Livia Firth: Why ethical fashion matters (Hint: It's about people) (MOTHER NATURE NETWORK)

FASHIONABLE AND ETHICAL: Livia Firth, shown with husband Colin, appears at the Golden Globe Awards in January 2012 wearing a sustainable design from Giorgio Armani. (Photo: INFevents.com) 

BY Starre Vartan

Here's a list of reasons this blogger thinks fair fashion is anything but frivolous.

Often enough, people ask me why I cover ethical fashion. With a hard science background and passion for a cleaner Earth, aren't there other aspects of environmentalism that are more important, and less frivolous, than fashion? My answer usually takes a couple of minutes, because answering this question requires an explanation of the hugeness of the industry, and the equally large footprint of our clothing, shoes and accessories.

What most people don't understand is the size and reach of the fashion industry: every single person on Earth — all 7 billion-plus — have to get dressed ever day, after all. And for those who suggest that all of us wear a uniform of sorts that could be endlessly recycled (this comes up quite often in these discussions), I would argue that dressing ourselves is one of human beings' oldest forms of expression, and one of the original arts in many cultures.

You don't get woven Mohawk tribal patterns, Peruvian embroidery, Irish donegals or African kente prints without thousands of years of human creativity. Do we really want to do away with personal expression? Having spent just one year wearing a school uniform, I'll tell you that the idea, while practical, is dehumanizing to many of us. What we can do is buy less clothing, shop vintage and ethical fashion, recycle and upcycle where we can, and swap clothes, instead of participating in the fast fashion junkfest.

Read the rest of this article:  http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/natural-beauty-fashion/blogs/why-ethical-fashion-matters-hint-its-about-people

Colin Firth: Livia Firth outfits BAFTA stars in eco-friendly outfits (HOLLYWOOD)

BY WENN.COM

Colin Firth's eco-warrior wife Livia convinced Fassbender to wear a Giorgio Armani tuxedo made from ethical wool as part of her Green Carpet Challenge.

 As part of the test, top fashion houses must use recycled materials for their red-carpet looks. Firth reveals there was a last-minute panic for top designer Valentino after the material for Davis' pink recycled soda can gown was almost lost in transit.

 In a post on her Vogue blog, she writes, "On a scale of calm to blind panic, we were somewhere near the latter when the fabric for Viola's dress got stuck in an epic snowstorm on the way to Turin. If it weren't for the valiant attempts of my dear friend Giorgio taking the fabric from Milan to Rome on the train, I think Viola would be wearing actual soda cans rather than the miraculously recycled ones."

Read More:  http://www.hollywood.com/news/Firth_outfits_BAFTA_stars_in_ecofriendly_outfits/16956560

Colin Firth: Green on the Red Carpet (Greener Ideals)

by Jessica Linnay • February 2, 2012

Forget Real Housewives—the real story is that for the 3rd year in a row the real life wife of actor Colin Firth is bringing together top designers and celebrities in an annual ecological challenge that brings green fashion to the red carpet.

 

GCC (Green Carpet Challenge) is the collaborative effort between Livia Firth and Vogue UK that brings forth an outward challenge to the fashion industry to adopt more sustainable and environmentally-friendly practices—and in 2012 sees the likes of Giorgio Armani, Chanel, Alberta Ferretti, Tom Ford, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney, Paul Smith, Valentino, Roger Vivier and Ermenegildo Zegna designing glam garments with recycled or organic materials to demonstrate their commitment.

The challenge jumped off at the Golden Globes last month, which Livia attended on the arm of her man rocking an Armani dress made from recycled bottles, and will continue throughout 2012 as green designs appear on yet-to-be-named celebs at the year’s biggest events. Livia also recently attended Paris Couture Fashion Week, where she met with the world’s top designers to talk shop—all of them in great support of her eco-initiative (even Lagerfeld).

“I’m extremely thrilled that Livia wanted to involve me in such an ambitious project. Creating feminine, glamorous, yet eco-friendly clothes is a challenge that stimulates my creativity. I believe that fashion is a strong way of communication that can support such an actual and contemporary cause,” –Giorgio Armani, Eco-Age.com

read more: http://www.greenerideal.com/lifestyle/entertainment/0202-green-on-the-red-carpet/

Colin Firth: Livia Firth’s Green Carpet Challenge 2012 (Style Clone)

 

Submitted by Cherry on Thursday, 19 January 2012

 

 

In the past, she has appeared in vintage sourced and upcycled dresses, but she recently stepped out onto the red carpet at the 69th Golden Globes Awards in a floor-length Giorgio Armani gown, made entirely of recycled bottles. This was Armani’s first ever foray into sustainable fashion and boy was it a success!

 Firth was extremely proud of the result, taking to Vogue’s blog to say: “Being Italian, I grew up with Giorgio Armani (figuratively speaking). Indeed during my youth there were only two names that symbolised Italian elegance in fashion: Armani and Valentino. To open the GCC 2012 with a stunning bespoke eco gown by Giorgio Armani – well, that is unreal.”

Firth’s accessories on the night were also eco-friendly. She wore vintage 1930s Damiani earrings, Roger Vivier shoes that had been recycled from the 2011 Oscars as well as an Alberto Parada ring made from conflict-free diamonds.

We think Livia Firth’s Green Carpet Challenge is a great campaign and more celebrities should certainly be involved. Mrs Firth recently hinted that a very famous actress has recently signed up to the challenge, but all is yet to be revealed!


http://styleclone.com/22257/livia-firths-green-carpet-challenge-2012/

Colin Firth: Incredibly proud of his wife's Golden Globe Gown - the first recylced Giorgio Armani (Contact Music)

Colin Firth's stylish wife wore the first recycled gown Giorgio Armani has ever made to the Golden Globes on Sunday (15Jan12).

The Oscar winner's eco-warrior wife Livia created the Green Carpet Challenge three years ago in an effort to make the world's biggest fashion houses less wasteful and she debuted her latest initiative - made out of plastic bottles - at the Globes.

She gave top designers like Armani, Tom Ford and Paul Smith the challenge to dress her for the awards season using only recycled materials and vintage couture.

Her first outfit wowed everyone at the Globes on Sunday, including her actor husband.
He says, "It was made of recycled plastic bottles and it feels like silk."

The King's Speech star is incredible proud of his wife's initiative.

He adds, "This is something absolutely extraordinary. It's a completely pioneering exercise. She's launched this all by herself and she now has created an army around her... She challenged herself so that everything she wore would be sustainable."


http://www.contactmusic.com/news/firth-impressed-with-wifes-recycled-golden-globes-gown_1285197

Colin Firth: Livia Firth (Eco-fashionista) kicks off 2012 Green Carpet Challenge (Mother Nature Network)

Eco-fashionista wears first-ever sustainable Girogio Armani gown to the Golden Globe Awards.

Mon, Jan 16 2012 at 4:20 PM EST

 

Getty Images

For the third year running, Livia Firth is bringing sustainable fashion to Hollywood's red carpets through her Green Carpet Challenge.The successful eco-entrepreneur, fashionista, and wife of actor Colin Firth kicked things off last night at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards by donning a stunning black Giorgio Armani gown made from recycled plastic bottles.

“When I put the dress on it felt incredible,” she wrote on her blog for Vogue UK. “It transports me to Italy in the 1960s. Armani just knows how to do this so well! There is also a really fun geisha reference in this dress with the ornate lining – very in line with the current Armani look. But the real achievement for me is that last night the GCC proved that sophistication and sustainability can go together. That’s the victory that Armani has delivered for us.”

Firth has elevated this year's challenge to include more than ten top designers from around the world to contribute sustainable and ethical designs. Tom Ford, Gucci, Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Yves, Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney, Paul Smith, Valentino, Roger Vivier, Alberta Ferretti, and Ermenegildo Zegna are the names listed as participating throughout 2012.

“It is absolutely the right time to take the challenge up a gear, so we are working with our favorite world-class designers and actors as GCC ambassadors,” Firth writes. “Fashion is a brilliant communicator. The fashion we communicate through the GCC promotes social justice, environmental integrity and the very best in design.”

While the fashion industry has slowly been embracing sustainable practices over the last several years, the thrust of the movement has generally been from a new generation of designers like Stella McCartney. It's encouraging to see more established brands take the leap by teaming up with Firth for this year's greening of the runway.

“Livia’s passion for the mission of this project is infectious,” Gucci’s Frida Giannini said.”We all have a collective responsibility towards future generations to minimise our impact on the environment and through this initiative we can hopefully show that you don’t have to make any compromises in design and creativity when working with environmentally friendly materials.”

For her Globes' dress, Giorgio Armani used recycled plastic bottles sourced from Northern Italy to achieve the desired look and feel.

"Armani went for fibre from Newlife, a project developed by Filature Miroglio that takes place in Northern Italy," writes Green Carpet Challenge co-founder Lucy Siegle. "Rather than a vertical supply chain this has been developed horizontally through a system of certified partnerships, all in Italy. This means it's fully traceable - which gets a big thumbs up from the GCC. The end product - the yarn - is fully derived from recycled plastic bottles."

As referenced in the article, it requires about thirty, one-and-a-half litre bottles to make one kilo (roughly 2.2 lbs.) of Newlife yarn. According to the product site, the company hopes to produce 10,000 tons a year by 2015 – thus avoiding adding some 72,000 tons of plastic material to landfills, and saving 343 million gallons of water for the creation of virgin material.

Since Hollywood's awards season has only just started, look for more sustainable fashion to grace the red carpet throughout 2012. Even better, Firth hopes to bring on some A-list actresses to participate. Who would you like to see go green on the red carpet?

For more info, hit Firth's UK Vogue blog here.

The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/blogs/livia-firth-kicks-off-2012-green-carpet-challenge

Colin Firth: What’s more sustainable? Livia Firth’s dress vs. the Golden Globes menu (89.3KPCC)

Jan. 15, 2012 | By Scott Sterling

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Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Actor Colin Firth and wife Livia Giuggioli arrive at the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 16, 2011 in Beverly Hills. Firth was nominated in the best dramatic actor category for his work in 'The King's Speech.'

It’s no wonder Hollywood’s 1% was looking especially fat and happy at this year’s Golden Globes ceremony; the “Global Food Harmony” menu featured chocolate flown in from Switzerland and honey caramel from France. Terrapass even tabulated the carbon footprint left behind on just those two items along with hazelnuts from Italy almond paste from Spain to come up with 9,261 lbs of CO2 emissions to get them all to big event, raising the ire of Global Green U.S.A.


“Flying in ingredients from around the world is unsustainable and only adds to growing greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming,” a Global Green U.S.A. spokesperson lamented to the UK's Daily Mail.


On the other end of the spectrum, Livia Giuggioli Firth, wife of the actor Colin Firth, hosted the third annual Green Carpet Challenge event at the Soho House in West Hollywood. Livia Firth, who is the creative director of London eco-consulting group Eco Age Ltd., recruited A-list designers like Giorgio Armani and Stella McCartney to design a series of “green” dresses for her to wear to the season’s award shows. The dress she wore to the Golden Globes was an Armani creation fashioned from recycled water bottles.


Tagged: terrapass, golden globes, colin firth, global food harmony menu, green carpet challenge, global green u.s.a., livia firth


http://www.scpr.org/blogs/environment/2012/01/15/4283/whats-more-sustainable-livia-firths-dress-vs-golde/