Wind turbines make fashion waves

Karl Lagerfeld sent out model’s clad in Chanel’s spring-summer collection on a solar-panelled catwalk dotted with a dozen towering, white, swishing wind turbines.

Not only that but throughout the collection there were hints of renewable energy: a disc-shaped hat with a giant transparent rim that recalls a spinning turbine, a mini-dress embroidered in a blue solar panel-like pattern and a t-shirt festooned with sketches of wind turbines.

That’s not a title you have been expecting is it? But this week, as models graced the catwalk at the Paris fashion week, wind turbines did exactly that.

Asked about the inspiration for his latest wear, Lagerfeld talked about “volume” and “lightness” and reportedly called turbines “beautiful”. “If I had to build a house, I would put them in the garden,” he said according to France 24. Click here to see the renewable energy catwalk.

But Lagerfeld isn’t the first to put renewable energy and fashion together, smaller fashion houses may have got there first. One such firm is Rapanui, a company that makes organic, ethical clothing using renewable energy based on the Isle of Wight in the UK. They claim their clothes are 100% traceable “from seed to shop”, including the renewable energy used in the process.

Moreover, Lagerfeld is certainly not the first to catch on to the beauty of wind turbines. Wind turbines have been used in advertising from BMW to the tourist board in Belgium’s southern region Wallonia.

Wind turbines have also been depicted in art work on stamps across the world. If you are attending the forthcoming EWEA Annual Event in Vienna on 4-7 February (free registration is on offer until 14 October), you will be treated to an exhibition called ‘wind energy on stamps’ collected by Panos Giannopoulos, a Greek television weather forecaster.

While some claim otherwise, wind turbines are clearly considered objects of beauty and, frankly, when it comes to comparing the aesthetic qualities of other forms of power generation like nuclear plants and coal-fired power stations, wind turbines win by a mile for their graceful elegance and complete lack of grey, polluting emissions.

http://www.chanel.com/fashion/7-spring-summer-2013-chanel-fashion-show-32,0

http://www.evwind.com/2012/10/04/eolica-quien-dijo-que-los-aerogeneradores-son-feos-a-chanel-le-gustan/

By Zoë Casey, http://blog.ewea.org/