House of Organic Fashion Show

Looking at some of the clothes on display at fashion week
and in recent fashion magazines, a friend of mine was disturbed
by the tendency to make women look like little girls or dolls.
I personally like the childlike playfulness that comes from dressing
women like animals ; Bjork's swam dress was an amazingly
gutsy move which made me love her even more,
not a fashion don't . I had a ton of fun at the New York Couture
show at Webster Hall, it was like some 1980’s New York club dream.
I am even OK with the bunny ears recently sported by the likes
of Madonna and an Olson twin. However, as much as I love my
gold lame, I could see where my friend was coming from with a
desire for beautiful,ungimmicky clothing.

To this end, I was very happy and excited to have the opportunity
to see the Ekovaruhuset show as part of Green Fashion Week. It
managed to balance a serious interest in ethical clothing production
with a serious interest in beauty.

The brief but beautiful show of fair trade and fairly made
clothing was at the aptly named King of Greene St. (Greene St. for
Green Fashion Week….get it?). Various eco-bloggers, fashion editors,
and designers gathered around the plywood stage sipping on bottled
water which supports sustainable water projects in Africa. The
audience was shown how sustainable can be beautiful and elegant.
The clothes were mostly dresses.They were fluid and wearable.

Wearable can be a subject of debate in a world of super skinny
fashions models, so let me tell you that though the models were
certainly tall and lanky, they looked like they ate. One sported a set
of ripped abs to enhance a nice cropped shirt ensemble. The music was
also fairly (and well!) made, with a live band headed by TV on the
Radio’s Jaleel Bunton on guitar; which together with a drum kit beat
out the rhythms of the models strutting.

Lots of things about the green movement are synonymous with old
fashioned, and old fashioned was in appearance here in a good way.
In the new House of Organic collection, hemp, linen and wool
see heavy use and these fabrics are coaxed into modern pleating
and intricate seersucker details. Much of the saturated brilliance of
resort wear comes from bleaches and harsh dyes. This clothing line
uses more natural methods of coloring the clothes as well. As a result,
the colors tend on more of a grey pallet (a good thing) and are saturated
and jewel-like.

The line House of Organic ( or Ekovaruhuset in Swedish) is
headed by Johanna Hofring, a Swedish designer, and former Lower
East Side rocker, who started the House of Organic in Sweden in 2004.
The lines other designers (including the innovative threeASFOUR
group) come from a diverse range of places including Taiwan,
Peru, Japan,Israel,Palestine,Russia, and Manhattan. Green fashion;
as illustrated by Ekovaruhuset’s international swath of stores in
Paris, Sweden and New York, is a global concern.