#FASHION FILTER:  Perceptions of Beauty
Monday, April 7, 2014 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)
Wix Lounge 235 W 23rd St New York, NY

An inspiring conversation about the perceptions of human beauty through art and design. We are proud to feature an amazing group of panelists each with their own perspective and artistic discipline.

Fine-Art Photographer, Jen Kiaba  

Choreographer,  Jennifer Montoya of Touch Theory

Fashion Designer, Tabitha St Bernard-Jacobs

Author, Illustrator and Parsons Teacher, Laura Volpinesta

Journalist and ethical fashion advocate, Bianca Alexander, Esq.

Moderator:  Francisca Pineda, EthicalFashionAcademy founder 

In addition, we believe in action and encourage you to bring one unique item of clothing that you are ready to part with for a very special swap exchange following the panel discussion. 

$5, FREE for students
 RSVP here:
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/fashion-filter-tickets-10829392003

This event is sponsored by Wix Lounge, the easiest way to make a professional website or online portfolio.


Jen Kiaba is an award winning fine art photographer based in Hudson Valley, NY. Her work seeks to examine and reclaim the soulful beauty and sensuality in the female form by addressing cultural mores and structures that both society and her culture of origin place upon women. Her newest body of work, "Burdens of a White Dress" recently received the Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women in Photography.
Fine art: http://www.jenkiaba-fineart.comCommissioned Portraiture: http://www.jenkiabaphotography.com

Bianca Alexander, Esq. is an EMMY© award winning TV journalist, yogini and ethical fashion advocate. She is currently the Director of Communications for Fashion Revolution USA, a global campaign in 30+ countries mounted after the Rana Plaza sweatshop factory collapse in Bangladesh to bring more justice and transparency to the global fashion supply chain. In 2007, Bianca launched Conscious Living TV, a digital media platform  covering the people, places and pioneers on the front lines of sustainability and evolution. Bianca has curated and produced several of the top eco-fashion shows in the U.S., including Vert Couture and THREADS, and has covered the ethical fashion movement from the runways of Paris to New York and L.A. Bianca has presented around the world as an expert on sustainable fashion, including at the World Congress on Organic Cotton in Interlaken, the Textile Exchange, and Green Festivals across the U.S. Bianca is a graduate of Princeton and the University of Virginia School of Law. Connect with her on twitter @ConsciousTV or Conscious Living TV’s facebook fan page.
http://fashionrevolutionusa.org

Tabitha St. Bernard is the co-founder and designer of Tabii Just, a zero waste clothing line designed and manufactured in New York City. Drawing on Tabitha's rich Trinidadian heritage, the aesthetic of Tabii Just is a marriage of Caribbean flair and Brooklyn edge, resulting in vibrant prints done in stream-lined silhouettes. Tabii Just has been featured on NY1, Style Blazer and Essence Magazine among others. Tabitha is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology. She honed her skills while interning at Vivienne Tam and working at Tahari ASL. She left the corporate fashion industry to launch Tabii Just, which is committed to supporting New York-based labor and resources. Tabii Just clothing is manufactured in facilities that uphold fair labor practices in Brooklyn and the Garment District. Tabitha also blogs for various outlets about fashion and beauty with a focus on sustainability. 
http://tabiijust.com/

Laura Volpintesta, BFA 1995 Parsons School of Design (NY and Paris), has been teaching since 1997 (BFA Fashion pattern/draping/sewing) and 2000 (AAS Fashion drawing, design, portfolio).  While on the full time faculty, she developed Parsons Fashion's first fully online fashion studio art and design class in 2008 which she still teaches. Only now, she refuses to teach the unrealistic body proportions that she learned to draw as a fashion student.  Founding Fashion Illustration Tribe, shecreates and guides online fashion art and drawing courses to foster "fashion in our own image": fashion and portfolio courses that offer an alternative to expensive, university programs by encouraging study from home that embraces sustainability, diversity and inclusion, integrity, honesty, and small business models in a non-competitive, encouraging community environment more aligned with a sustainable lifestyle. This is founded on the belief that the kinder we are to ourselves, the kinder we will be with the outside world.  She just published her first book the Language of Fashion Design on Rockport featuring designers and models from all continents and biographies of men and women with unique approaches to design, materials, and business.  She is also a homeschooling mother, doula, and  singer, primarily of Brazilian jazz and MPB, who believes celebration, affirmation, craft, color, joy, and positive energy are fundamental to fashion.  "True Fashion is both a personal and a public service".  
http://www.fashionillustrationtribe.com/

Choreographer, Jennifer Montoya, formed Touch Theory Dance and uses her background in improvisational dance to create movement which caters specifically to the strengths of the dancers. I often ask the dancers to "see each other," in rehearsal because there is a lot happening in the dance musically, technically, spatially and it can frazzle a performer. It takes focus to create great dance and when the dancers take the time to see each other it has an instant calming effect on the whole piece.
Read more at http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwdance/article/Touch-Theory-Dance-Presents-PANDEMONIUM-214-15-20140211#osf1dV6Fv6jPOYaJ.99

Theresa VanderMeer is an American tech-professional and the founder of social enterprise, WORK+SHELTER, an ethical outsourcing solution and a safe space where women in India receive training and earn a fair wage. Theresa is a graduate of the University of Michigan and currently lives in Brooklyn. NY. She is interested in women's empowerment, how technology can be harnessed for social change, and deeply identifies with the statement, "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity."
www.workshelter.org 

Tamara Leacock is an artist and blogger who uses the vocabulary of fashion to explore themes of environmentalism, social justice, and imagination. Her current fashion line, ReciclaGEM, is a line of unique unisex pieces of wearable art, constructed from recycled materials, and designed with the idea of transcending domineering cultural design values in mind. Through her designs, blog, artistic collaborations, and travels, Tamara seeks to galvanize people around exploring how fashion can be a vehicle, and think tank, for addressing critical social issues to enact and inspire positive social change.
Website: www.reciclagemny.com
Blog: www.reciclagem-themovement.com

She's a writer, she's a teacher, a designer, an activist, a traveler. No this isn't the newest rendition of Alanis Morissette's song but the venturous life of Sass Brown: the brilliant Avante Garde, Eco-fashion activist. Outlined in her newest book Refashioned: Cutting-edge clothing from Upcycled Materials, Sass goes down a path less traveled curating the best in upcycled fashion. The designs? Illustrious. The ideas? Timely exigencies for change. I sat down with Sass at Cafe Moda across from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) where she serves as Assistant Dean. The Italian cafe, she says, reminds her of living in Florence. After ordering coffee and tea, she thanks the man at the counter with an eloquent "grazie" --a kind British-Italian accent you only hear in the movies. We settled into a cozy corner in the back, where Sass opened up to me about life and unraveled the world of Eco-fashion. 

You have a lot of roles, which do you identify with most?

"Hmm..I love the research and writing. One component leads to another, and when I say research, I mean talking to the artisans and the designers and makers. I was in Seoul for the second time in late summer and I was there doing a two week workshop with some colleagues from FIT and I spent an additional week to do some research. So, wherever I am I tag on my own time kind of typical of most of my trips. During this trip, I managed luckily to connect to other people who connected me to other people and I ended up meeting what is classified as "national treasures" in South Korea: the holders of the crafts and craftsmen, hand loomers, weavers and tailors. It was an amazing experience. I try to do the same wherever I am."

You travel a lot and have so much going on, what keeps you grounded..what keeps you going?

"I have to sustain myself to be able to sustain my work. A lot of people are at this junction..[Sass laughs]. I have to meditate everyday, I do a particular type of meditation, a written form of mediation. I do a stream of consciousness writing every morning for 40 minutes, first thing I do when I wake up. I also cook regularly you know, nothing fancy but wholesome and nutritious. In addition, I visit the museum as much as I can. I really need and value my solitary time."

How would you describe the green movement?

"It is in a way,  the same sort of pathway as the slow food movement which has the same roots back in the 60s and 70s. It took a very long time to get from there to whole foods. I remember being 21 and getting into being vegetarian for the first time..having to seek out vegetarian places. It was hard to seek out places. From there to now, slow food was really something that started very much by the Italians: expensive chefs and restaurateurs building their cuisine around it and the love and beauty of creating. The eco-fashion is in that same process, not nearly as developed but getting close to a tipping point."     

What are some ways to catalyze the movement?

"One of the most important things that need to happen in Eco-fashion is the work has to be re-contextualized in a different way than "niche". We always talk to people who support us and know this industry as opposed to outside of that, we’re not preaching to the mainstream for the most part.  Diversity is also important because each place has something to add to the conversation. Designers in Chile have something entirely different to say than designers in New York. We all have our voice in this movement and something vital to say, a unique experience."
 
What options do consumers have, how can they get involved?

"There’s lots of ways..I know that money is one of the barriers but when you’re talking about an emerging market you’re talking about small designers who don’t have scale to counter balance their costs with. You are always going to be talking about a more expensive market until it hits mainstream. There are also mainstream options slowly emerging, too. You have H&M’s conscious collection and you do have a lot of vintage and flea market opportunities. You have Bib and Tuck where you can exchange clothes and get virtual bucks. You can have the clothes you are tired of and have them remodeled or remade. There's also the option of supporting local designers whether it’s pop up shops or small local designers. All of those are options and there are so many great vehicles."

What's your next step?

"Refashioned has only been out a few months, I'm technically still in PR mode..[Sass laughs]..but I'm trying to organize a pop up shop around the designers in the book. Hopefully, at a multitude of major luxury retailers around the world. I have interest in New York, Paris and Milan at the moment, but it it takes a lot of time and a lot of conversations."

Want to join the conversation with Sass Brown? You can find more information on her website Eco-Fashion Talk and check out her latest book Refashioned: Cutting-edge Clothing from Upcycled Materials.


x -Dom