Spotlight on Fashion | Coco Eco Magazine

Spotlight on Fashion (6)

Elena Garcia: Simply Sustainable, Socially Just and Totally Beautiful
Images by Nick Fallon

In a world of fashion choices, Elena Garcia goes beyond clothes into a lifestyle choice.

Elena Garcia: Simply Sustainable, Socially Just and Totally Beautiful
by Vicki Godal
Images by Nick Fallon

Seeing the plight of the underserved first hand in her job as a linguist changed eco fashion designer Elena Garcia’s life. Garcia’s work took her into the world of minority communities and penitentiary institutions. These experiences drove her to get her degree in Surface Textiles at the London College of Fashion. Right off the bat, Garcia collaborated with Ilya Fisher to create their first eco-fashion collection called Fisher-Garcia, in what would quickly become a multi-faceted eco-fashion brand at home on top in three short years. But Elena Garcia didn’t just create a fashion line. She created a sustainable fashion company business model with an Eco Credo built upon environmental impact considerations and social justice. Garcia simply calls it business as usual.

Considering the company’s Eco Credo, one might be inclined to think that what goes round comes round (in a good way) because that certainly seems to have been the case with Elena Garcia. Garcia has been a shooting star in the eco-fashion world since that first collaborative collection. Garcia remembers that collection fondly.

“That’s the felted jacket that started it all. I still have the original I made from a second hand sari when I was in my first year at the London College of Fashion,” Garcia reminisced. “It’s unique, comfortable and feels divine.”

Elena Garcia: Simply Sustainable, Socially Just and Totally Beautiful
by Vicki Godal
Images by Nick Fallon

The thing about fashion is it’s a tough business to break into, much less to become a resounding success on the level of Elena Garcia. Garcia has deified the odds and never looked back. In fact, Garcia challenges the very way we traditionally manufacture clothing. When asked if she could do one thing to magically change fashion what it would be, Garcia’s response was crystal clear and concise.

“I would make unsustainable fabrics and practices disappear,” Garcia answered, “So designers and businesses had no option but to do things the right way.”

Garcia’s designs are for every woman. They combine clean lines of elegance with ease of movement. Delightfully intricate cutwork teases the eye. The garments combine the Eastern flowing shapes found in kimono sleeves and Thai fishermen trousers with innovative and flattering asymmetric dresses, skirts and camisoles. Garcia has a defined vision for her line.

“Elena Garcia Eco-Couture is a label that offers high end garments that are made sustainably while appealing to women of all ages and sizes. The aim is to make pieces that will be passed on from one generation to another. Pieces made with great care and attention to detail using flattering shapes and amazing fabrics. Pieces that appeal to the senses of the wearer, “Garcia said.

Elena Garcia: Simply Sustainable, Socially Just and Totally Beautiful
by Vicki Godal
Images by Nick Fallon

All of Garcia’s fabrics, from her luscious bamboo satins to the hand-loomed silk tweeds and silk chiffons are rapidly renewable, sustainable, organic and pesticide free, while the dyes and manufacturing processes are metal, amine and azo free. All processes are low or no impact on the environment. Garcia described the process and texture of two of her fabrics. The bamboo satin is another of Garcia’s new fabrics. “The bamboo fiber can be woven like a silk satin, it is very silky in its texture and feels amazing, and that’s why it’s called bamboo satin! Nuno felting is a process whereby wool fibers are applied to another fabric. The wool shrinks when in contact with heat which creates friction and gathers the fabric underneath, creating lovely textures,” Garcia explained.

No zips or plastic fasteners here. Instead, Garcia uses natural shell buttons. Sustainable practices reflect in the administrative side of Garcia’s business, as well. Mailings are printed on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified papers using vegetable inks.

According to Garcia, “I want people to know that Elena Garcia clothes have very little impact on the environment and have contributed to making people’s lives better. I also want people to know that we have put a lot of care and effort into every process of the life of Elena Garcia garments.”

Elena Garcia: Simply Sustainable, Socially Just and Totally Beautiful
by Vicki Godal
Images by Nick Fallon

As for Garcia’s reason to be, all her collections incorporate the quality handiwork of the underserved communities for whom she once translated. Garcia gives back to these communities and the local economy by giving them gainful employment with fair wages and desirable working conditions. The fact that traditional clothing manufacturing is quite often entrenched in the opposite of those conditions is another story. However, suffice to say that eco-conscious fashion designers like Garcia are changing the fabric of fashion, literally and operationally, from the ground up.

“We work with the HEBA Women’s Project in Brick Lane, London and the XL Consultancy in North London in the development of our patterns and textile finishes,” Garcia said. “Locally, we employ textile artists for our felting and hand-dyeing.”

Even with her ethical sensibilities, Garcia is shrewd when it comes to people’s buying habits as shown in this excerpt from an article written by her friend, London fashion writer Suzy Menke about London Fashion Week for the New York Times in 2008.
“Elena Garcia wanted to make the most glamorous of garments to show that sustainable clothing can have couture quality. Chosen by Estethica as one of the promising new contributors in the field, Garcia and her partner take the view that people will be prepared to pay a high price not because something is organic nor because it helps women who might otherwise struggle to find work – but because it is beautiful.”
”People are not just going to spend money on something because it’s organic. With cheap fashion, people have a mental price in their head about how much they’re prepared to pay for a T-shirt,” Garcia added. “We can’t compete with China and the big money factories, so we’ll make something so beautiful that people will want to buy it no matter what.”
Working with textile designers Ilya Fisher and Carolyn Abbott, who do the felting, dyeing, jackets and camisoles, Garcia’s signature fabric is organic silk incorporating Japanese dyeing techniques with her trademark cutwork on silk chiffon. Her upcoming Autumn/Winter 2009 collection, inspired by Queen Victoria and Daphne Guinness, is dominated by black silk satin with a tie dye lightening effect, raw edges and cutwork panels. Silk tunics and floor length evening dresses make up the collection’s key pieces. Garcia also introduces a new fabric, hand-loomed olive brown silk tweed.

Elena Garcia: Simply Sustainable, Socially Just and Totally Beautiful
by Vicki Godal
Images by Nick Fallon

But Garcia isn’t just a fashion designer slash ethical business owner.

“My company is actually called Garcia Eco-Ventures Ltd, Elena Garcia Eco-Couture is one of the entities within the company,” Garcia explained.

In fact, in addition to Elena Garcia Eco-Couture, Garcia also designs the upcycle label “Sew Last Season” using throwaway fabrics and materials. Besides her own collections, Garcia designs and manufactures eco-clothes for other London eco-retailers including Love, Life Stories. To increase awareness and education, Garcia engages in eco design consultant services and sustainable fashion public speaking and training.

An active member of the Ethical Fashion Forum, The Eco-Designers Network, The Conscious Designers Collective and London Apparel, Garcia believes everyday can be the start of a new mindset and she backs it up with some sage advice, “Think about the environmental and social impact of everything you do. It is hard in the beginning, but once the mindset kicks in, it will change the way you live forever,” Garcia said.