Recycling luxury |

I’m not sure if Yves Saint Laurent fans have been rejoicing and celebrating in the last few days, but YSL’s designer Stefano Pilati unveiled today the limited capsule collection entitled “New Vintage”.

The special thing about it is that it is a supposedly eco-friendly and sustainable collections since it features a few classic designs reworked with leftover fabrics from past collections.

The collection – sold exclusively at Barneys New York and with prices ranging from around $500 to over $4,000 – features trench coats, dresses and separates in embroidered and plasticised cotton drill, and also a bag and a pair of flat sandals.

Though it’s good to see a big fashion house going “green”, you wonder why and how such a house never thought before about reusing fabrics from previous collections for other projects. The other thing you feel like wondering is if the fabric could have been used to make limited yet more affordable pieces.

The trend nowadays seems indeed to produce eco-friendly yet exclusive clothes and accessories that only a few people can really afford, or presenting extremely rare vintage pieces.

Yoox Vintage recently put online a selection of items by Emilio Pucci taken from private collections or found by expert vintage sellers, that includes some quite beautiful pieces from the 60s, from peacock print mini-dresses to a wonderful bikini top plus shorts in a bright yellow, white and orange print that reminds a lot of Pucci's Palio print, recently acquired from LA vintage expert Cameron Silver. The selection is definitely aimed to a high-end market with prices going from €250 to over €1,000. I guess if you're looking for an eco-friendly/recycled bargain, you might as well forget about YSL and Pucci.