Calvin Klein Takes on the Green Carpet Challenge at this Year’s Met Gala by Ciarra Wentzel, May 18 2016, 0 Comments
Emma Watson (Left), Margot Robbie (Middle) and Lupita Nyong’o (Right) at the 2016 Met Gala. Photo from telegraph.co.uk
Luxury fashion designer Calvin Klein is progressively jumping on the sustainable fashion bandwagon.
At this month's Met Gala, hosted by Idris Elba, Jonathan Ive, Taylor Swift and Anna Wintour, Calvin took on the Green Carpet Challenge (GCC).
The challenge was originally launched by Eco-Age, an English brand-consulting agency that helps businesses grow by implementing sustainability solutions into business strategies. Now, the challenge has evolved to encourage the average trendsetter to “become an active citizen through your wardrobe," according to the founder of GCC, Livia Firth. The challenge also urges designers to create ethical and eco-friendly red carpet looks (seen on celebrities), which stems from the GCC Principles of Sustainable Excellence. The GCC campaign is usually advertised on social media platforms using the hash tag #30wears.
And this year's Gala had a plethora of gowns to gawk at, with 40 celebrities making it on Vogue’s best dressed list. But of those, only three took the top of the list in my eyes for being the only eco-friendly dresses on the red carpet. Calvin Klein dressed Margot Robbie and Emma Watson head-to-toe in recyclables. Calvin, managing to turn scraps into ball gowns, is this year’s obvious Met Gala Fairy God Mother.
The three celebrities’ ethical looks showcased this year’s Met Gala theme, Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology. Margot Robbie was decked out in a strapless side cut outs gown made of organic silk and recycled zippers. Meanwhile, Emma Watson wore a black and white pantsuit that secretly sported used plastic bottles. To top it all off, Calvin Klein ethically constructed Lupita Nyong'o's jade and silver sequence gown in the designer's New York atelier.
Fortunately for Mother Earth, this wasn’t the first time designers have embraced the Green Carpet Challenge. In 2013, Scottish designer, Henrietta Ludgate, designed a sustainable gown for GCC founder Livia Firth for the Winter Whites Gala at Kensington Palace in London. British actress Emily Blunt also strutted down the 2013 Met Gala red carpet in a sustainable dress by Carolina Herrera, made entirely of recycled 1960s Italian wool and 1940s black chiffon. A year prior, Cameron Diaz wore a Stella McCartney gown made of organic silk to the Gala.
It looks like the Met Gala is setting the bar for ethical fashion. Look out for more to come from the GCC. Turning scraps into a whole new wardrobe—that’s fashion at its best.
Livia Firth at the Winter Whites Gala in 2013. Photo from eco-age.com
Emily Blunt at the Met Gala in 2013. Photo from People.com
Cameron Diaz at the Met Gala in 2012. Photo from popsugar.com
Author Bio:
Ciarra Wentzel is a senior at the Fashion Institute of Technology studying a Bachelor of Science degree in International Trade and Marketing. She is minoring in Ethics and Sustainability and a leader in sustainable fashion. Ciarra is the Marketing Leader for FIT’s Compost Project and she is the Director of Communications for FIT's Ethics and Sustainability club. She has volunteered for sustainable organizations like NYC's BigReuse to help collect compost.