Welcome to the final instalment of the interview series with designers featured in EVERGREEN: fresh sustainable fashion, in the Project Space at Object Gallery until 24 March, 2012. Read the interview with Holly McQuillan by clicking here and with Georgia McCorkill by clicking here. To find out more about the exhibition, head to our Exhibitions & Events page here, or to continue reading about sustainable fashion, keep reading Object Eye here.

“Working sustainably is the necessary direction for the future… In the design phase we define 90 percent of the environmental profile of a product.”

Julia Knüpfer is a Berlin-based fashion designer, a graduate of Esmod Berlin and winner of the Designer for Tomorrow award at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Berlin. Her label icawatermelon combines sustainability with high fashion, using organic cotton and wool sourced from biologically controlled animal welfare.

Welcome to the second of three interviews with the designers featured in our Project Space exhibition EVERGREEN: fresh sustainable fashion. To catch up on the series and to find out more about sustainable fashion, click here, and for more information on the exhibition click here.

“I love observing the social interactions that occur around fashion… the enchantment that dresses hold is very powerful.”

Georgia McCorkill is a PhD candidate within the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University. She designs special occasion dresses whose physical durability matches their fleeting requirements for use. The Red Carpet Project is a design driven collaboration between designers, celebrities, stylists and publicists, using the red carpet as a forum to raise awareness of environmental problems faced by the fashion industry. McCorkill uses natural eucalyptus plant dyes and up-cycled fabric remnants to achieve stunning environmentally conscious gowns.

[and my introduction to the world of sustainable fashion]

I am thrilled to be co-producing an exhibition that combines two of my greatest passions: Sustainability and Fashion.

The collections of the chosen designers are equally beautiful and sustainable - they do not have a particular ‘eco’ aesthetic and are desirable well beyond their environmental and ethical responsibility. Just as an evergreen remains fresh, enduring and vital, Julia Knüpfer, Georgia McCorkill and Holly McQuillan design garments to retain significance and value.

I began my own research by asking, What exactly is sustainable fashion? ...How do these values influence the choices of the designer and the wearer?