Experimental Fashion

Experimenting with fashion is always risky business.  There is always the concern of…will this look work? Or how will people react to this new product?  Designers today have a new outlook on fashion and have started to experiment with different influences, fabrics and design cuts to make new and embellished creations for upcoming seasons. 

Fashion is an extremely powerful aspect and lately it is doing a lot more than just making statements.  As one of the largest industries in the world, it greatly relies on agriculture and is one of the most heavily featured aspects in the media.  Because of this the fashion industry has taken it upon themselves to become more socially and environmentally responsible.  It has come to some peoples attention that transgression is huge in fashion through their use of sweatshops, hazardous working conditions, unfair wages for workers and on the ecological end, uses high amount of toxic chemicals, pesticides and water wastage. 

These conditions did not stand well for people in the fashion business and for consumers buying the products.  With that said the organization called Global Action Through Fashion came along and changed the way you can wear and buy fashion in a ethical and conventional way.   The people at GATF are taking it upon themselves to educate both the fashion industry and the consumers of the different ways fashion could actually be hurting our environment.  Designers such as Stella McCartney, Marc Jacobs and Versace took interest in this experiment and recently made this year’s New York fashion week into a showcase of one of a kind designs made from recyclable, sustainable and earth-friendly materials. 

Because fashion is so powerful, this fashion friendly experiment did extremely well with the public expanding to other well known designers and stores.  Although  this experiment may not have had a control group, the different variable are seen in two different groups of people: The people who are informed and change the way they shop and the people who are informed and still chose to buy from manufacturers using inhumane sweatshops and toxic chemicals.  It may not be easy to escape all the conditions of unethical fashion, but there are definitely ways to go about ecological shopping. 

Everywhere you look recently there are reminders on how to keep the earth green and planet clean.  It is important that an industry as influential as fashion takes their stand on the environment, and they did so by experimenting with eco friendly fabrics and new and improved ways on advertising and reusing their products.