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With the weather taking an ominous turn and the planet in serious peril, we know fossil fuels, factory farming, and single-use plastics are major problems, but what if what we’re wearing is also to blame? With throwaway plastic components, landfill-ready packaging and unethically sourced materials the norm, should we only wear vintage? How do we persuade more retailers to produce environmentally aware clothing?
That’s where Maison-de-Mode.com comes in. Created by Amanda Hearst and Hassan Pierre, it’s a one-stop shop for sustainable style, featuring carefully sourced, beautifully repurposed fabrics and jewelry made from ethically mined materials.
On Saturday night in Los Angeles, Maison-de-Mode held their second annual gala, “to celebrate the people in the fashion industry and in Hollywood that are out there talking about sustainable fashion and making a difference,” Hearst told ELLE.com. And the big honorees of the night? Jane Goodall, who has tirelessly championed the environment since the 1960s, and Caroline Scheufele, Artistic Director & Co-President at Chopard.
“I’m absolutely delighted that finally the heads of the fashion industry are beginning to understand the harm that’s been inflicted in the past on the environment,” Goodall said via video clip from Dar es Salaam. “Consumers are more conscious, and they’re beginning to demand the products that they buy—whether it be in the fashion industry, or the cheap clothing stores—all are sourced in a sustainable way.” Goodall pointed out the shirt she was wearing was many years old and joked, “If the clothing industry depended on me they would have collapsed long ago.”
Over at Chopard, Scheufele has made it her mission to ensure all their gold is ethically mined—a move actually inspired by a 2012 meeting with Livia Firth.
“We had coffee because her husband [Colin Firth] was wearing a timepiece from our collection,” Scheufele said. “He got the Oscar for The King’s Speech, and she said, ‘Where did the gold come from?’ And I said, ‘From the banks?’ But even before I’d finished my answer, I’d thought, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know.’ And that was the start of everything. Now I know where the gold is coming from.” And she’s hard at work doing the same for every single gem in the company too.
The event was truly a smorgasbord of beautiful sustainable style. Hearst wore a Maggie Marilyn dress made from 100 percent ethically sourced silk, and carried an adorable mini bag made by her cousin Gabriela Hearst. “She doesn’t overproduce,” she explained. “She does limited runs, so she has virtually no waste from her company, and her packaging is all biodegradable and compostable.”
Lydia Hearst wore a beautiful Amur dress, found on Maison-de-Mode.com. “It’s an incredible company,” she said. “I love that the fashion industry is becoming so much more fashion-forward and aware that there is the option of sustainable fashion, and that you can make gorgeous, glamorous gowns and it doesn’t have to be a vintage, kind of hippy style. You’re seeing it now on television shows and on the red carpet.”
Every guest was decked out in environmentally aware looks, including Mena Suvari, Petra Nemcova, and Karolina Kurkova.
“I love sustainable fashion,” Kurkova said. “I love what Maison-de-Mode.com is doing. “It takes all of us to be aware and be educated about it.”
For Suvari, wearing a vegan leather gown by Enda, choosing sustainable style fits in perfectly with being vegan.“I wanted to be cruelty-free,” she said, “so I transitioned. I changed over my whole wardrobe. And then it became a passion of mine to find things that I felt looked just as good, but that I could also feel really good in knowing they were completely cruelty-free.”
At the gala, no sustainable stone was left unturned. The carpet, made by Econyl—a company that makes fibers from waste such as fishing nets, plastic, and used carpeting—was created from a style by Sasha Bikoff, whose sustainable interior design skills were evident in everything, from the table settings by Lenox to the reused flowers from Repeat Roses.