Ahead of Climate Week, Amy Green unveiled Vegetable Cashmere® at The Core Club, bringing fashion, innovation and environmental philanthropy together in one very stylish room.
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Luxury has always been about desire. Amy Green would like to add responsibility to the equation.
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On Sunday, September 20, activist, entrepreneur and environmental advocate Amy Green gathered an intimate group at The Core Club for the unveiling of GIADA, her new luxury fashion brand built around an intriguing proposition: what if the sumptuous feel we associate with cashmere could be created without cashmere at all?
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At the heart of the collection is Vegetable Cashmere®, a plant-based fiber made entirely from soybeans and designed to mimic the extraordinary softness and hand of silk and traditional cashmere. The material is 100 percent biodegradable, offering an alternative to animal-derived cashmere while maintaining the tactile pleasure that makes luxury, well, luxurious.
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That distinction matters. Sustainability in fashion has too often arrived with the unspoken expectation that consumers must sacrifice beauty, comfort or sophistication in order to make a more responsible choice. GIADA is attempting something considerably more interesting: removing the sacrifice from the conversation.
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“GIADA was created from a mother’s love for her children and my belief that future generations deserve a kinder, more thoughtful world,” Green said. “I wanted to create something that proves elegance and ethics do not have to exist separately. Luxury can be beautiful, functional and desirable while still reflecting compassion for animals, people and our planet.”
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The inspiration for the line and creation was her daughter Giada Viola. The debut collection centers on beautifully conceived vests marrying soft-touch vegan materials with plush vegan shearling, creating pieces intended to move easily between practicality and polish. Thoughtful details include dedicated iPhone and lip-gloss pockets—because sustainability needn’t mean abandoning the realities of how women actually live—and the collection even includes matching “mommy and me” styles.
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There is another smart layer to the concept. Rather than feeding fashion’s relentless appetite for newly manufactured material, GIADA transforms existing in-stock materials into limited pieces. Each vest is handmade in New York by skilled women artisans, placing craftsmanship and longevity back at the center of the luxury equation.
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That makes the collection less about seasonal disposability and more about intention. In an industry built around convincing us that last season is already obsolete, there is something refreshing about creating fewer pieces, making them well and expecting people to keep them.
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The luncheon itself reflected Green’s ability to bring together seemingly disparate worlds. Melissa Gorga, Ramona Singer, Scarlet Rose Stallone, Caroline Alt, Candace Bushnell, Jackie Siegel and Natalie De’Banco were among the guests gathered for the intimate presentation, with special gifting from Re-Q Health and LashnSpice.
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But the timing of GIADA’s unveiling is hardly incidental.
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The launch arrives just ahead of Climate Week and leads directly into Green’s Footprint of Life Gala on Thursday, September 24, where leaders from entertainment, fashion, sports, philanthropy and environmental advocacy will gather for an intimate evening honoring Adam Met and Planet Reimagined.
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This is where the story becomes considerably larger than a vest. Green has long understood something that can get lost in the enormous language surrounding climate change: ideas accomplish very little sitting alone in a room. Innovation needs advocates. Conservation needs funding. Environmental movements need people capable of opening doors, creating alliances and turning concern into action.
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GIADA applies that philosophy to fashion.
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It is also why Green has committed 15 percent of GIADA’s proceeds to conservation initiatives through The Green Vision, her organization supporting wildlife, biodiversity, oceans, forests and the ecosystems upon which all of them depend. The purchase therefore becomes connected to something beyond the garment itself.
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There is, of course, an enormous amount of work still to be done around fashion’s environmental footprint. No single fabric or collection solves an industry’s problems. But innovation rarely begins by solving everything. It begins by asking whether something we have accepted as necessary actually is.
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Do luxury fibers have to come from animals? Does sustainable fashion have to look overtly sustainable? Does environmental responsibility have to exist outside glamour, celebrity and aspiration?
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Green’s answer is clearly no.
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Caroline Alt, Ramona Singer, Amy Green, Kari Wells, Candace Bushnell Photo BFA
What she unveiled at The Core Club wasn’t an argument against luxury. It was an argument for redefining what luxury means.
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Perhaps the most modern luxury isn’t simply possessing something beautiful. It is knowing that beauty did not have to come at quite so great a cost.
