The Fashion Climate – let’s talk. it’s time.

KALTBLUT presents The Fashion Climate! Photography by Maria Dominika. Styling by Christianna Quack. Models are Nebulake. A fashion feature regarding the future of high fashion through sustainable clothing – which based on the latest news is more pressing than ever. The brands include EcoAlf, KnowledgeCotton and Armed Angels.

How eco fashion will save coffee (and the world)

12 years from now there will be no more Coffee! The effects of climate change will be so severe that Ethiopia – the major supplier of coffee beans – will no longer be suitable to grow the fragile caffea plant. Damn you, climate change!

But there are solutions to save our holy morning routine! With the fashion industry as the second biggest polluting industry in the world it becomes clear that sustainable fashion is the way to go, so here we go: All the clothing in this editorial is fully sustainable. Brands like PinqPonq and Ecoalf use almost exclusively recycled materials such as plastic bottles, cotton waste and used tires.

KnowledgeCotton Apparel makes bags with an inbuilt solar panel to charge your phone with renewable energy while you enjoy your vegan Matcha Latte (better get used to it). Even the renowned Dr. Martens Shoes are now aware of the new conscious hype and brought out a fully vegan shoe-line. Combined with an eco-friendly dyed organic cotton T-Shirt from Funktionsschnitt you can look like a trendy Berlin-Kid, saving the world while standing in the Berghain queue.

But more important than looking cool (which is pretty important) is that this new way of styling goes beyond the boundaries of fashion. It is a push towards new discussions about the way we produce and consume. It is a plea towards a new environmental awareness that keeps flourishing throughout our generation. It is clothing made of a political statement!

And every political statement needs people spreading it: Meet the new generation of Berlin based artists that is about to bring environmental awareness into pop culture.

Berlin is filled with artistic people and most of them had enough time to think about the future of humanity (no one here has a real job). The result is a new movement of creatives who collaborate to create content which is exclusively conscious and in line with environmental ethics.

The duo Nebulake makes satirical music videos under the name „When Rappers turn…“. With their series they made viral hits about Veganism and Feminism, aiming to bring progressive ideas to the general public. On their social Media they pose only in sustainable fashion and promote their vegan lifestyle.

People in the Berlin fashion scene know her as „The Vegan Stylist“. Christianna Quack is known to work only with sustainable brands and leather free clothing. A well paid shooting for a fast fashion brand she declined with the words: „I won’t make cruel fashion look beautiful.“

Maria Dominika is an aspiring fashion photographer who seeks to create pictures that go beyond the visual aesthetics and incorporate morals and ethics. She captures the beauty of fashion with only one question in mind: „Who made these clothes and will they save my coffee?!“

Together they form a conscious creative collective which aims to make „saving the world“ look cool, trendy and appealing to the masses. But why is it important to make a conscious lifestyle more appealing?

With a CO2 emission of 1200 tons per second we have 12 years, 1 months and 23 days left until there is enough CO2 in the atmosphere for the global climate to have risen by 1.5 degrees (which is the best case scenario). This will cause irreversible damage to our ecosystems followed by a mass extinction of a third of all life on earth. Severe droughts, water shortages, rising sea levels… you know the deal.

It is obvious that we need to do something about climate change! But the problem is complicated. Many factors play a role in this apocalyptic drama, and only very few people know who the main actors are, how it affects everyday lives and which regions are in danger. Therefore it might be obvious that firstly people need to be educated, before we can collectively make a change.

Well, scientist have been trying to educate us for years. Hundreds of experiments and studies have been published to provide the public with information about the health of our planet. But scientists are being… scientists. They don’t know how to bring information to a culture that has an average attention span of eight seconds (it is surprising that you’re still reading this). They don’t know how to pose on Insta. They don’t know how to make a viral video. Scientists are simply not cool enough.

But influencers are considered cool! So what if we let them educate the public about climate change? Well, if you have ever tried to make a serious political post on Instagram you know how sobering the results are. People on social Media want to see you doing cool stuff, and not necessarily preach about saving the environment. People care about the latest Balenciagas, the new Drake Album and that weird exhibition of that distant friend who shouldn’t have become an artist in the first place. In short, people care about Fashion, Music and Art.

So what if we tried to bring some awareness into these cultural fields by creating content that is taking climate change into consideration, simply by promoting a more sustainable and conscious lifestyle? What if we made conscious cool by showing people that they can wear the latest trends, without contributing to the fast fashion industry? What if we use our influence to promote a diet that is less harmful for the planet? (thanks Miley!)

It might be too easy to say that a more conscious lifestyle is the solution to climate change, but it is at least a step towards a better understanding of our effects on the world. No matter if you go full-on vegan and buy only recycled materials, or if you still buy at H&M, the mere fact that sustainability is being discussed is already a huge victory for the conscious movement. Therefore collectives like this one from Berlin are doing important educational work, by not just showing trendy styles, but also by promoting a whole philosophy behind it. A philosophy that integrates natures narrative into our human monologue and reveals how deeply intertwined we are with our environment. If we all understand that, we might still be able to change things around within the next 12 years and become the first generation to save the entire world… from a life without coffee.

Written by Sydney Nwakanma / @Sydney_Space

Photography: Maria Dominika mariadominika.com Instagram: @mariadominikaphotography

Styling: Christianna Quack www.christiannaquack.com Instagram: @vegan.stylist

Models: Nebulake www.facebook.com/Nebulake Instagram: @Nebulake_

Makeup: Meike Ewend www.meikeewend.com Instagram: @Meikeewend