FREE ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE | WWW.THEEASTSIDESCENE.COM | JAN 2016
Your top is so last year ...and that’s a good thing at Eco Fashion Week
{ { A woman models an outfit built from thrift store clothing at the Eco Fashion Show’s ‘Runway Reimagined,’ held Dec. 2. Photo by
Allison DeAngelis
by Allison DeAngelis
T
he average North American typically throws out or donates 68 pounds of clothing annually. That number rose to 81 pounds in 2015. With that staggering statistic in mind, fashion veteran and Eco Fashion Week founder Myriam Laroche combined forces with Bellevue-based Value Village to showcase exactly how everyday people can integrate secondhand clothing into their closet — or repurpose existing items to create completely original pieces. “There’s still that thought that only poor people should wear secondhand clothing and [that such clothing is] gross,” Laroche said. “We want to be a bit louder, to help the industry shift to a healthier way of manufacturing clothing.” This is the first year that “Runway Reimagined” has been put on in Seattle. Laroche started Eco Fashion Week in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2011 after spending 20 years working in the fashion industry in Montreal. “When I arrived in Vancouver, there was no real fashion industry, and they wanted to be the cleanest city in the world by 2020,” she said. “I thought, ‘What can I do to help that? Let’s bring responsible, healthy fashion!’” ‘FASHION’ CONTINUED ON PG 6
THUNDER OF THE RISING SUN
GREAT NORTHWEST WINE
WITH A FLAME AND AN EDGE
The sonorous thunder of Japanese drums will boom out of the Meydenbauer PG 3
Introducing the Eagle Foothills, the Northwest’s newest American Viticultural Area PG 4
Kirkland Arts Center’s new exhibit, “Slash & Burn,” explores the creations of destruction PG 8