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SOURCE Brand Preview: Cutting-Edge, Sustainable Designers Showcase New Trends in Fashion

fashion model in natural setting

Just off of the high heels of SOURCE Brand Preview, I want to share with you three emerging trends in sustainable fashion to be on the look for in upcoming Spring and Summer collections. As part of a two-day series of webinars, designers and fashionistas from around the world discussed how cutting-edge brands are blending cultures, practicing fair trade, and using bold, stand-out prints in their latest creations.

Cultural Fusions

A new generation of designers is recreating style by mixing multiple cultures throughout each step of garments’ developments, from collaborating with artists of different social and educational backgrounds, sourcing fabrics, and marketing and selling clothing. Award-winning fashion designer, José Hendo, for example, purchases organic cotton and hemp in London then incorporates bark cloth from Mutuba trees of Uganda in her trans-seasonal, timeless collections. José hopes to revive the dying art of making bark cloth and incorporate it into her future looks.

Ala Mairi, on the other hand, combines tweeds from Scotland with embroidering techniques from Pakistan to craft luxury designs. Fée Uhssi takes African and European fabrics and gives traditional styles a modern twist. The moderator of the “New Generation” showcasing described Uhssi’s designs as a “feast of the eyes.”

Fresh and Fair Trading

Last year’s Source award finalist Ananda Pascual is emerging as a pioneer of fair trade practices all the while creating “smashing” knitwear, leggings and jackets. The phrase “fair trade” gets tossed around lot when referring to sustainable brands, but Ananda is further demonstrating their commitment to the cause by helping disadvantaged women overcome hardships of poverty and abuse. They are currently partnering with organizations like Creative Handicrafts (India) and Fair Fashion (Cambodia), who give priority to socially excluded groups in their textile workshops.

Bold, Standout Prints

Newcomer Sara Cohen of Sara-C is livening up the fashion scene with her bold prints inspired by nature. Each garment in her debut collection, Nature’s Edge, is individually hand cut and handmade in Britain using “Bamboo Couture” fabrics, which were made from bamboo. The vibrant prints are strategically set using a “placement printing” technique, giving Sara control as to exactly where on the garment each pattern is placed (which reduces fabric waste). The designer shared her future plans include creating dresses, new prints and shapes and to begin more interior collaborations on upcoming collections.

What do you think of these new trends in sustainable fashions? Are they too daring for you or just your style? Share with us.

Image Credit: paulcoxphotography via photopin cc

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