Cassie Lee, Jenna Dilworth and Cindy Tang are the team of three spearheading this year’s ECOuture sustainable fashion show, which will happen on March 19th at Karina’s on Rue Crescent. Cassie is a U1 Cognitive Science student originally from Markham, Ontario, and she dreams of owning her own integrative medicine clinic one day. Jenna is a U2 Biology student whose goal is to make strides in scientific research some day, and she comes from Frankfurt, Germany. Cindy is a U3 student who is from “all over the world”, studying Interdepartmental Honors in Immunology. She hopes to one day be a pediatrician working with the UN. Put these three together, and you get a hardworking, determined team who is passionate about empowering students to be fashionable while also being sustainable and environmentally friendly.
The Science Undergraduate Society Environment Committee (SUSEC) aims to promote awareness of environmental issues throughout McGill with several events, such as hosting an environmentally friendly apartment crawl in the fall term, selling Santropol coffee throughout the year, and organizing Green Week, coming in March. SUSEC’s main goal is to raise awareness, but also to raise money so that at the end of the year, an environmental organization can benefit from a generous donation on behalf of the McGill community. The ECOuture fashion show is the finale to Green Week.
When asked what ECOuture is, Cassie excitedly responded with a well-worded tagline for the show, “It is an environmentally sustainable fashion show created with the help of local, eco-friendly designers.” Jenna added, “our aim is to show students at McGill that it’s easy to make environmentally aware choices while still staying fashionable.” Both Cassie and Jenna became involved through the SUS involvement package at the end of the Winter 2014 term. However, Cindy was previously a model for ECOuture 2013 and desired involvement in the production side this time around.
“Sustainable fashion” appears to be a trend now, but the terms can quickly lose value when they’re used so often. I asked each member what the words “sustainable fashion” actually mean to them, and got some pretty unique answers:
Cindy: “For me, it would be the idea of being able to recycle and reuse your clothes, not just re-wearing or re-designing, but also donating. When you do need to buy new clothing, by carefully choosing where you shop, you can also choose what kind of manufacturing company you are buying from.”
Cassie:“Being aware of your choices, and understanding what little changes you can make that will come together to make a big difference overall.”
Jenna: “To a lot of people, ‘environmentally friendly fashion’ means wearing hemp and becoming a hippie, but it’s not that hard. It just means re-thinking the clothing you have and the designers and their manufacturers. I really enjoy researching companies and their creation methods.”
All profits from the show will be going to Action Communiterre, a Montreal non-profit that aims to promote food security and widespread access to fresh, healthy, locally grown food. You can learn more about Action Communiterre at www.actioncommuniterre.qc.ca.
In terms of the actual ECOuture 2015 show, the team said we can expect a concert-fashion show hybrid, with lots of performers – Brosaica, Shyre and 2KSquad are just a few. The focus, thematically, is on Montreal as a city and creating a fashionable and sustainable community within the city setting. You can find more about the show on their Facebook page.
Images provided by intervieweees