Melbourne’s Top 100
December 9th, 2011 § 1 Comment
At the end of every year, The Age newspaper publishes a special issue of their glossy Melbourne Magazine featuring their hand picked Top 100 most influential, inspirational, provocative and creative people for 2011. This year I was lucky enough to be included in the Top 100 for a documentary I’m making on sustainable fashion and the future of the fashion industry.
The Age Melbourne Top 100 (I'm far right).
But I’m certainly not single handedly transforming the fashion industry to sustainability and three fellow sustainable fashion change agents were also included in the Top 100 for 2011. Let me introduce you to these amazing sustainable fashion champions:
ANISHA BHOYRO is a fashion designer who recently won the 2011 RMIT Student Prize as part of the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week (MSFW) Spotlight Emerging Designer Series. While her delicate, origami-like contructed pieces are enough to win her this amazing award, it was equally exciting to learn that she is dedicated to sustainable fashion principles. Anisha is a slow fashion advocate, believing that ‘fast-fashion’ is too disposable and that we must revert back to a more traditional and authentic ways of making clothing. Her approach to sustainability involves using the zero-waste design principle to make stunning garments (click here to see more of her designs). I personally love the way her garments effortlessly blend style with substance and I have a strong inkling that she will continue to be in an ever brightening spotlight.
EMMA GRACE is a contemporary jeweller and repairer. Emma’s goal is to be an international leader in sustainable jewellery design and she is well on her way to achieving that goal. Inspired by nature, objects and dreams, her jewellery is a unique blend of fashion, art and exceptional craftsmanship. While the aesthetics of her jewellery alone make it lust-worthy, her collections also embody a beautiful underlying substance that make her jewellery much more than just exquisite adornment – rather something to be treasured. Emma aims to reduce the significant negative impacts that the fashion industry produces by using recycled materials and integrating sustainability into all aspects of her practice. She is so committed to holistic sustainability, that I only recently learned that Emma has been my local food host for CERES fair food organic fruit and vegetable boxes for a whole year - now that is serious dedication to sustainability.
JULIETTE ANICH describes herself as a Locavore Explorer, with her most recent work on Urban Food Maps (the reason she’s featured in The Age Top 100). However, her passion for keeping a local focus also transcends to clothing through a professional clothes swapping service that she co-founded. The Clothing Exchange is an organisation dedicated to holding professional clothes swapping events Australia-wide. They advocate swapping rather than shopping for new clothes which is part of the collaborative consumption social trend sweeping the globe. Since 2004, their signiture swaps have been a woman’s treasure trove of fabulous fashion finds, making thousands of super-savvy ladies very happy from swapping bags-full of fashions, fads and styles with, well, more bags-full of fashions, fads and style. But the difference is that they are recycled bags of goodies, reducing the impact compared with buying brand new items. Their motto is: swap to shop, saving your pennies and the planet!
With four sustainable fashion advocates featured in an article on one hundred of Melbourne’s most influential, inspirational, provocative and creative people for 2011, it is safe to say that awareness and activity surrounding sustainable fashion is indeed on the rise. I already cannot wait to congratulate the ‘movers and shakers’ that make the cut for 2012 and beyond!
[...] Nerida Lennon for making a documentary on sustainable fashion and the future of the fashion industry. [...]