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SANS: The New Now

There has been a lot of talk recently about fashion's so-called "futurism" moment. In the latest issue of the New York Times magazine, columnist Guy Trebay questions, rightly so, just how futuristic and forward-thinking is it for fashion designers to be referencing a backwards B movie version of the future, all Jetsons and Tron. Yes, the clothes might be shiny, metallic or cut to make one look like a robot, but these are all very quaint notions of "futuristic." Critiquing that by saying that there's something very surface about fashion embracing such ideas, and one sounds very naive about the role of fashion, which is all about the surface. But Trebay ends his article at exactly the place we will start this review: that perhaps the future in fashion is not so much a futuristic fantasy vision of 2025, but rather a heightened consciousness of "the now:" the world we inhabit, the way we live and how our clothes are a reflection of it.

What we're talking about, of course, is that dreaded and much-used phrase "eco-friendly." There's no need to rattle off a list of cliches usually associated with the term, because the point is that it is on a steady path away from its stigma as the domain of the unfashionable and even beyond being something that is fashionable but wholly self-conscious of its status as eco-friendly.

Because there are so few embracing this new enlightened consciousness about production, we'll still take the self-conscious and obvious ones, like Edun. This collection, designed by Rogan Gregory and Ali Hewson, wife of activist bar none Bono, was presented their Fall 2007 collection on Sunday night, February 4 in the form of a highly entertaining musical spectacle courtesy of the The Citizen's Band, the cabaret ensemble whose Brechtian shows touch on issues of contemporary political relevance. The performers, who included Zooey Deschanel, Rain Phoenix, Amy Miles and Sarah Sophie Flicker, were outfitted in dresses and tees printed with trees and birds in their exploration of nature at night.

But what's developing now in fashion that is so exciting - and what truly is the future - is innovation in both design and in the materials used to produce the designs, as with the SANS collection co-designed by Lika Volkova and Alessandro DeVito, one of this year's Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation winners who presented their first show on Saturday, February 3 at a theater with soaring columns.

What is refreshing about SANS is that above all, their clothes are about being chic as one pushes the boundaries of design and raises the bar on all levels, both aesthetically and politically, but the way they do it is much more subtle. Eco-friendly clothes no longer have to be about "I'm wearing this because it's good for the planet and I know this because they've told me so." Instead, and SANS is the forerunner of this - we're getting to a place where we can be enlightened - integrity of design and soul - without that being its main selling point. The medium is the message. SANS did with their Fall 2007 collection what we would hope to see from all designers, whether emerging or established: makes us look as good it makes us feel - inside and out.

Starting with innovative fabrics made from soy, organic Japanese denim or recycled polyester, they cut gorgeous, scupltural pieces, like their opening look, a jacket whose front protruded out with a hole on top where the fabric flowed back into itself, like a rendering in wool of a black hole. A white tussah silk tunic/dress (tussah silk is a form of organic silk whose threads are gathered from the cocoon after the moth emerges) was another jaw-dropping, covetable piece, with two rows of soft but sharply folded cube-shaped pockets.

Color was subtle and used judiciously, which we liked because the more neutral palette let the incredible tailoring shine. But where it did appear - a wide knit sky blue silk alpaca sweater paired with tan "harem" pants and a lemon yellow and grey silk dress - it made an effective impact.

Whereas some young designers will show avant-garde collections without any grasp or sense of what it might take to give their label longevity from a business perspective, SANS seem to have feet firmly planted in both realms, as evidenced by one of their side projects, a line of soy socks. The presence of Barneys New York's Julie Gilhart was also a very good sign. One of the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation judges, Gilhart was an early champion of Edun, who have just partnered with Barneys to do an eco-conscious collection for the store.

With SANS, the future looks good.

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