NYFW: Eko-Lab AW 2011 Collection

Eko-Lab AW 2011

New York Fashion Week / Fall 2011 might officially have come to a close, but sustainable fashion in the NYC region will be continuing on a course of slow fashion goodness for the remainder of the year. My talented designer friends at Eko-Lab, Xing-Zhen Chung-Hilyard and Melissa Kirgan are just getting started on an amazing initiative for locally-inspired  production and community outreach projects aimed at connecting us with our environs.

I wanted to spotlight these beautiful images from Eko-Lab's AW 2011 collection, as they really speak to the local texture and regenerative spirit that is seeping into NYC's sustainable fashion scene. Created as a free-spirited collaboration with Emmy Award winning artist, Jennifer Wen Ma, 'The Lady on White Flees Across the Navy Yard and the Ink Follows', incorporates unique fashion artistry, 100% organic materials, and natural vegetable dyes that work so amazingly with the haunting industrial textures of Brooklyn's dockside and warehouse interiors.

Eko-Lab has currently set up residency in the Brooklyn Navy Yard as part of the Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation program. They also participated in Re-made in America at the American Folk Art Museum in NYC on February 10, as part of the official kick-off to New York Fashion Week. Their recently re-designed website will soon feature an online shop as well as a blog that will highlight events and textile outreach efforts. Stay tuned for more information regarding their project for 'Fashioning Self and the Environment' at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn for Earth Day 2011.

To learn more visit Eko-Lab / images courtesy of the designers

Photographer: Kristin Kirgan 

Assistant: Joerg Kuehnelt 

Models: Katie LaFleur / Danita Chantel 

Makeup artist: Jennifer Nam 

Hair artist: Kanako Ito