Academy Awards Red Carpet Inspires Eco-Fashion For Designers And Movie Stars

by Jemima Lopez

[This guest post is by Jemima Lopez. You can read more about her on the website: Zen College Life]

The carpet may have been red at the 84th Academy Awards, but if fashion designers have anything to do with it, future star-stilted award ceremonies will soon be filled with a lot more green in the coming months— Giorgio Armani, Chanel, Tom Ford, Karl Lagerfeld, Gucci, and Yves Saint Laurent are just some of the few designers who are rumored to have been inspired by the stunning eco-friendly dresses seen at last Sunday's award ceremony.

Hundreds of professional and aspiring fashion designers submitted gowns made of sustainable products earlier this year to compete in the third annual Red Carpet Green Dress Contest. This contest, which was initiated in 2009 by environmental advocate and wife of Director James Cameron, Suzy Amis Cameron, was created in the hopes of significantly reducing the environmental footprint fashion can have on the planet. Contest winners had the opportunity of seeing their gowns worn by some of the hottest Hollywood stars at the Oscars, including Best Actress winner Meryl Steep, on Feb 26. That said, below are some of the winners as well as the Hollywood stars who rocked the dresses.

 

Designer: Valentino
Star: Livia Firth
Italian movie producer and environmental advocate Livia Firth wore this lavish, bright red custom-made couture Valentino gown, which according to the "fashion police" was beautiful enough to dub her as one of the best dressed. What many didn't know however was that the fabric was a hybrid of polyester derived from recycled plastic bottles and Valentino's house silk. She also wore diamond earrings from Celleija, a sustainable jeweler. Hubby Colin Firth did his part to sustain the planet too—he recycled the Tom Ford suit he wore to the Academy Awards the year before.

Designer: Valentina Delfino
Star: Missi Pyle
Latina fashion design student Valentina Delfino created this gown for Missi Pyle, star of the silent film and Best Picture winner The Artist. The carillion, off-the-shoulder gown is made of silk "peace" chiffon, a cruelty-free fabric that does not kill worms when retrieving the silk. The silk chiffon was also dyed with a natural mineral dye, which is OSHA approved. Delfino also chose to line the gown with recycled polyester and used a sustainable zipper.

 
Designer: Jeanne Lanvin
Star: Meryl Streep
Who would've known that Streep's lovely full-length gold gown would foreshadow the Oscar she'd win only a few short hours later? The statuesque gown was actually comprised of Eco Certified Fabric sourced with help from the GCC. It marked the first eco custom-made gown created from Lanvin's team.

Designer: Ermenegildo Zegna
Stars: Kenneth Branagh and Demian Bichir

Women weren't the only ones who were gung-ho about sustaining the environment. Italian fashion designer Ermenegildo Zegna designed two custom-made tuxedos—one for Best Actor nominee Demian

Bichir (A Better Life) and one for Best Supporting Actor nominee Kenneth Branagh (My Week with Marilyn ). Both suits were made of eco-friendly, non-mulesed merino wool.

Jemima Lopez is a freelance blogger and writer who writes for Zen College Life, the directory of higher education, distance learning, and best online colleges. 

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Academy Awards Red Carpet Inspires Eco-Fashion For Designers And Movie Stars

Meryl Streep: a True Inspiration

By: Suki Kramer
I recently read an interview with Meryl Streep in Vanity Fair…OMG she is always such an incredible inspiration to me. When I see her give a speech, with that super comfortable, witty, vulnerable, wise presence & the remarkably intelligent, evolved things she always manages to say, she is who I hope to become…& I better get going!
Streep has never gone under the knife & in fact refuses. Someone in the article said what I’ve been saying too, that as you grow older, if you hang on to certain parts of yourself to look younger, you miss out on other stages of life, trying to stop time is detrimental to your emotional growth & a futile way to look at life in general.
Streep says of plastic surgery, “it’s like an interruption in communication with them, like a flag in front of the view & that for an actor, it’s like wearing a veil, it’s not a good thing.”
On the same day I came across an interview with Julia Roberts & hope I don’t someday have to eat my words if I find out she’s ever had plastic surgery or was addicted to the needle…but they asked her some questions I’d like to repeat cause her answer was cool:
they asked, how do you define beauty?
“…to see a person who is present in their joy is the most beautiful thing. I think that’s why our children are all so luminescent – they just exist in the moment of joy.”
Unfortunately, Julia is representing Lancome…so guys, we need to educate her a bit  !
anyway, back to Meryl…
As it said in the article, Streep knows all too well the pressure females feel to dim their light, & it makes me so sad. Seeing young girls play, confident & strong…something happens as they hit puberty, suddenly self-conscious or conscious of what guys think of them. They seem to start to want to do exactly that, dim their light, acquiesce, & reduce themselves (opinions, weight, talent, etc.) & their accomplishments. I think all of us are trying to get “it back” from then on…chasing the light to “find ourselves” again.
As Streep said, “as girls grow up, as soon as boys come into the picture, you figure out that you have to modify that assertiveness thing in order to even be acceptable, let alone appealing, within the cohort of girls as well as boys.” she found enormous relief outgrowing those constraints. The sad realization for me, is that most of us don’t or struggle SO hard day after day. & something she said struck me as something I do personally all the time, accommodate, accommodate, accommodate. I don’t know about you gals.
“I remember Albert Brooks saying to me in Defending Your Life, ‘could you just make it a little sweeter?’ Streep said, “& that’s been repeated by other people in the years since then…but I don’t listen to it.” hmmm at 43, I’m still listening & reacting…
How did Streep free herself? “I think you have to get sick of hearing the accommodation in your approach to things…the way people have to get sick of drinking or drugs before they stop. As there begins to be less time ahead of you, you want to be exactly who you are, without making it easier for everyone else. I’m not sure I ever was really comfortable waning around as a girl, anyway.”
I recently pinned up a picture of Streep at my desk for inspiration.
Best,
Suki

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Meryl Streep: a True Inspiration