Amazing Fashion Made from Flowers and Plants

When the evil snake said bad things to Eve, what did she do? She went for some plant fashion. Creating fashionable clothing from plants and flowers is as old as humankind; at least, it is as old as people who started wearing clothes. Even now, if you go and see aboriginal people, you will see people wearing dried grass leaves strapped to a belt around their loins, and women using them for upper clothing.

Ancient Egyptians used clothing made from plant fibers, while cotton clothing has been found in the relics of the most ancient civilizations. Silk, although not strictly plant fiber clothing, has been used in China and India since ancient times. Directly or indirectly, almost all clothing depends on the plant world.

In the second session of Project Runway, which is a reality TV show hosted by actress Heidi Klum, the contestants were asked to design fashion clothes from plants and flowers. Chloe Dao was the winning designer, and she received $100,000 for starting her own designer clothing line.

Another major figure in the designer world, Nicole Dextras, makes fashionable clothing out of live plants and flowers. Her designer line of ‘ephemeral clothing’ is called Weedrobes, which is aimed at showing our relationship to nature. The eco-friendly clothing is made from plants, and they are designed to bring into question our ideas of geopolitics, society and sexuality. Dextras is a theatre designer, and she likes to create clothing that is based on the psychological profile of a person, or is aimed towards creating a certain psyche.

In this year’s New York Fashion show too, a number of designers made a fashion statement by introducing organic clothing in large numbers. For example, designer Samantha Pleet had clothing made out of organic wool, silk, and other recycled material, and this made a bold statement of eco friendliness. This is good in 2010, a year that has been declared as the Year of Biodiversity by the UN. Celebrities are taking to this in a large number; even Jason Mraz’s suit at the Grammy awards this year was made out of recycled material.

It is just not about clothes this year; fashion accessories too are being made out of natural plants. Did you know that the fur stole from Tara Booth Mooney that made such a hit this year was made out of live moss? This will make the nature lover feel good, because no animal had been killed to make the stole. Even such things as shoes are being made in walnut wood, and organic cotton, linen, flower seeds, cork and hemp. This piece of eco friendly, non-animal shoes comes from Carmel Walsh, the well known designer.

If you want to join the bandwagon of eco friendly, plant based clothing, look around at special organic clothing stores that design clothing using herbal products. These are not fancy clothing, but actual, real world clothing that you could wear to your office.