Eco Fashion Week Australia: DAY THREE
After an honest reflection of Eco Fashion Week Australia, Port Douglas, it’s time to get back to sharing the ultimate reason I’m here: to hero the designers.
Day three involved catching up on work (I’m still working while I’m travelling), and a very important gelato to refresh. I don’t share about the long evenings of admin, writing, and emails: this trip is certainly not a holiday! Although it does feel that way sometimes, and I’m trying my best to relax.
Birdtribe
I shared about Birdtribe on the opening night, and I was elated to see their full collection. Birdtribe pieces are one of a kind. There’s more to them than just natural fibres and dyes: each piece tells a story of the flora and fauna used to create it. Birdtribe garments cannot be replicated: they look a certain way depending on the season changes, temperatures, climate, and environment. Because they’re made with leaves and natural dyes, the clothes effectively adapt as the environment does. I was lucky enough to catch a quick conversation with the founder/maker/designer of Birdtribe, outside the venue in between shows. The process the garments go through before ending up on the consumer, is hugely lengthy. She finds it hard to part with each piece when it goes… I’m hoping to find out more detail in the future to share with you.
Ren
If you know me well, and study the garments in this photo: you’ll know I would wear every single one of these pieces. Now that’s exciting to see on a runway! Ren are an eco-conscious fashion brand based in Istanbul, Turkey. They focus on creating minimal, versatile, comfortable, and functional garments for every woman. Their linen and cotton moved like a dream on the runway, and left we wanting to wear nothing but Ren clothing in this heat.
Ren believe we’re not superior to nature, we’re part of it.
Sylvia Calvo
All the way from Barcelona, Sylvia Calvo bought something completely new to the runway: coffee bags. Coffee bags tell a story, and contain history. They have different prints and markings, made for the purpose of containing coffee beans: not originally meant to be worn on the human body.
That’s what drew me most to Sylvia’s collection: the unsuspected beauty of something mundane, usually thrown in the rubbish bin. Sylvia also uses other fabrics like organic cotton and hemp to complement the coffee bag material, and show that sustainable fashion can, without a doubt, be beautiful.
