Oscar Fashion: Livia Firth In Upcycled Gary Harvey Gown

by Michael dEstries February 28, 2011
Categories: Fashion
Tags: colin firth, livia firth.

The big reveal finally happened!

Livia Firth debuted her absolutely stunning Gary Harvey gown at the 83 Academy Awards this evening — an incredible 11 reclaimed dresses in one.

As mentioned earlier, Harvey used only pieces from the era of “The King’s Speech”, the film for which husband Colin Firth is nominated for a Best Actor award.

“Gary is all about authenticity so wanted to be sure we get the right fabrics and the right vibe,” she wrote earlier on her Vogue UK blog. “Every element – including zips, corsetry and the original toiles – is recycled. The only thing that we’ve used that is new is the thread that actually stitches the dress together.”

Beautiful! In addition, Livia also wore the world’s first certified fairtrade gold from jewelry designer Anna Loucha.

More gorgeous photos of the famous couple getting ready over at the Vogue UK site here.

photo credit: Jason Olive

About Michael dEstries

Michael has been blogging since 2005 on issues such as sustainability, renewable energy, philanthropy, and healthy living. He regularly contributes to a slew of publications, as well as consulting with companies looking to make an impact using the web and social media. He lives in Ithaca, NY with his family on an apple farm.

View all posts by Michael dEstries →

Leonie

While I applaud the use of fair trade accessories, I am seriously disappointed in the dress. There is very little to applaud in Gary Harvey destroying eleven perfectly good, and increasingly rare, 1930s vintage gowns (360 Degree Vintage confirmed they were their “best” gowns, not already damaged or unwearable) to create one dress. Recycling/Upcycling is not “eco” when re-using is still an option. Why not wear an original vintage gown, or only upcycle those garments that are so damage that they are beyond wearing, or use ethically sourced fabrics to make a 1930s pattern? So many other options available, instead all this particular proves is that if you’re a red carpet designer you can afford to destroy the very best to make an “eco-statement”. Very disappointed indeed.
Kristine

I cannot agree more with the previous poster. Why destroy 11 (ELEVEN!!!) perfectly wearable items for ONE gown that will likely never be worn again??
“Green” shouldn’t have to mean total destruction of the past.
I appreciate her dedication to the cause of sustainability – but as someone who is desperately and constantly searching for original (and oh, so rare!) 1930′s garments, I can’t tell you how despondent I was upon reading this story.
Please – don’t destroy perfectly good vintage for your modern needs. That also goes for those “vintage” sellers who are hacking up 40′s & 50′s dresses into “mini” length, without regard for maker/label or importance.

Simply irresponsible.
Gary Harvey

Most of you are making valid points regarding the preservation of good vintage pieces, as a vintage collector myself, I have respect for clothing of all eras, I travel the world and know how hard it is too find those ‘perfect’ pieces, there’s a lot of mediocre garments out there.

The main problem with most of your feedback is the assumption that 11 ‘perfect’ dresses were destroyed to make 1, it’s best to check the facts before making these assumptions.

As stated previously the dresses were from or inspired by the era of the kings speech and of the 11 dresses used none were suitable for Livia to wear at the Oscars, they were either too distressed, very damaged, stained, too small, sun-bleached or simply a great fabrics in really unremarkable slightly worse for wear gowns.

I have no qualms about the dress, and the 11 dresses used to make it, I’m happy other people care about clothing vintage too and I’m glad I’ve done my bit to raise awareness of up-cycling and vintage clothing.

Thanks Gary

http://discordthreads.artfire.com Kelleyanne Wank

Surprised at the negativity here. I think the dress is lovely. And I don’t think it matters if the dresses were in perfect shape, or if they were distressed and stained. If they were in great condition, photos could be taken prior to deconstructing them, so you would always have the photos as history. But if these 11 dresses weren’t being worn at all, regardless of condition, then now they have a new life and are getting some use! As an upcycler I appreciate your design!

elise

Well, as written above, fact-checking revealed that those dresses were some of the best dresses 360 Degree Vintage has to offer, but now that you are faced with negative feedback, they were all ‘very damaged’ etc ?
But I’m sure you have lots of pictures of all those stains and holes to back your story up? I’m sure all of us would love to see those!