weeks back, o2NYC teamed up with Kaight to host a reception in honor of Project Earth Day . It was a great event filled with compelling conversation, surrounded by beautiful clothes, and saturated in Trader Joe’s best three-dollar wine.

The Project Earth Day fashion show, scheduled for this Thursday night, is a “showcase of hot, emerging designers on the green scene, and the future of fashion. The runway show will feature a stunning display of the latest apparel and textile designs in eco-friendly recycled fibers and found materials.” A display anticipated to be so stunning, that every guest seat in the runway showroom is filled.

The lucky few with seats will see some of the latest recycled threads from AuH20 and SDN; vegan shoes from Charmone; sustainable design from Ekovaruhuset, Covet, Doie, accessories by AgainNYC and many more.

See Eco Chick’s coverage of some of Project Earth Day’s participators like AgainNYC, Doie and Terra Plana .

For those of you just hearing about the show now, you can still kick off your Earth Day celebration in style by coming to the after-party at Myst from 9pm-2am (free drinks from 9-10).

The event is organized by USGBC Emerging Green Builders NY