It’s Not Easy Being Green

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Published by Vanessa Brunner under Clothing, Green Living

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Controversy is certainly no stranger to the fashion world. From model catfights to sweatshop exposés, there’s usually more than enough drama to go around.

Of course, Ecofashion is no exception—and more often than not, the drama stems from greenwashing. While may eco consumers remain cynical about many so called green products out there, there are also many lines and names that active eco consumers feel like they can trust.

Which is why Stella McCartney has been on the critic’s table as of late…

While perusing EcoSalon a while back, I happened upon this article, talking about Stella McCartney’s 2008 line of Faux Leather bags.

Like the article says, Stella McCartney released a few faux leather bags last year. They were classic Stella style…colorful and quirky with classic lines. However, many critics started noticing that the words “eco-friendly” and “green” started to be thrown around in the description of the bags, despite the fact that their only green claim was the fact that they were faux leather.

This begs the question—what does it take to be called “green?” This is especially relevant in fashion. If Stella’s faux leather bags are green, couldn’t you say the same of any faux leather bag sold at your local Wal-Mart?

It’s interesting to consider where the line should be drawn.

Now, it’s important to recognize that Stella herself never advertised the bags as green on her website. However, she is an avid vegetarian, member of the PETA, and outspoken green activist—which is probably why so many people put the green label on her designs.

image from Stella McCartney's site

What do you think? Can an item still help the environment, but not be truly green? Are there different levels of green?

And most importantly—does it really matter?

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10 Responses to “It’s Not Easy Being Green”

1. E.J.Starbuck says:

   October 19, 2009 at 9:09 pm

   I think it does matter as far as what makes a product “green” because of all the green-washing that is going on today in the market. We definitely need to keep brands that claim “green” accountable for showing the transparency on what makes them so. In Stella’s case, she herself is a living example of green, which in a way is more important; individuals doing so. So why isn’t her product more green than it is?

   Reply
2. Fedor K. says:

   October 20, 2009 at 12:34 am

   I don’t think it matters really, as long as it doesn’t harm the environment, I don’t see the point in styling it “green”; I think it’s good if it can blend into the crowd of regular objects, but still make you feel like you’re making a difference.

   Nobody likes a show-off

   Reply
3. Caitlin says:

   October 20, 2009 at 6:13 am

   Of course, it matters! The environment is THE major global issue of our time. Green washing is dangerous and insidious.

   I don’t know what Stella McCartney’s products are made of, or how she has described them, but I certainly don’t think faux-leather is green. Mostly, it’s made from vinyl, which is a particularly toxic form of plastic. The leather industry is not clean, and it does kill animals, but at least leather is biodegradeable and not made from oil.

   Reply
4. Dixie says:

   October 20, 2009 at 4:34 pm

   I do think there are different levels of green. I feel as long as you start somewhere no matter how small or big it might be, it all matters! I also feel that there are alot of people out there who do nothing but look at all the bad in things instead of looking at the positive side of things. Maybe if we all could have a little more optimistic outlook on life and the efforts that people are trying-well maybe they could see how they could help somewhere too.

   Reply
5. Jennifer Moline, PsPrint says:

   October 20, 2009 at 4:47 pm

   Thanks for the post that is sure to raise discussion! It inspired me to ask our readers, as well: http://blog.psprint.com/printing/what-does-it-mean-to-be-green/

   As a printing company, PsPrint obviously cannot avoid working with paper, so we make an effort to be environmentally conscious. But there’s always that question of how much more can we do.

   Reply
6. MF Chapman says:

   October 21, 2009 at 7:43 pm

   Being Green is vital to our future, but (and you won’t like this) people are slow to change, so you have to let people jump in when they are ready. We have completely green company and coworking space and try to promote it to our customers. I think the key is make it easy for people to buy in and then they will slowly become more interested. Offer workable solutions to the consumer. Just my 2 cents.

   Green workspaces to check out: http://cubes.typepad.com/otc/environment/

   Reply
7. Korinne says:

   October 21, 2009 at 9:12 pm

   Green is a tough word to define, as are the words eco-friendly, sustainability and even organic. To each one of us, these words can mean something completely different. Personally, I care most about who is producing the product, what the materials are and what we’ll do with the product once we’re done using it.

   As Stella McCartney states on her website, she’s a lifelong vegetarian and a PETA activist. She uses organic materials in the production of a few of her collections, which might be green. All I know about her bags is that they’re faux leather, making them vegan but probably not earth-friendly. Then again, she didn’t label this collection as earth friendly, so this may not be a fair argument about the importance of being “green” to begin with.

   Reply
8. Is EcoFashion An Oxymoron? | Green By Design says:

   October 23, 2009 at 9:14 pm

   [...] a series of really interesting comments on my last post (It’s Not Easy Being Green), I started thinking a lot about the question: What does it really mean to be green?  It seemed [...]

   Reply
9. Maryella The Future Makers says:

   October 24, 2009 at 5:57 am

   Personally, I think that one way to look at “green” thinking is to see how far it can reflect biodiversity values -maybe there is no dogma, but a diversity of approaches, just as there is a diversity of living organisms within ecosystems. Its interesting though, how things get out of whack when there is a dominance of one form over another, when diversity is strangled.

   I admire Janine Benyus’ work on bio-mimicry.
   She draws her principles from observation of the natural world. One of these observations, is that “life creates conditions conducive to life”.

   Green design in my view, can learn much from nature, natural systems, organisms, ecosystems, and bio-diversity in action….
   Janine Benyus’ book “Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature” is one of my favourite reads ever. We explore this to some degree in our film: The Future Makers

   http://bit.ly/355Mmg

   Reply
10. Jennifer Moline, PsPrint says:

    December 4, 2009 at 10:10 pm

    Ever have those articles you can’t get out of your head? I was inspired to write a second blog to my original one when I heard that McDonald’s in Europe is changing its logo to be green out of “respect for the environment.”

    http://blog.psprint.com/graphic-design/mean-be-green-part2/

    Reply