ECO Fashion Global Initiative
Hear Myriam Laroche, the president and founder of Eco-Fashion Week, tell you all about why she created Eco-Fashion Week Vancouver, now in its 6th Edition.
Myriam is a key figure in mobilizing the fashion industry to seek alternative and ethical solutions to reduce our ecological footprint. She promotes designers that adhere to practical sustainability principles from upcycled, restyled vintage fashion to collections that benefit organizations like Battered Women’s Support Services. Myriam is a true eco-visionary.
Hi, I’m Myriam Laroche. I’m the founder and president of Eco Fashion Week. I’ve been in fashion for almost 20 years now, and when I moved to Vancouver six years ago, I needed a change. I worked for a year and a half for a yogawear company. I was a North American sale rep for them. And after a while, I don’t know, I wasn’t happy in all my jobs. I had the feeling I could do more, always more and more. And it’s not about the clothes anymore, it’s about who’s sitting front row at the fashion show. That makes me very sad, because I love apparel, I love clothes, I love garments.
In May 2009, I heard that the city wanted to be the greenest city in the world by 2020, and for me it clicked that you wanna be the greenest city, the apparel industry has to be a part of it, because it’s illegal to be naked. We will dress for the rest of our lives, so let’s make it green. And, so that’s how Eco Fashion Week was born, and I realized that most of fashion events here were trying to be New York, were trying to be Toronto, or trying to be Montreal, and I was like stop it. Let’s be Vancouver, let’s be us, and that has been inspiring me since day one. Our goal is not to point what’s wrong and what’s right. I don’t believe that we solve anything out of anger. And I’m from the East Coast, and there is a lot of business that is being done like that, like, intimidation, and you point, and I hate that. Can we just work together? It’s about being educated.