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At this year’s 95th Academy Awards, all attendees received a Sustainable Style Guide from the environmental and social organization Red Carpet Green Dress (RCGD Global) encouraging them to wear vintage garments from designers’ archives as well as natural materials such as hemp or ethical silk. Other highlights included a focus on supporting brands that prioritize labor rights and diversity, representation and inclusion initiatives. Bringing the conversation to The Wellness Feed about how both the film and fashion industries are reevaluating their environmental impacts in general, Samata Pattinson, CEO of RCGD Global, spoke about the partnership between RCGD Global and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts.
What is RCGD Global’s end goal for partnering with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences?
In November 2022, we officialized our partnership with the Academy after a 13 year relationship for our Red Carpet Green Dress at the Oscars® initiative. This partnership expands both of our ongoing red carpet sustainability efforts. The Academy has distributed a bespoke version of our “Sustainable Style Guide”, which provides guidance on sustainable red-carpet fashion to all attendees of Academy events this Oscar® season.
Moreover, with this partnership we aim to share insights with the Academy and help make the entertainment industry more sustainable. With this purpose, we celebrated in November the inaugural dinner of our “Sustainability Evenings”, a series of salon-style gatherings that will spotlight communities and organizations driving change.
The end goal is to bring a wider awareness to where fashion and film intersect and how we as a collective can make a positive impact.
What are the challenges that you’ve faced pushing for sustainable initiatives with this partnership?
This partnership has opened many doors and has facilitated our extension further into the entertainment industry. It’s been hard to promote sustainable fashion on the Red Carpet partly because of the perception of sustainability – people have a natural reaction to feel defensive because they assume sustainability is coupled with judgment – but when you start helping people to connect those dots, everything becomes much easier.
Other issues have been the challenge of the behind things like repeating looks or even a shortcoming in solutions, a lack of awareness about where to look. However, companies like our partner TENCEL have done an excellent job providing tangible solutions – for example, by delivering new and alternative fabrics for evening dressing that still have a luxe feel. Today finding, wearing and understanding the impact of a more conscious look to the red carpet is much easier than fourteen years ago when Suzy Amis Cameron started this project and we hope this partnership will work as an amplifier to our mission.
What are the challenges that designers face to be more sustainable?
I think it is always a combination of all, getting sustainable ‘right’ is an alchemy that is not easy, and ultimately there is no perfect solution. Some of the challenges can range from lack of scalable solutions, access to financial support, industry gatekeeping, lack of opportunity for marginalisd groups, lack of actual solutions which can be used or even afforded, lack of understanding of citizens on the subject of sustainability. That is why education, true collaboration and the deconstruction of barriers is so important.
As a designer yourself did these challenges mirror your own experiences?
When I took part in the Red Carpet Green Dress design contest in 2011, I definitely struggled in finding the right materials to use for my design but I also did not know where to begin – I found the space confusing but very intriguing. My passion for the discovery was completely driven by interest and natural connection with the subject. That’s what everyone should be able to have – that natural connection.
That has definitely motivated me now, as CEO of the organization, to work hard to promote the development of sustainable solutions and support companies doing good but by focusing on what people genuinely connect with. Problems as a designer do not simply end with what you pass through your hands to make – it goes to the whole framework around you, for example getting certification from suppliers in your own supply chain as a small or start-up designer, when you do not house your own in-house manufacturing can be incredibly challenging and is a common struggle. Likewise visibility on labour rights and human ethics is a challenge even for the most well intentioned of designers. Until a global standard comes into place, designers are often left to ‘mark their own homework’ so to speak. Everything is a learning process.
How have you noticed the Oscars becoming more sustainable (in terms of fashion) since the beginning of this partnership?
Suzy Amis Cameron started with this project in 2009, which then developed and expanded to what RCGD Global is today. It’s been fourteen years since, and the progress has been notable. There are many stakeholders and people who have promoted this change, but we are extremely happy to be one of them. Celebrities repeating looks, wearing archive dresses or a gown made responsibly are more and more common every year, and we hope this official partnership and the distribution of our Sustainable Style Guide will give another push to this moving wheel.
How can viewers be a part of the conversation to push for sustainable fashion?
Red Carpets are a great platform for awareness as we often look at them for inspiration. That is why we use this space as a starting point to promote sustainability in other spheres. Our Sustainable Style Guide is a great example of this and a very handy manual for anyone looking to shift towards a more conscious wardrobe. The tips and insights we share in this guide are applicable from the Red Carpet to the day to day life. We hope the new generations growing up will look at the talent who is supporting us at the Oscars this year and will be encouraged to also rethink their purchasing habits and opt for alternatives to fast fashion such as second-hand clothing and renting for special occasions.
Which designers do you see making real sustainable changes?
Many of the changes don’t need to come from the designers themselves. For most it’s about collaborating with the right organizations to help them with their research and development so they can focus on what they do best: designing. Organizations like the Sustainable Apparel Coalition who create a shared vision of sustainability by developing a common language to help to standardize how organizations measure, improve and communicate their sustainability performance are an exceptional example. Alongside Veriswype, whose mission that transparency is the key to building trust and promoting positive change by providing tools to ensure products are sourced ethically is vital to the development of the fashion ecosystem.
What excited you most at the 95th Academy Awards?
We work closely with the sustainability office at The Academy and even from last year, they initiated so many important elements to the awards, such as the introduction of the first all-gender, accessible restrooms at the Dolby theater, investment in developing a diverse pool of production talent through Oscars apprenticeships, engaging minority and women owned businesses, land acknowledgments throughout the season and public debut of the Academy’s Indigenous Alliance, ASL interpretation, continued integration of ramps in design of Oscars stage and pre-show main stage, across to over 70% plant based menu at the Governors Ball.
Being an official partner of the Academy and having had a bespoke edition of our Sustainable Style Guide distributed among the attendees has been a huge moment for us. We had been working on it for a long time and we are really happy for it to be distributed amongst an audience who have a lot of power to promote change.
I’m also really excited about the talent we are working with this year, as they are really passionate about their work and their responsibility as ambassadors, as well as our ongoing partnership with TENCEL and the two new partners joining this project: Sustainable Apparel Coalition and Veriswype.
What has your sustainable journey been like?
My sustainable journey has been progressive and slow, and that is what I recommend to anyone who really wants to commit to something more meaningful in the long term. Radical changes are hard to maintain, so my advice is always to start with small easy steps and integrate them progressively into your routine. There isn’t one right path, but many different things we can do as consumers and citizens. It’s about finding what works and is attainable for you and be consistent with it. Our Sustainable Style Guide provides a wide range of possibilities, so I encourage everyone to have a read and decide for themselves.
