Gallatin students parade eco-friendly fashions

This past Wednesday, style started with a jam — literally.

Gallatin's eco-fashion show began with a duet from two students who crooned to the audience, "Let's make stuff from stuff we already own." The lyrics perfectly represented the theme of the night. It was the final event of a week of workshops, lectures and panel discussions centered around socially responsible and environmentally friendly apparel.

The fashion show featured designs from Gallatin students and alumni and boasted a progressive, socially conscious perspective. It focused on reusing, recycling and leaving a minimal impact on the environment.

Keeping up this green ideal, student designer Alex Chernow used only old clothes, sheets and curtains in her collection of whimsical creations, which included a blue dress with an enormous bow protruding from the back and a long, asymmetrical patchwork jersey constructed of no fewer than eight different kinds of fabric.

Gallatin senior Seanna Sharpe took the concept of reusing materials farther than most and constructed an entire collection out of umbrellas she found on the street. She crafted scrunched, billowy skirts and bondage-like tops from the waterproof material.

For Chelsea Turner, who was not used to working with found materials, constructing a collection out of them proved to be "a huge challenge." Nevertheless, she created a pair of ruffled red bloomers and a sunshine-yellow micro-mini with the word "VINTAGE" scrawled up the back.

Student designer Amia Yokoyama, who admitted that her tastes are a little controversial in the eco-fashion arena, called her work "Buddhism for leather." In order to balance an eco-friendly goal with her affinity for the animal product, Yokohama used only old and discarded leather items to construct her garments, breathing new life into old material that would otherwise have gone to waste. Her skillfully crafted pieces included several pairs of leather shorts that would not have been out of place on an Alexander Wang runway, several woven neckpieces and a standout vest that featured perforated leather and vintage floral material.

"[It] was really cool how people were able to make such high-fashion clothes out of recycled stuff," said Stern freshman Andrea Ruda.

Kate Goldwater, an alumna already making waves in the world of eco-fashion, also debuted clothing from her eco-friendly East Village boutique, AuH2O (the chemical symbols for "gold" and "water"). Goldwater's quirky skirts and sweater-like tops and dresses came down the runway in funky, floral prints and rich earth tones that were reminiscent of nature.

"I thought it was really creative how they recycled old clothes and found items into something wearable," said LSP freshman Max Mellman said. "I think that [eco-fashion] could catch on, so long as designers are able to come up with less conceptual and more practical [garments]."