Date: 04/09/2010 Time: 06:00 pm - 09:00 pm
Joya Dass and Aiden Murtagh of Eyes Wide Open Productions, are hosting a "green" charity fashion show to raise money for the post-production of a documentary about the 45 million people living with some form of visual impairment in India. Sense and Sustainability will take place on Friday, April 9th 6-9 pm at the Aicon Gallery. The completion and release of the documentary will draw much needed attention to one foundation's efforts to eradicate curable blindness in the country. To date, Sankara Eye Care Institutions has performed 550,000 free eye surgeries. Its goal is to ramp up to a million beneficiaries a year----by the year 2020.
Sense and Sustainability will feature three Indian fashion designers committed to using Indian and fair-trade resources to further the green and sustainable fashion movement.
"I witness the abject poverty every time I go to visit my family," says Joya Dass, director of the documentary. "I have always wanted to give back to India, but was never sure how. On the last trip to Calcutta, I realized I can use my skills as a reporter to tell a story. That's how the documentary about the Sankara Eye Foundation came about."
On where her documentary intersects with the green movement, Joya responded, "While First Sight is about helping sight challenged children in India, engaging in any "green" efforts helps children everywhere."
Joya teamed up with several South Asian women who share her concern for giving back. "Sense and Sustainability" is a collaborative effort amongst these women. Tina Tandon, Swati Argade, and Helen Asir, the three New York-based designers featured in the show, give back by using Indian resources to create sustainable fashion.
Tina Tandon will introduce her fun, flirty spring collection that uses all-natural Indian fabrics,
such as cotton, linen, modal and bamboo. Swati Argade's line of exotic dresses are woven in fair-trade cooperatives in India, which helps to sustain and develop the local economy of Orissa. The debut of her latest collection will include the introduction of her newest endeavor "Bhoomi", which is a line of "green" raincoats that are made of recycled plastic bottles and organic Texas-grown cotton. Helen Asir's journey into fashion began when she became frustrated trying to buy sustainable formal wear for her children, and could only find a small selection of very high-priced items often made of polyester. So Helen journeyed to the only place she knew she could find
luxurious organiza silk, pure silk, and natural stones for ornaments: India. No plastic zippers or synthetics can be found in her Couture Collection.
For more information about the designers or the documentary, go to
www.firstsightthemovie.com
Media sponsor is Green Drinks NYC
Makeup by Vesta Goodarz, Valerie Star and Kayla Jo
Photography provided by Katarina Kojic
Beverages provided by Sambazon
Gift bags provided by Bring it in a Bag, John Masters Organics, and Shobha Threading
