The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York opened the Eco-Fashion: Going Green exhibit today. The collection explores the sometimes friendly, sometimes catastrophic relationship between fashion and the environment.

This six month exhibit has more than 100 garments, accessories, and textiles from the 1800s through today. All of the items will demonstrate one of the exhibit’s six themes:

• the repurposing and recycling of materials
• material origins
• textile dyeing and production
• quality of craftsmanship
• labor practices
• the treatment of animals

Some of the pieces speak directly to the harm that’s been done by the textile industry. For example, two cotton dresses from the early 1800s “emphasize that cotton growing during this time drained soil of nutrients and depleted water supplies— environmental concerns magnified by the introduction of dangerous pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the 20th century.” And then there’s the green silk faille and chenille dress, circa 1865. The beautiful green color was achieved thanks to arsenic, a health risk to both the maker and wearer. Talk about dressed to kill!

On the other hand, as an example of eco-friendly textile dyeing, the exhibit features a dress from Costello Tagliapietra’s spring 2010 collection which makes use of our AirDye@ technology. The lush lava color is created using non-toxic dyes, no water, and all the printing materials are recycled.

If you don’t think you’ll make it to New York by November, Treehugger has a great slide show and we were there this morning and took some candid shots of our own.

The museum is located at Seventh Ave and 27 Street in New York. They are open Tuesday through Friday from noon until 8pm and on Saturdays from 10am to 5pm. Admission is free.

photo credit: The Museum at FIT

Last Friday evening AirDye® made its second appearance in a Costello Tagliapietra show during New York’s Fall Ready-to-Wear 2010 Fashion Week. (The plaid-clad duo also used AirDye in their spring 2010 collection.) We love working with Jeffery and Robert–they really know how to use color and fabric to achieve some of the best-styled clothing out there.

Of course, we’ve just got to share a few shots from the show, which unfortunately don’t do justice to what Style.com calls “their beautiful palette of desert-sunset hues.” Nor can you see how the duo plays up contrasts in the back of a piece, but we hope you’re as impressed with the collection as we are.

(photos from Coutorture/Getty)

So, now that you’ve seen some of the collection, here’s what a few of the fashionistas who were at the show said:

Women’s Wear Daily:

Going green never looked so chic, as Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra presented a collection of their signature softly draped and pleated jersey dresses and separates in a dusty palette colored by AirDye, a sustainable dyeing method.

Style.com’s Meenal Minstry:

Spiraled and compressed folds added substance and weight to one look’s waist, while on another the pleats seemed almost spontaneously draped around the body. The designers tried out an interesting new technique on their signature jersey dresses and tops, anchoring them with woven silk backs, usually in a contrasting color plucked from their beautiful palette of desert-sunset hues. But for all that, there was actually a gorgeous simplicity to this collection. It marked both a return to their founding vision and a step forward.

NBC New York’s Catherine Blair Pfander on The Thread:

Conceived in a sophisticated palette of rosy browns, golds, and a multi-colored circle print called “Ghosts” (developed by AirDye, which developed a technique of dying fabric without water), the collection was composed primarily of draped dresses and skirt-n-top sets, with a few metallic pants thrown into the mix.  We were digging the “secretarial geisha” vibe, driven home by messy top knots and orangey-red lips.

“The storyline is of this young girl embarking on her life, taking that trans-Siberian train from Russia to Japan.  It’s a young, hopeful attitude,” says Robert.

The clothes did feel youthful–and the styling cast a charming, naive glow to the collection–but off the runway, we think this will prove an utterly ageless collection, with pieces that mothers and daughters will swap.  These are clothes to make women feel beautiful and intelligent. Honestly, who wants to feel any other way?

Second City Style, blogger Carol Calacci:

You have to marvel at how these two burly bears could be the designers of such modern, clean, soft and elegant pieces for women. The intricate gathering, weaving and perfect draping included a lot emphasis on the backs of the dresses this season, which unfortunately you cannot see from the runway shots….I especially like their use of two tones together, which seems to be one of their trademarks, for example the whole back of a dress may be a darker tone of the front.

Ana Louisa on the Grown-Up Shoes blog:

This may strike you as strange while you scroll down this page (of photos): nothing dramatic is happening here. Nothing crazy or mind blowing. But to me, this show is perfection. The simplicity of it, the gorgeous draping, the simple but flattering cuts and shapes are utterly delightful. The prints are incredible but even the solid colors are gorgeous.

What do you think, are these pieces you’d wear? And is sustainability ever going to have a larger role in the fashion world?

The Costello Tagliapietra Spring 2010 show during New York’s Fashion Week was a sell out.  Behind the scenes, our team was delighted to see how, in just four weeks, Jeffery Costello’s photographs of sunsets and lakes were reinterpreted into rich multidimensional designs.

Colorep's Larry Levy (left), Robert Tagliapietra, Bonnie Julian, and Jeffrey Costello

After the show, the media also thought the new collection was a hit. Here’s a sample of what they had to say:

Costello Tagliapietra “went back to their roots with a marked focus on lovely drapes and lush color—with an added dollop of Earth-friendly fashion technology this time around.”
-Style.com

“Comfortable, gorgeous, eco-friendly designs? If that’s not beautiful, we don’t know what is.”
-Vogue

“The comfortable yet form fitting dresses — inspired by colors found in the natural environment — were breathtaking; reminiscent of grecian goddesses, curve-complimenting, and the idyllic attire for a warm Summer night.”
-Treehugger.com

“Everyone’s trying to do their part to ‘go green,’ but this season Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra turned out a collection of eco-friendly clothes, without sacrificing beauty and design…”
-Womens Wear Daily (WWD.com)

“The color palette was dazzling…CT used sun-bleached shades of orange, mustard, violet, moss green and taupe to spectacular effect — the colors grab one’s attention, but it is the dresses’ construction that keeps it….But perhaps the coolest element of many of the dresses was their fabric. In an enviromental-friendly choice, CT used exclusive fabrics from AirDye, a new technology that dyes and prints textiles without using any water.
”
-The Plain Dealer

Overall a small, simple collection, but the lush palette was entirely unique.
-NBC New York

“The colors were organic and intense. The innovative fabric of this season is AirDye”
-Second City Style

“…at Milk, Costello Tagliapietra, known for its gentle silhouettes and masterful draping techniques, thought about sustainability by debuting the ingenious AirDye technology which allows fabrics to be dyed without water.
”
-The National Newspaper, U.A.E.

“The sunset-hued fabrics, gorgeous and dyed with a special technique that uses no water and creates no toxins / waste.
”
-NylonMag.com

“Jeffrey Costello took photos of the lake and sunset in Brooklyn, and then he and design partner Robert Tagliapietra worked with Air-Dye to print the digital artwork on fabric without using water. The result? Absolutely stunning, colorful, earth-friendly fashion.”
-ThinkThruFashion

Now that we know what the media and the bloggers have to say, what you think of the collection?

We’re thrilled to announce that New York fashion design house Costello Tagliapietra has chosen AirDye technology to create an elegant, luminescent, fluid collection being debuted right now at New York’s Fashion Week. We’re tweeting and posting to Facebook as the show unfolds. We’ll post photos here soon too!