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.
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.
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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