Green Holiday

Posted on November 21, 2007 by C Johnson
Advertising, Culture, Design

According to a special run by Mike Pesca of NPR news, Barney’s New York, the high-end trendsetting retailer, is using its star power this holiday season to bring attention to the global warming issue with an exclusive collection of environmentally friendly fashions. But in a business built on the transience of popularity, are they really sending out the right kind of message?

It’s no secret that environmentalism has, in recent years, managed to work its way into the mainstream and, to quote NPR, Barney’s joining the go-green bandwagon is certainly a testament to the current popularity of environmentalism. The slogan for Barney’s 2007-holiday season is “Have a Green Holiday,” and the catalogue offers “gorgeous green gifts, fabulously fair-trade fashion, sensationally sustainable swag, orgasmic organic denim and cashmere, environmentally conscious tchotchkes of all descriptions and philanthropic gestures to warm the cockles of your heart.”

Aside from that nauseating misuse of alliteration, it certainly sounds like a godsend for the eco-conscious consumer. After all, this is the way shopping ought to be all the time, not just one season out of the year.

And therein lies the problem.

As stressed by Bill Chameides, Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, the environmental issue cannot—must not—become just another fashionable trend. Trends fade, and when a cause becomes a fad, its days are effectively numbered and it is then only a matter of time before people tire and loose interest.

No one doubts Barney’s good intentions, and indeed, any kind of effort to build awareness is well worth the time and effort! Here’s hoping that the current Go-Green Bandwagon riders stay on the wagon … and here’s also hoping that they realize it takes a lot more than wearing the right kind of t-shirt to save the planet.

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