What does this sign in the middle of a field have to do with sustainable fashion? Well, it’s a long story… To those of you with cable TV, paying a premium to view Discovery’s newly launched Planet Green channel, you recognise the name of the town in Kansas that was destroyed by a tornado last year and now the topic of a reality show produced by Leo DiCaprio, chronicling its reconstruction as a LEED certified community.

Here is where it all gets a little confusing. Fashion sets trends, and trends set fashion. In the 90’s we experienced a 70’s revival. This new century the 60’s are back in vogue, along with it a feeling we never had a chance to finish what we started during the Woodstock era. Suddenly a fresh crop of internet billionaires are discovering the hippies were right, investing in what we should have invested into 30 years ago.

Green technology is on fire… Green architecture a religion… trickling down to all forms of design… photovoltaics, wind power, nano this and nano that… organic agriculture… sustainable fabrics, fair trade, electric cars, huge sails for cargo ships, bio-fuels for Virgin Airlines, we’re all rediscovering our connection with Earth and Universe, seeking balance. It’s a good thing, at long last.

But here’s the glitch, fashion waits for noone, fashion only lasts a season, and to who knows which way the wind blows, comes the spoils of the next revolution. Feels to me green jumped the shark, not that it should, or that it would, because we need to fix the mess we made, but the whole idea of “green” needs to evolve beyond crass commercialism, into something much more subtle, subdued, with nuances and undertones, so it grows new converts, and doesn’t lose the hardcore element that brought it to life in the first place.

The Greenloop was a pioneer. Years ago it was one of the first online portals to offer a wide selection of sustainable fashion from a handful of designers who chose to pay attention to such things. Business people and activists joined forces, we were out there raising awareness, showing samples, explaining fair trade, decrying the impact of pesticides, and with it came a change of aesthetic. 

Hundreds of so-called green or sustainable fashion boutiques have opened in major cities like LA, New York, Portland, Chicago, Minneapolis, Austin etc… It’s what people want, young and old, rich or poor, it makes us feel good about ourselves, and the clothes feel good on our skin. Green is a luxury everyone, everyone who’s cool, is learning to afford.

And yet, time warp, reality check, what struck me walking into a typical suburban mall the other day, is that while this radical paradigm shift is happening all over the country, not much had changed inside the mall. The science and nature stores were gone… All the major clothing store chains had nearly no mention of any of the concerns we hold dear, and when they did… it was a t-shirt that said “recycle” printed on 50% polyester blend. Not only had nothing changed, it’s gotten worse. We haven’t changed the old companies, we’re just taking a huge bite out of them.

Seems like malls are losing considerable business lately… educated, trendy kids with disposable income are favoring the lure of newly revived old downtowns, new urbanism, where many of these new eco-shops have established beachhead… along with neighborhood organic coffee shops, and raw vegan juice bars… The stale air and oppressive fluorescent lighting inside these massive indoor boxes, lack the rain, the smells… so the smarter mall rats are jumping ship… migrating, seeking clear blue skies, leaving plastic people behind.

Maybe that’s what I read in that Greensburg sign… Ponderosa… the big wide open… a town destroyed by a tornado, an act of God… in the heart of Monsanto GMO corn country, charmed by green Hollywood and the promises a green elite made to them, who better follow through, it can’t be hollow words.

A little town in the middle of Kansas, becomes the focusing point, the proving ground, for the green virus to spread, fueled by the corporate ambitions of green business leaders in LA and Fairfield County, middle America stuck in the middle, so Al Gore, Arnold, Bobby Jr. and Leo can make a green point.

Neil Young is in Wichita building hybrid cars, it’s real… it’s something we can all agree on… it’s Dorothy’s Emerald City rising from the ashes of conspicuous consumption. If Greensburg plays its cards right, tourists will come from miles around to visit, to soak in the new green Century, touch the new materials, experience a new vision that may, or may not, save us all in the nick of time.

But what will it look like… who will be the spiral architects in charge… I have a notion, had it for a few months… I look at the designs Maggie Norris created for the Go Green Expo… I look at Japan, at Goth culture, at tribalism, and I see not a rejection of technology, but an integration of clean technology into tried and true forms.

This movement has a name, it’s called Steampunk, where the new blends seamlessly with the old, and it’s all green, except we stop driving the point, we take it for granted, and anyone who doesn’t abide by the new green aesthetic, just doesn’t get in the club.

On July 25th in Norwalk, Connecticut, at the Flow of Art gallery, Greenburbs is exhibiting half a dozen wall size images of Greensburg shot by photographer Darren Mahuron, to celebrate the opening of The Aquarium environmental action center.

If green technology is the soup du jour, then California and Connecticut are joined at the hip by their defense industries, which are always at the forefront of new materials. Today, these materials, need to be sustainable, cradle to cradle, with America’s largest industry, the military, leading the charge.

It’s a strange dynamic coming around full circle when those who created our environmental problems with the industrial revolution are now faced with the responsibility to revisit everything we make, providing solutions for this massive planetary mobilization for survival.

Fairfield County is the belly of the beast, the home of General Electric’s Ecomagination campaign, the eye of the storm, with the highest concentration of wealth anywhere in the nation. These are the children who will be responsible as to whether or not our species can live harmoniously with the rest of the elements, not end up terra forming Earth into Mars.

And here’s the irony, it’s fashion!