Green Cut: celebrating the very best of fashion, film and sustainability

Green Cut is a unique initiative from The Green Carpet Challenge® co-founders, Livia Firth and Lucy Siegle in collaboration with American Express. It celebrates the very best of fashion, film and sustainability. Bringing together the BFI (British Film Institute) and the British Fashion Council (BFC) for the first time, Green Cut pairs eight seminal fashion designers with eight iconic British films to raise awareness of a sustainable approach to fashion design.

Each designer creates a bespoke piece that offers a contemporary take on a classic film. All designers have followed sustainable criteria developed by The Green Carpet Challenge, Livia Firth’s initiative to embed and raise the profile of sustainable principles in fashion design. The final pieces prove beyond doubt that ethics and glamour can co-exist. They will be unveiled on the eve of London Fashion Week (LFW) at Somerset House and will then form part of The Exhibition at LFW.

It is the first time so many high profile designers have collaborated on a project of this nature creating a unique collection. Celebrated fashion writer Sarah Mower lent her expertise, pairing each designer with an iconic British film.

Green Cut designer and film pairings:

• Evergreen, Directed by Victor Saville (1934) – Re-interpreted by Antonio Berardi
• Darling, Directed by John Schlesinger (1965) – Re-interpreted by Tom Ford
• It’s Love Again, Directed by Victor Saville (1936) – Re-interpreted by Roksanda Ilincic
• My Fair Lady, Directed by George Cukor (1964) – Hat creation re-interpreted by Stephen Jones
• Accident, Directed by Harold Pinter (1967) – Re-interpreted by Stella McCartney
• The Red Shoes, Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (1948) – Re-interpreted by Jonathan Saunders
• Things to Come, Directed by William Cameron Menzies (1936) – Re-interpreted by Marios Schwab
• Velvet Goldmine, Directed by Todd Haynes (1998) – Re-interpreted by Alice Temperley

Livia Firth is internationally recognised for her work championing a sustainable fashion industry, she says of the project:

I hope everyone will be thrilled by this extraordinary exhibition brought to you by The Green Carpet Challenge and American Express. It brings together fashion and film, all underpinned by design that is truly sustainable. Our eight designers each inspired by an iconic British film demonstrate perfectly that it is possible to use sustainable, eco-friendly fabrics and ethical manufacturing techniques and achieve stunning results. We are extremely grateful to Vogue.com’s Sarah Mower for her involvement in pairing each designer with their chosen film. I look forward to a continued relationship with the designers involved in the project and hope they will continue with me to inspire a sustainable future for fashion.

Lisa Gregg, Vice President, Head of International Premium Products and Experiences at American Express comments:

American Express has a long standing history of supporting both the fashion and film industries through its affiliations with the likes of London and New York Fashion weeks and the Tribeca, London and Sundance Film festivals. Lisa continues: “Green Cut project is a natural extension of our ongoing work with Green Carpet Challenge and further underscores our shared vision to continue to raise awareness of important sustainable issues among the influential fashion industry and beyond. We are confident this project will continue to generate dialogue about sustainability – an important issue which requires our continued focus.

As custodians of British film and co-collaborators on this unique project, Amanda Nevill, CEO of the BFI, was responsible for short listing the eight British films which provided the creative stimulus for Green Cut.

Amanda comments:

Saving our planet is not an option – we all have a responsibility. The BFI champions the film industry in the UK and we are committed to working across the sector to promote sustainability. The UK is leading the way; there is even a British Standard specifically for sustainability in film – no other country in the world has that. We also look after the world’s greatest archive of film on behalf of everyone in the UK and future generations — this is sustainability in action and it is why we are so delighted to work with The Green Carpet Challenge and our long-term partners American Express to be involved with The Green Cut.

The British Fashion Council officially supports this project hosting the collection for the duration of London Fashion Week, at its official home Somerset House. On exhibit to all UK and international press and buyers attending LFW this season it will be housed in the entrance to the BFC’s ethical and sustainable initiative Estethica.

The project culminates in a showcase of the collection exclusively in Harrods 22nd October-5th November.

The BFI is working with the UK film industry in a real commitment to sustainability, from responsible green film production and the recycling of film sets, to state-of-the art, low-energy storage of the national film collections – archiving and preserving our nation’s great film heritage and film culture is sustainability in action. We even have an industry Standard in the UK specifically for sustainability in film which no other country in the world has.