Most people don’t think of wedding dresses and “green” as it pertains to the environment. But these days many wedding gown designers are thinking outside the box and coming up with unique ways of making wedding dresses for their particularly green thinking clients.
For instance, designer Gary Harvey came up with something unique. He took 30 to 40 copies of the Financial Times and created a wedding gown
out of them. He then exhibited his ideas at two fashion shows. The dress was a halter top style with a full ball gown skirt. For a guy used to making clothes out of recycled material, including discarded cans and boxes, this is nothing new. He also once created a wedding dress out of 28 army jackets of various shades and another wedding dress out of pieces from 10 other wedding dresses.
The basic for creating “green” wedding gowns is to either use recycled or reusable fabrics, or using fabrics that are created from plants that are environmentally friendly, allowing them to be easily recycled later on. For instance, there’s the green wedding dress collection by designer Deborah Lindquist, where she uses hemp/silk organza as a major portion of each dress, along with semi precious beads. This dress is not only environmentally friendly, but it’s price comes in at a wallet saving $875.00
For something a little more pricey, there are designers like Rene Geneva Design, who pledges that all of their wedding dress designs use 100% hemp silk that’s also formaldehyde free. However, you can decide to take a step up in luxury and have a dress made out of what they call “peace silk”, which is cultivated by allowing moths to emerge from their cocoons to live out their full life cycle. The silk is degummed and spun instead of being reeled, resulting in soft, fluffy silk. It’s rare, which is why it’s also expensive, but very green.
Of course, if you’re looking for both cheap and green, there’s always out of the way fashion designs made out of things such as toilet paper. That’s the specialty of Cheap Chic Weddings, which holds a yearly contest for the best wedding gown made out of toilet paper, tape and/or glue. These dresses hold up well for the most part, but of course if it’s a wet day one had better hope the wedding wasn’t supposed to be outside.
There are other fabrics that can be used on wedding dresses that are considered “green”, such as organic cotton, raw silk, and even, of all things, bamboo. There seems to be no end to ways creative designer can look at something and create a wedding dress out of it. So, if you’re a bride who’s into the environment, take some time and check out your “green” options; you might be surprised at what you’ll find.
Photo Credit: www.factorydirectcraft.com
