Project Earth Day congradulates
our winners!!! Thank you to everyone who participated in
the student competition!
First Place - Amira Marion, Parsons The New School
Amira Marion grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a small hippie city devoted to recycling. When she moved to New York she found it difficult to compromise her environmental values for the other thing she loved most- fashion. Luckily with a bit of research and ingenuity she was able to continue her quest and find solutions to integrate sustainability into her projects, and even get a taste for the eco-fashion industry at an internship at Edun. She is currently a senior at Parsons School of Design, creating an environmentally friendly senior thesis collection. and beginning to work on collaboration line of printed organic t-shirts with fellow eco-design classmate Judy Lee.
Second Place - Maritza Romo De Fusco, Parsons The New School
Maritza Romo de Fusco, a Fashion Studies major at Parsons, was inspired by Morimoto New York restaurant located in the Meat Packing District and designed by Tadao Andao. “This space brings into focus art, playfulness, sophistication, and use, which I consider to be important elements for evoking visual and interior satisfaction in the person, regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity,” Maritza says, “Furthermore, I want to transmit these emotions into my garments by integrating environmental awareness based on the principles of dyes and water consumption, long and short life analysis, as well as waste reduction by natural feeding.”
Third Place - Judy Lee, Parsons The New School
My designs are inspire by the architecture of the Greek island Mykonous. I visited the island during a month long backpacking trip in Europe and while I was there, I’m immediately struck by how the built environment of the island and its surrounding natural landscape harmoniously complimented each other. Its been a year since my trip and I can still vividly remember the island’s mostly white, cave-live structures with their wonderful geometric cut out windows and all the color-painted door frames in the most brightly saturated hues of red, yellow, seafoam green, turquoise, and multiple shades of blue. Clearly, the architecture of the island takes it’s surrounding into consideration and the man-made structure is a way to enhance the visual dialogue between the nature and artifice. Not only is the architecture of Mykonous the source of inspiration for my design but it also relates to my design philosophy in which natural and ecology are pivotal elements of my creative process. When creating the looks for this competition, I incorporate the use of organic cotton and sustainable blends such as hemp/flax and hemp/silk as the bases of material. However, I don’t want the clothes to scream “eco” or “green” but rather to have beautiful garments that should be equally as relevant and well thought out even if it’s not made out of eco-friendly material. Using ecological fibers is simply one of the many choices I’ve made as a designer. Also, since color-blocking and prints are essentially the DNA of my design aesthetic, I don’t want to comprise the use of these two essential elements when designing my looks. Therefore I would digitally printed my own print design to prevent ink-waste and ideally I want to use low-impact fabric reactive dyes to achieve the colors that I desire if the service is available for sample-making. My designs are playful, fun, loose, and with a bit of quirkiness in them but still wearable. The clothes themselves have enough of their own unique identity and that defies trend but still have an easy enough silhouette that can be easily mix-and-match with other closet staples. Last but not least, my clothes would have eco-labeling made out of organic cotton twill tape to inform the consumer about the ecological aspect of my design.
Honorable Mention - Ashley Newsome, Savannah College of Art and Design
Ashley Newsome is a fibers and fashion graduate student at the Savannah College of Art and Design pursuing a Masters of fine art in Fashion. She acquired a BA in Art and Design and a Minor in Apparel Technology from the North Carolina State University College of Design and College of Textiles. Her history of study has directed her interests towards surface design in fibers and sustainable clothing design. She is interested in the advancement of craft culture as well as the implementation of green practices in fashion industry. She is originally a North Carolina native from the coastal town of Lake Waccamaw. Her rural upbringing has influenced her interest in folk art and the handcrafted aesthetic. Her present work in fibers and fashion is a culmination of various surface design techniques and modern design aesthetics. She views her work as a marriage between historically inspired techniques and modern style. A love for indigenous cultures has led her to pursue research within the fields of anthropology and sociology. She is currently aspiring to create a design cooperative in collaboration with artisans in an effort to preserve craft culture and to inspire a new aesthetic, which is sustainable as well as artistically influential and socially conscious.
Honorable Mention - Daphne Woo, Parsons The New School
Daphne Woo is studying Fashion Design at Parsons and works as a PR and Wholesales Assistant at Comme des Garcons. Before moving to New York City, she completed her BA in Sociology and English at the University of California Los Angeles. She has fashion and editorial internship experience with TSE, WWD, and Alexander McQueen.
Project Earth Day is looking for students with fresh,
eco-savvy talent to enter its 2nd Annual Student
Competition. We live in a society where fashion is
disposable but the Earth’s resources are
not.
How green are you? How does your built environment inspire
your fashion?
Using
an image or photograph for inspiration from your built
environment, create a winning and innovative fashion
garment to be showcased on the runway. Your complete look
will be judged on aesthetics,
execution of design and innovative incorporation of one or
more ecological design principles (see program for further
details).
Take
Home the Green
First
$1500, a profile of you and your design in a major
publication, and a gift bag from our sponsors
Second
$750, a Teknion Contessa Chair, and a gift bag from our
sponsors
Third
$350 and a gift bag from our sponsors
Honorable
Mention (2 recipients)
$50 and a gift bag from our sponsors
Each
winning design will make its fashion debut on the Project
Earth Day catwalk by a professional model. The student
designers and the judging panel will be given the
opportunity to discuss the winning designs with the media
after the fashion show in a press conference.
Submision
Deadline is March 14th,
2008; download
your application and guidelines
today!
There is a $15 Application fee PER submission. You can
submit as many applications as you like, and the fee is $15
per submission. Your application fee will be used towards
Carbon Off-Set credits, to help make our event footprint a
bit smaler! Please use one of the following payment
methods:
Online:
Click the following link:
Student Application
Payment
Or by mail:
Make chcks payable to "USGBC NY"
One Bowling Green, Suite 419
New York, NY 10004
Questions?
Please feel free to Contact Us