On the scene is the new awarding of fashion awards, which is behind the eco-activist Livia Firth.
The Green Carpet Fashion Awards (GCFA) will take place in Los Angeles on March 8, during Oscars week. The annual awards will celebrate “the positive forces in fashion and entertainment and their collective ability to move culture forward,” according to a statement. It will be co-chaired by Cate Blanchett, Quannah Chasinghorse, Viola Davis, Tom Ford and Simu Liu.
Stefan Beckman will serve as creative director, and the GCFA board includes Bethann Hardison, Amber Valletta, Christopher Bevans and Tonne Goodman.
“This is not a celebration of an industry that has the power to disrupt. Instead, it’s a recognition of an industry that needs to harness its power for people and the planet,” Livia Firth, founder of the Green Carpet Challenge, the GCFA’s driving force, said in a statement. “Fashion is a full-spectrum industry, touching billions of lives around the world and relying on a healthy biosphere. We must use that reach and power to bring about purposeful change.”
Firth, longtime activist and founder of global sustainability consultancy Eco Age first launched the Green Carpet Challenge in LA in 2010. Over the years, it has led to more than 250 stars stepping out in green design, including Meryl Streep at the 2012 Academy Awards. Lanvin recycled bottle fabric and Viola Davis in Valentino recycled soda can fabric at the 2012 BAFTA Awards (Criteria include fair labor rights, repurposing, recycling, low carbon and waste, sustainable, alternative and organic fibres.) Co-chair Blanchett is also has been a champion for sustainability on the red carpet, choosing to wear the designs again throughout the 2020 Venice Film Festival, for example.
The Green Carpet Awards were held for the first time in Milan in 2017, in partnership with the Ministry of Economic Development and Camera Moda, complete with the award’s own statuette created by Chopard. The ceremony was in the dark during the pandemic. Last year, Firth hosted an intimate dinner in collaboration with the Council of Fashion Designers of America with an expanded intersectional focus on diversity and inclusion and social justice.
Honorees for the evening were Brother Vellies and founder of the Fifteen Percent Pledge Aurora James; LA-based Native American designer Bethany Yellowtail; Color of Change President Rashad Robinson (who is bringing an inclusive rider to the Grammys next weekend) and Tom Ford for the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize. (Ford had emergency knee surgery and had to miss the event.)
That dinner brought together Damian David of Maneskin, Victoria De Angelis, Ethan Torchia and Thomas Raggi, John Taylor and Gela Nash-Taylor of Duran Duran, Karolina Kurková, Heidi Klum and Alessandra Ambrosio, among others.
GCFAs created to move the collective fashion industry forward, leveraging the film and fashion industries.
“Fashion can and should be salvation,” Firth said in a statement about the 2023 event. GCFA will showcase just that – the level of commitment and focus we all need to reflect, bringing together two powerful, interconnected industries to embark on a shared transformation.
Strategic partners joining GCFA are L’Oréal and Farfetch. GCFA is also supported by Candiani Denim and 1 Hotel West Hollywood and 1 Hotels.