Every fashionista knows just how good Julia Roberts Pretty Woman felt when she strutted out of a designer clothing store laden with bags emblazoned with the stores logo. Those bags were her badges of honour, the signal to the world that she was a woman of style and taste.
Such moments are fleeting. The bags, however, can last forever in our landfill sites.
We need to change how we feel about buying new stuff, Myriam Laroche, the founder of Vancouvers , told the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Playhouse crowd as part of Sam Sullivans Public Salon last Wednesday night.
If shoppers change, then designers and retailers will change. If we eschew the prettified bags, then stores wont feel the need to use them. If we avoid the designers who employ child labour or harmful environmental practices, then they will be forced to make more ethical choices.
Laroche used to be the type of shopper that she is trying to influence today. She bought things for the momentary pleasure of the purchase, whether she really needed or wanted them. She didnt think about where those clothes came from, or the fabrics they were made with. She might even have been one of those people who is behind the statistic that turned her into an eco-fashion crusader: every year (in America at least), people throw out an average of 68 pounds of textiles.
Today, not only does she herald the designers who are making conscientious choices but 80 per cent of her own wardrobe was bought in second-hand stores. You can call the clothes vintage to give them a certain caché but shes proud to say she is a Value Village aficionado. See these boots, she says after her presentation. Seven dollars.
Ashleigh Said, EFWs fashion manager
Melissa Ferrera from Adhesif Clothing
Nicole Bridger
(besides Value Village and the Salvation Army)
Deluxe Junk
Retro Rock
Community
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Eco Fashion Week is April 10 to 12.
