Aveda

E C O T U R E ™

In 2004, after a year living in Brazil, designer Deborah Milner approached the hair and beauty company Aveda to collaborate with her on a groundbreaking sustainable couture project. The US company, who have an impressive environmental track record agreed to finance and mentor the collection of 11 dresses each of which researched a different aspect of sustainability. The Aveda project, which became Ecoture, was the start of a long collaboration between Deborah, Karen and eventually ao textiles. Ecoture saw the development of some ground breaking sustainable textiles that included natural dyeing, marbling, weaving and embroidery. Following their work on Ecoture, Karen Spurgin, Penny Walsh and Emma D'Arcey went on to found ao textiles in 2006.

The collection was described by British Vogue as "elemental like sunsets and storms" proving that couture could be both beautiful and sustainable.