The freshest young local designers are getting a shot at showing a collection at the fifth annual Mobile Fashion Week in September. 

MFW recently introduced a new Junior Design Sponsorship and invited all Mobile and Baldwin County high school students aspiring to a career in the fashion world to apply. The two winners will watch their creations walk the runway at Mobile Fashion Week.

Four students applied, and we're introducing them all with individual mini-profiles we'll post prior to the selection of the winners later this month.

The victorious designers will be determined by the Mobile Fashion Week board and AL.com readers.

Our fourth and final style profile subject is McGill Toolen Catholic High School junior Rekha Marie Berry, 17. 

Style inspiration

Beyonce. Every time she appears, her outfit makes a statement. She is always experimenting and pushing the envelope. She has the gift to go from sweet and demure to fierce and dangerous without hesitation. I love that she is limitless.

Fashion mentor

(Regional publicist) Carlisha Hartzog. I admire her creativity and love her work and energy. She has supported me unconditionally through my journey over the years. She is a true inspiration to me.

Favorite fashion website or publication

I read and subscribe to "Seventeen."  I like that the fashion showcased in it is age-appropriate for me.

What I love most about designing is...

It makes me happy!  I want to be able to do it every day and share that awesome feeling of happiness.

When and how did you know you were interested in fashion design?

My mom is from Souteast Asia, so I grew up loving beautiful textiles and fabrics. And my grandmother was always gracious enough to send me clothes from the Far East. Every time, I dressed up in one of those outfits, I felt like a princess.  I would like my collection to be a fusion of east and west. 

I want to be in Mobile Fashion Week because....

Advertisment

Cheap Nike Sneakers Cheap Air Jordan 11 Cheap Air Max 2015 Cheap Free Run Cheap Kevin Druant 7

 I love what MFW stands for and what the proceeds do for our community. This is an opportunity to be involved in something beautiful and grand.

My prospective MFW collection in three words 

Stylish, energetic and vibrant.

Fashion ambition

To create unique, colorful, yet elegant pieces that that actually fit and bring out the best in each body type. I also aspire to be a part of the community that gives back. 

The handbags will still be python, the cotton silky, the leather soft, the designs au courant and the prices steep. In an international marketplace for fashion and luxury lifestyle, citizen-shoppers would have it no other way.

But last week, the global fashion giant Kering Group, owner of brands such as Alexander McQueen, Saint Laurent, Gucci and Stella McCartney, published a groundbreaking report that seeks to grapple with an issue that hangs over the fashion industry: how to weave sustainability into a business that often appears predicated on whim and superficiality.

An exaggerated, three-year effort in brand greenwashing designed to win competitive advantage in an industry fraught with overproduction, supply-side challenges and weak consumer demand, or a sign of a billionaire owner’s genuine commitment to sustainability and care for the environment?

It’s always possible to do two things simultaneously, of course, but the publication of Kering’s Environment Profit & Loss account – EP&L – is nevertheless a bold first for the industry.

The Kering chairman and chief executive, François-Henri Pinault, said he recognised that as part of the textile industry – “one of the most polluting industries in the world”– his company and those like it needed to share knowledge to create more sustainable business models. “Sustainable business is smart business,” he told Women’s Wear Daily. The report will “help us ultimately become a more robust and resilient business”.

The company says it studied 578 processes involving 107 materials in 126 countries to understand the damage caused by its businesses, and those of its suppliers.

Kering valued its use of natural capital – “the stock of natural ecosystems on Earth including air, land, soil, biodiversity and geological resources” – at €773m in 2013.

Advertisment

Cheap Designer Bags Cheap Michael Kors Bags China Wholesale En Bag Air Max Shoes Wholesale Cheap Jordans On sale

Leading the list of environmentally damaging practices is the production of leather, linked to the destruction of forestry and use of heavy metals, and cotton, which is hugely demanding of water. Kering’s EP&L estimates that leather alone accounts for 25% of its environmental impact, while 17% is linked to cotton.

Overall, Kering announced, supply-side damage stands at 93% of the total. Only 7% of impact comes from its own operations in shops, offices or warehouses.

In a rare interview last year, Pinault rejected the inference that Kering was simply greenwashing in the pursuit of market-share, saying his goal was not “a question of consumption, but rather consuming differently … We will get to a time when consumption will be clean.”

High ideals, certainly, but with the fashion industry locked into accelerating and seemingly unjustifiable cycles of production, curbing its use of natural resources toward genuine sustainability can seem far-fetched. Still, Pinault has been looking to get ahead of the fashion industry on the issue.

“We don’t integrate sustainability to communicate to clients,” says Marie-Claire Daveu, chief sustainability officer and head of international institutional affairs at Kering. “We do it because we believe sustainability is inherent to quality.”

Efforts toward sustainability frequently flounder, in part because the costs are too great except at the high end. Reforming production, whether for the high or mass-market end of the industry, begins with a thorough review, says Daveu: “If you want to implement concrete action, you have to know exactly where you are. It depends on the product, but everyone in the textile sector is able to implement sustainable action.”

So how far has Kering come? Gucci boasts of bamboo handbags made of leather tanned in a way that uses less water and no heavy metals. The Italian house turns leather cuttings – more than 200 tons in 2013 – into fertiliser, and has developed its own python farm in south-east Asia.

Last year, Kering ordered 55 kilos of certified Fairmined gold from Peru, and Stella McCartney promotes use of wool from sheep farms on Patagonian grasslands. The firm recently joined the Swedish fast-fashion chain H&M to test a new recycling technology that separates and extracts polyester and cotton from used garments to create new textiles.

Kering executives say they hope the assessment will help the company to make better production decisions that will ultimately filter down to mass-market or fast-fashion brands. “The journey is not the same but you can still see where your impact is and where to implement best practices,” says Daveu.

Executives say there is no eco-conversion story for Pinault to relate but his convictions are plain and deep. “If we wait for governments to solve the environmental crisis, not much will happen,” he told Women’s Wear Daily last year. “It is up to us to show initiative, to be extremely proactive and to go beyond simple compliance rules.”

Though Kering does not break down its environmental consequences by brand, it estimates that it is 40% more efficient in terms of natural capital than competitors. Since rivals such as LVMH have not produced a similar report, there is little to judge it against.

For corporate leaders to get out ahead on social issues – aka “corporate responsibility initiatives” – is also good business practice given the volume, ubiquity and lack of differentiation in luxury goods.

Pinault and his wife, the actress Salma Hayek, are clearly looking to establish the company as a socially and environmentally conscientious luxury powerhouse.

Last year, Pinault joined the protest against the Brunei-owned Dorchester hotel in London over punishments for homosexuality in the sultanate. Last week at the Cannes film festival, Pinault sponsored a discussion on the uneven role of women in film, and Kering sued the Asian e-commerce giant Alibaba over sales of counterfeit goods.

A week earlier, the Pinault-owned auction house Christie’s broke records when it sold the Picasso masterpiece Les Femmes d’Alger for $180m, reportedly to the former Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani.

Christie’s overall take for the week – more than $1bn – and its generous use of guarantees offered to sellers drew speculation that Pinault was positioning it for sale. “You can view Christie’s as an interesting and amusing business to be involved in,” says one knowledgeable market watcher. “Or you’re grabbing market share at the expense of profits to ready it for sale – and sharpen up your business practice later.”

In both cases – Christie’s and Kering – Pinault is garnering headlines.

Climate change suggests that companies such as Kering need to get ahead of the issue or see their production falter in chasing scarce raw materials on a stressed planet. It’s not just a question of customers – or citizens, as Daveu prefers to think of them: the kind of employees Kering competes to hire are increasingly asking questions about sustainability.

Consumers may not want to be beaten over the head about sustainability when they are shopping for a handbag, but they want to know that it’s integral. “It’s important to show you can have beautiful, sexy, high-quality products that at the same time can take care of the planet,” Daveu says. “Every day it’s a challenge. It’s a long journey. We don’t always have the answers or know how to do it, but we have to try step by step to become more sustainable.”

There are, of course, plenty of lines I could spin you about this. Number one is some guff about the mid-length skirt, which all the fashion magazines and blogs are pushing as the length of the season. They do this every few years – by my reckoning, about every three – and it’s not a bad idea. After all, most style-conscious women aren’t likely to own skirts that end midway down their calves so they will then have to go out and buy them (there is little to be gained by the fashion industry from saying that, say, miniskirts are in because young women generally already have about a thousand shoved in a drawer at home).

What to wear to a summer wedding

The reason women tend not to own many mid-length skirts is that they look terrible. Oh sure, some women look great in them – long, willowy women who wear them and look like elegant bohemian gazelles in their mid-length Marni dresses. But these women look elegant in anything, so who cares? The rest of us, however, suspect we look like substitute teachers from the 1970s and feel about as elegant as dumplings. (Truly, only the rangiest of gazelles feel elegant in a skirt that cuts across at the widest part of the calf.)

What’s that, you say? Marks & Spencer has made a mid-length skirt in suede that is absolutely the dernier cri? Oh please, tell me more about this skirt because I honestly don’t think it’s been written about enough everywhere in every British publication! For those who have managed to avoid reading about this accursed skirt (and I can only assume you must be Trappist monks), M&S has knocked out some 70s-style skirt that was worn once by Alexa Chung (OMIGOD SCREAM OMIGOD STOP THE PRESSES OMIGOD, etc forever), which has therefore been deemed a Statement Piece, and has only just gone on sale (even though it feels like it’s been promoted since, as Kanye West would say, Prince was on Apollonia and OJ had Isotoners).

Advertisment

Cheap Nike Sneakers Cheap Air Jordan 11 Cheap Air Max 2015 Cheap Free Run Cheap Kevin Druant 7

You're never alone with a Breton top. Facebook Twitter Pinterest

 You’re never alone with a Breton top. Photograph: PR

Now, we’ve been here before with M&S statement pieces, namely the famous (nay, HISTORIC) saga of the M&S pink coat, which was deemed back in 2013 to be the Statement Piece. Leaving aside the fact that both the pink coat and suede skirt are ugly as sin (one made women look like Barbara Cartland in an utterly wrong way; the other makes them look like Jessie from Toy Story in an even worse way), the link between them is that they represent a triumph of M&S PR over actual fashion for women. Let me explain – with my years of undercover work at the coalface of fashion – how these Statement Pieces emerge: occasionally, a garment will be knocked out by a high street chain that is deemed, by its PR department, to be “marketable”. It will then give this garment to a photogenic celebrity (Chung or Moss, ideally, but random foreign celebrities, such as Blake Lively, Diane Kruger or Olivia Palermo will also do). As soon as one of them wears said garment, the PR department will email every fashion editor in the land with the subject heading “JUST IN” or “BREAKING” or “EXCLUSIVE”, or a similar word to denote its pressing newsworthiness. The fashion press will duly fall in line and promote the garment, mindful that this high street outlet buys a significant amount of advertising in its publication and therefore will not take kindly to being ignored. Et voila, a high street Statement Piece is born. So if you ever wondered at the disjunct between fashion articles telling you that women across Britain are “clamouring” to buy a certain item of clothing and the noted lack of this garment on any woman you actually know or even see on the street, now you know why. Truly, it’s like I’ve pulled back the curtain and revealed the Wizard of Oz is actually just a harassed PR named Natalie, isn’t it?

Advertisement

Let’s all just agree to ignore the fuss about the midi skirt, and particularly the M&S midi skirt, and look instead at what is actually the look of the summer. And that, my friends, is the Breton shirt. I know, I know – this is not news, right? Every single one of you has about three Breton shirts in your cupboard at home and one on your person right now. But I think it’s worth noting how fast this item has become a veritable basic for British women, really just over the course of the past half decade. I have one friend who collects them from different retailers; another who had to go cold turkey when she realised she owned 10. I had some friends round for a barbecue this weekend and there were three Breton tops between us, and there would have been four if I hadn’t changed moments before lunch, due to some unfortunate mustard spillage.

You won’t read about this in any of the fashion magazines because, as I say, there is nothing to be gained by promoting something that women already have. And the Breton shirt has become as much of a signifier of the British woman in summer as cropped trousers is of the 50-plus British woman on holiday in a warm climate. Some might say it is too ubiquitous to be considered proper fashion now, but those people can swan off in their ugly mid-length suede skirts and leave us be-Breton-ed ones to enjoy ourselves around the barbecue (mind the mustard).

In the last (female) Fashion Face Off, Girls' Generation's Tiffany faced Son Dam Bi in the battle of the laurel leaf Fendi top. Tiffany won with 59% of the votes after accessorizing her look with a bright red clutch and polka-dot strap sandals.

Advertisment Cheap Nike Sneakers Cheap Air Jordan 11 Cheap Air Max 2015 Cheap Free Run Cheap Kevin Druant 7

For this week's battle, the mesmerizing Yoon Mi Rae goes head to head with EXID's "it" girl Hani. Both women wore the same blue top with shoulder cut-outs from pushBUTTON's 2015 Spring/Summer collection. The leopard print shirt has chain patterns on the cuffs and can be yours for $428 at the brand's official online store.

Yoon Mi Rae wore the spotted shirt in the April issue of Elle. She finished off her look with a high bun and a trusty pair of black boots. Hani modeled the piece in the May issue of Vogue Girl. For her footwear, Hani opted for golden sandals and ankle-high socks.

So, who wore it better? Vote for your favorite below!

To launch a new series of collaborations with fashion designers, IKEA is working with the famously strange, iconic Belgian designer Walter Van Beirendonck, who protested terrorism and censorship in his last show by sending clothing adorned with large, colorful butt plugs down the runway. He’s also made shoes decorated with penises and giant hats shaped, again, like penises.

His project for IKEA is far less phallic—and even downright innocent. In a video posted to YouTube, Van Beirendonck describes the inspiration for the five textile prints he’s creating for the Swedish furniture company. They’re based on a story he dreamt up about people called the Wondermooi, which translates to “beautiful” in Flemish.

I came up with a story about characters living in the clouds, and the sun and the moon, which were very sad because there was so much going wrong in the world. And they’re crying and big tears are falling down and the clouds get big holes. And the cloud people, which are the Wondermooi people, they really started to panic. “What’s going on? Our clouds are broken!” That story in fact became a story with different characters, different figures, and also at the end different patterns. 

Advertisment

Cheap Designer Bags Cheap Michael Kors Bags China Wholesale En Bag Air Max Shoes Wholesale Cheap Jordans On sale

To fashion insiders, Van Beirendonck is an icon. He was part of the fabled “Antwerp Six,” the group of stylistically disparate Belgian designers, including Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester, that caused a sensation when they all showed in London in 1987. He also gave Dior creative director Raf Simons his first job in fashion. Simons, who studied industrial design, interned for Van Beirendonck while he was still working out his career path, and the experience helped guide him toward clothing design.

So what can IKEA customers expect when the collaboration hits stores in June 2016? It’s impossible to guess.

But it’s worth noting that Van Beirendonck hasn’t, so far, dialed back the weirdness just because he’s working with a major corporation. Case in point: Here’s the car he customized for Nissan for the 2004 Brussels International Auto Show.