Climate Change: Luxury Fashion's Next Frontier

This month's superstorms in the Caribbean got me thinking about my loved ones first and then, about how shifts in the weather will continue to effect fashion. And fabrics. 

Growing up in sweltering Florida, I thought about clothes a lot. The heat was unbearable and then it would rain and you would get soaked and walk straight into a building with strong A/C.

I remember suggesting to my mom, at 7, that designers should make clothing light and waterproof for places like Florida. This way, I imagined, when it rained (which was almost daily), you didn't need a bulky plastic raincoat that didn't breathe. What's more luxurious than dry clothes on a wet day?

So here we are, in the midst of global warming and fall has arrived. Sort of. I look around and see luxury fashion houses still churning out dresses and coats made of the heaviest of fabrics. 

Seasonless was a buzzword some years back, but today, it's not about making one part of your collection seasonless, or having one or two fabrics that are the perfect weight, it's about creating collections that are luxurious all while adapting to climate change on a national, and global, scale. 

And what does that mean for the future of fabrics? Let's start with simple and first things first: lightweight. You know, the easy, breezy kind of lightweight. Oh, and not too light, sales will say, and nothing too sheer.

Gentili Mosconi's fabrics, pictured here in two color ways, offer a decorative solution (my favorite kind) and a modern twist on a classic favorite: silk marocain.

These lightweight versions are layered with a colorful print and then, a wisp of metallic jacquard. All that at just 120 grams, VOILA!

The future is now — let’s all pay attention to the kind of ideas that can really move fashion forward.