Mayor Villaraigosa has one major thing on his mind for this LA Fashion Week this year, and that’s green.  A far cry from last year’s eco-fashion preview on the lawn of the mayoral mansion, the “green” Villaraigosa pontificates about these days is more the cold, hard kind.

“Fashion is a $28 million industry, and it’s the fourth largest basic industry in the region. More than 200,000 people are employed in work which involves designing, producing and selling,” stated Mayor Villaraigosa at yesterday’s press conference at the California Market Center.

The Mayor’s singular focus was also illustrated in his only tweet regarding the press conference,”Kicking off LA Fashion Week – great to have creative talent, 53k buyers and sellers, and $50 million coming to LA!“

Though the press conference this year focused on the positive economic impact of supporting the LA fashion industry, there is actually a positive ecological impact as well. As one of the few thriving centers of manufacturing left in the USA, Los Angeles not only designs, but produces many of the country’s garments right in the middle of Downtown. Stimulating the LA economy through encouraging the local fashion scene results in significant reductions in carbon-heavy shipping on foreign imports. It turns out both shades of green will be in fashion for LAFW 09 after all.

If you’ll be in town October 12-20 or the 28-31, be sure to reserve your spot at one of the many events of LA Fashion Week.

***The most exciting runway show for us at LAFW 09 is of course, the eco rockstars of the LA fashion world, The Battalion. Sisters Linda and Chrys Wong will be showing their Spring 10 line on Thursday, October 15 at 5pm at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art).

The designs of Paloma Soledad perfectly embody the steampunk aesthetic of the Portland underground. The materials for Soledad’s custom corsets and animé-inspired costumery seem to harken from a hundred years ago: lambskin, velvet, silk taffeta, steel spiral boning. Her expert construction of whimsically macabre costumes have earned her design positions with avante garde dance companies and the set of the meticulously-styled film Coraline.

Kristi Turnquist of The Oregonian recently gave the rundown on Paloma’s ideas on bloodthirsty pin-up girls and her early suspicions of nice people in the land of milk and honey…

Paloma Soledad
Age: 31
Hometown: Los Angeles; the family moved to Oahu, Hawaii, when she was 4

Experience: Graduated from the California Institute of the Arts; designed costumes for the movies “Cabin Fever” and “Hostel”; did costumes for the Portland dance troupe tEEth; worked in the costume department on the stop-motion animated feature “Coraline.”

Design visions: Soledad’s mother was a seamstress. “She would have me thread the elastic through her waistbands when I was little.” Youthful discovery of “Conan the Barbarian” and Alberto Vargas glamour-girl illustrations also formed her aesthetic. “It’s like a 1940s pin-up dancer — she’s going to dance on the table, and then jump down and slit your throat. We all have the power to be as sexy as we want to be.”

Signature pieces: Custom-made corsets, mixing sumptuous silks and velvets with leather and metal details, for a mix of masculine and feminine influences. “The boning is flexible, so you can eat in it, you can dance in it. It’s like a piece of art.”

Why Portland? “I was living in L.A., and the energy there’s so manic, it just makes you really crazy. My mom lives in Northern California, and she said, ‘You should check out Oregon.’ I moved here in 2006. When I first got here and people were nice to me, I thought, ‘What do you want from me?’ This is the land of milk and honey.”

Read more of Local Designers Take Over The Catwalk at OregonLive.com…

For years, the crème de la crème of American foodies have feasted on locally-raised dishes presented by “farm-to-table” restaurants around the country. These leaders in gastro-sustainability have cut out the middlemen and gone straight to the farmer for the best selection and pricing on organic local produce and meat. The Farm-To-Table movement has bolstered the number of American family farms while ensuring the highest quality product for culinary connoisseurs. In 2009, this trend is actually spreading from a culinary circles to catwalks.

At the upcoming Portland Fashion Week, eco fashion eminence Anna Cohen will be presenting an entirely new concept for both the worlds of fashion and sustainability: Ranch-To-Runway. Through her visionary partnership with the Imperial Stock Ranch in Shaniko, Oregon, Anna Cohen is bringing the highest quality sustainable wool to her fashion-forward clientele while enriching the lives of ecologically sound local ranchers.

Though fashionistas and farmers make a unique juxtaposition, both stand to benefit grandly if Anna’s concept catches fire. Perhaps we’re right around the corner from Cavalli cattle ranches and Comme des Garçons cotton farms. If not, we’re at least that much closer to being right around the corner from where our clothes come from, thanks to Anna Cohen.

The Imperial Collection by Anna Cohen will premiere Sunday, October 11th at 8pm at the Vigor Industrial Shipyard; arrive at 6 for the pre-party.

If you’re interested in experiencing your own version of Ranch-To-Runway, take a gorgeous 2-hour drive through the Oregon countryside for a stunning tour of the Imperial Stock Ranch before hitting Anna’s show on Sunday night.

Framed by a lush Amazonian tableau, Dame Vivienne Westwood’s Spring/Summer 2010 show kept in step with her support of Prince Charles’s Rainforests Project even as she squired visions of an Anglo Arcadia down the runway. Wide-brimmed straw hats were the order of the day, paired with deconstructed pinstriped shirt-dresses, bloomers festooned with harlequin diamonds, and dainty gingham frocks.

Photo credit: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

Fusing fashion with activism, the “Godmother of Punk” has become one of the environment’s most vociferous advocates of late. “Governments just treat [climate change] like it’s one on a list of things to do, but it’s really a matter of life and death,” Westwood tells The Telegraph. “We already may be too late, but the terrible irony is that we probably are in time if we act.”

By Jasmin Malik Chua via Ecouterre.

In the course of organizing Project Green Search (PGS) we have come across a whole world of pageants and beauty competitions we didn’t know about, which have a green twist to them, like Miss Earth, founded in 2001, the annual international beauty pageant promoting environmental awareness. They host an Eco-Fashion Design Competition through their foundation.

The winner of Miss Earth UK, Caroline Duffy (featured above) contacted us. She cannot enter PGS in our first year, because of work permit concerns we are limited to US residents. But Caroline is helping us spread the word. She is currently representing Natural Empathy, a new British organic cosmetic line.

Caroline writes:
“For me, being Miss Earth England was an honor! I love nature, animals and our earth is a beautiful place. I’m so passionate about keeping it that way for future generations to enjoy! A competition like Miss Earth means that young women like myself can be heard. On a large scale, we can make a big impact, which is what Miss Earth is all about. 85 countries meeting in the Philippines for the finals showed the world that we can join together and make a difference, we are all in this together!”

See 2008 Miss Earth contestants plant trees with the Philippine Army.

Last Thursday, at Visionary’s Greendrinks in LA, Tamara Henry (below with PGS judge Darren Moore) covered our press conference with her Green T camera crew.

Tamara has personally entered PGS as a contestant, and so happens, works with the Miss America Pageant, helping them go green. You can see more images from the evening on Roxio Photo Show.

In Miami, the gateway to the Americas, Green Fashion Miami invites winners of International beauty pageants to walk the runway, like Miss World, Miss Earth and Teen Earth. Top designers from Latin America and the United States, present sustainable collections. Amy Diaz is Miss Earth United States 2009. She’s from Rhode Island. Miss Teen Earth Florida, Jolie Noelle Schamber is the new Miss Teen Earth United States 2009. Runner ups are referred to as Miss Air, Miss Water and Miss Fire!

See more photos from the show at the Sun Sentinel newspaper.

In The Loop wants to thank Magda Rod, owner of  the amazing Visionary Boutique on 5285 W. Pico Boulevard, for hosting this month’s Los Angeles Greendrinks. If you’re in LA on Thursday August 20th, don’t miss it, it starts at 7pm.

See Visionary on AlterEco video clip.

Aysia Wright is flying down from Portland to LA to meet with four of our Project Green Search judges who will be on hand to give a press conference announcing a series of open casting calls where green models, or models wishing to start pursuing green avenues in their career, can learn more about our project.

Omniquest Media – Michael Kaliski
Friday: August 21. 11am to 1pm
1416 N. La Brea Ave. Hollywood, CA 90028
323.802.1630

Photo and article discussed from The Huffington Post: Starre Vartan in the audience.

Starre Vartan, eco-fashion blogger extraordinaire, and author of the book, ” The Eco-Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green“, shares the inside scoop on her recent attendance at the “Is the Future of Fashion Green” discussion.  As always, Starre is a steadfast supporter and dare I say champion of sustainable fashion.  Starre and I see eye to eye on this issue, that eco-fashion is one, very visible piece in a greener, more sustainable lifestyle where dedicated  hands & hearts are making change, often most visibly and most poignantly, from the bottom up.  Her response to the assertion that only “professionals” and those “in the energy sector” can effect real change is right on, as such a sentiment is not only preposterous, but insulting to all of us out here busting our asses to bring about positive change.  Not to mention, just take a look at the track record.

Yes, cooperation and support is needed from the “big guys”, so to speak, but each of us has the power to contribute and support the development of a more sustainable fashion industry, which can in turn serve as a vehicle for advocacy, not the mention the intrinsic value of converting a notriously wasteful and polluting industry to one with a far smaller ecological footprint.   Read on to see what Starre has to say:

“Having covered ecofashion designers for four years now on my blog and having written a book discussing ways to live green (including supporting ecofashion), I was interested and excited to attend the “Is the Future of Fashion Green” discussion recently held at SoHo House in association with the NY Salon.

The crowd, despite the subject matter, was definitely not filled with agreeable zombies nodding in blind acceptance as Bruno might have us believe about fashion-industry folks. No, instead this was a real salon-style dialog (attendees were heartily encouraged to participate, and they did), which included disagreements, tangents, and departures, and some difficult but worthwhile issues were raised. The intellectual wranglings were, however, made by a crowd was also obviously quite involved with fashion; most who sat in designer chairs and perched upon overstuffed couches, or even lounged on the floor- were dressed a la mode.

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The latest news from the 2009 Project Earth Day runway show in New York come to us courtesy of Inhabitat, via a report on their meeting & interview with this year’s Project Earth Day eco-fashion design competition winner, Stacy Longo.

“The success of this year’s Project Earth Day eco-runway show which took place in April in NYC was a brilliant indication that green fashion is no longer just a fad. The energy-packed show featured today’s hottest eco-lines as well as a student competition which challenged the brightest designers of tomorrow to whip up their own sustainable garments. All of the designs were brilliant, but in the end, FIT student Stacy Longo’s mod, hand-woven outfit prevailed, winning her the grand prize. We were lucky enough to catch up with Stacy to pick her brain about the inspiration for her design and what eco-fashion means to her.

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