ROLL OUT THE RED CARPET, THE MET GALA WAS WEARING SUSTAINABILITY

It has been an entertaining month of lavish outfits and fun themes on the red carpet. From Gilded Glamour inspired Met Gala outfits, to excessive frills at the BAFTAs, I have loooooved seeing all the new silhouettes. But most of all, I have loved seeing the conversation around fashion sustainability.

Over the past week since the Met, I have been watching to see the ins-and-outs of what outfits were being reported as sustainable.

The outfit I was really blown away with, was the glorious gown worn by Billie Eilish, (which, by the way, was spot on brief!). It is a completely upcycled gown by Gucci, which was designed by creative director; Alessandro Michele. Eilish is renowned for her idgaf attitude, and pioneers the confidence to wear whatever she wants. So her hitting the red carpet in such a stylish, yet environmentally conscious outfit, is so amazing to see.

Billie Eilish wearing upcycled dress

Another corseted gown was worn by Paloma Elesser. The dress was made using repurposed dresses, which is awesome and such an innovative way to create a new look for the red carpet. The main event being the lace skirt which was made from vintage 1930s dresses! TOTALLY OBSESSED!

There are so many clothes already on this planet, so it makes sense to utilise them! It is really refreshing to see high fashion designers do this.

Paloma Elesser wearing upcycled dress using 1930’s dresses

This leads us perfectly to the vintage outfits, and even dresses from old collections, which I never thought would be so featured in prominent fashion events… like ever… but I am delighted to see it.

The first gleam of vintage was worn by supermodel, Amber Valletta, who was wearing a glorious pleated 1980s design by Azzaro. It was her stylist, Karla Welch, who sourced it from Aralda Vintage boutique in LA.

A huge element of my love for vintage is the history of the garment, and especially where it has been sourced from, so this being publicised is so important and transparent too.

Amber Valletta Wearing vintage Azzaro

You cant get any more famously vintage than an original dress worn by the one and only, Marilyn Monroe? Well, as you most probably have heard and seen, it was Kim Kardashian who had managed to get her hands on the Jean-Louis dress worn by Marilyn in 1962 as she sang ‘Happy Birthday Mr. President’ to John F Kennedy.

It was reported that Monroe was sewn into the gown just moments before revealing it on stage, and the nude design of the dress was the first of its era. The history, the design and the nostalgia surrounding the dress makes this outfit the most talked about at the Met Gala.

Kim Kardashian wearing a vintage Marilyn Monroe dress

Kim really achieved the popularity gained from wearing arguably one of Monroe’s most famous dresses, however I do not see any sustainability reason for wearing a vintage outfit… but I love that it could potentially cause a ripple effect to influence a culture of rewearing vintage outfits.

Another gown from another time, was the green number worn by Adut Akech. It was a wonderful off-the-shoulder dress that was actually featured in Christian Lacroix’s autumn winter 2003 collection. The pastel details on the front were very Gilded Galmour-esque too.

Seeing dressed from old collections is actually very refreshing, especially because of the societal stigma around rewearing old collections.

Adut Akech wearing a dress from Christian Lacroix’s autumn winter 2003 collection

Louis Vuitton dressed many at the Met Gala, but it was HoYeon Jung who was wearing the most gilded LBD from the house’s cruise 2017 collection.

HoYeon Jung wearing Louis Vuitton cruise 2017 collection.

In society, it has become a (somewhat toxic) norm to only wear an outfit once to an event. It has been something I have been trying to challenge with the rental model of Clothemod, to enable customers to wear an outfit once for an event, yet also not be committed to keeping it and it being wasted, or not worn again.

So, when I saw Emma Stone’s white silk dress, I was initially wondering how come it wasn’t necessarily to the Gilded Glamour theme brief. BUT then I was delighted to know it was actually her own wedding gown of which she re-wore as her Gala attire.

Emma Stone wearing her own dress

It is so powerful to see high status celebrities wearing clothing that has been consciously made by popular high fashion houses/designers, and rewearing outfits too. It is clear that there is a long way to go for conscious wearing to become widely adopted. However, the fact we are seeing it become a conversation amongst one of the most influential red carpet event makes me optimistic.

We can all be conscious about our clothing consumption, and there are so many ways to wear sustainably; second hand, slow fashion, rewearing and altering are all great practices. We can be inspired by the lavish Gilded Glamour inspired outfits at the Met, but we do not need to run to the closest fast fashion brand to get the newest trends.

Be sustainably styled now by visiting https://www.clothemod.com/styleparcels.

Images from Harpers Bazaar