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Sustainable fashion has come a long way since the days of stiff, oatmeal-color basics. Last night, a swarm of starlets converged on the arc-shaped, John Lautner–designed Garcia House on Los Angeles’s Mulholland Drive to fete H&M’s 2018 Conscious Exclusive collection—a range inspired by the exuberant, nature-influenced home and work of fin de siècle Swedish artists Karin and Carl Larsson, and modeled in the campaign by Christy Turlington Burns.
Launching April 19 in stores and online, the retailer’s newest experiment in low-impact, organic, and recycled materials could fool even a seasoned fashion editor into thinking it was something else. Suiting in ornate metallic jacquard is woven with I-can’t-believe-it’s-recycled polyester. Lace is spun from Econyl, a new fiber made from used fishnets and other nylon waste. Graceful, weighty drop earrings and hoops with a sculptural tulip motif are fashioned from silver melted down from old candlesticks, flatware, and coins. It’s a hint of what’s to come from the mega-chain, which plans to phase out all conventional cotton in its clothes by 2020, and rely solely on ecologically improved fabrications by 2030. Given that the company’s sales last year hit nearly $28 billion, and that it is the world’s largest consumer of cotton, that’s more than a marketing play.
The brand could hardly have chosen a more fitting ambassador for its social-impact initiatives than Turlington Burns—mother, maternal-health advocate, and living legend. At 49, the founder of the nonprofit organization Every Mother Counts has an innate grace that has only deepened with time. What’s striking about her in person, beyond the expected swanlike poise, is the sheer force of her smile—the result, no doubt, of her longtime devotion to both wellness and public service. Before the event, Turlington Burns spoke to Vogue over tea in a glass-walled room overlooking the Hollywood Hills.
What drew you to this project?
I have worked with H&M in the past. It sounded interesting, exciting. Initially, I had seen sketches of what things looked like, but to wear and experience it is something else. When you feel the material of the dress I’m wearing [Tencel, a fiber spun from farmed eucalyptus pulp using a nonpolluting processing technique], it’s supersoft. It’s always a bonus to me when there is some component of sustainability or a product line is natural or has good practices as a business. Those things are important because I don’t do very much [modeling] anymore. But personally—as a woman, as a mom, as a consumer—those are the things I’m interested in, too.
What are some of the things you do to reduce your environmental footprint?
I think the same things as most people who are somewhat aware or active in their communities. My kids are learning at school, so they’re teaching me as well. They’re 14 and 12, so they’ve had a strong recycling program in the school for a long time. I like to buy things I’m going to hold on to for a long time. I don’t buy a lot. I don’t need to have the latest everything. I think that part of being responsible, too, is not always being so hungry for what else is out there. I don’t upgrade my phone all the time—I’m just not that kind of person.
There does seem to be a tech backlash brewing right now.
You have to have a balance, I suppose. There’s a lot of good that can come of it, but it’s incredibly depleting, and we don’t know what the long-term effects on our health are—looking at screens, the radiation, just electricity all the time. There’s a big movement [against it] among people I know in New York. It’s so interesting when you’re in a city that seems so not connected to nature, but I feel like it is. It’s on a ley line.
A ley line?
It’s got a really natural strong pulse of energy underneath it. Places throughout history and around the world, sacred places, places of worship: There’s some energy that brings people to that place, whether it’s the magnetic field or the kind of rock that it’s on.
I’ve heard that New York sits atop a bed of crystals.
Yeah, I’ve heard that. You wouldn’t normally think that Stonehenge and Manhattan are similar, but apparently, they have similar kinds of energy beneath them. People are like, “Manhattan, all that concrete, how do you get to nature?” But I feel it. I have a friend who does acupuncture who is always talking about how to be grounded. We’re so far removed from having our feet on the ground and in nature. I don’t know a whole lot about this theory, but New York feels natural; it feels right to me.
You grew up in Northern California. Do you spend much time on the West Coast nowadays?
My mom immigrated when she was 8 and grew up in East L.A.; Griffith Park and that area was where I grew up, coming to visit my grandma and cousins. I used to spend so much time here, but I haven’t been in two years.
What are you working on these days?
I am 100 percent Every Mother Counts. I have been since I started it; it has been almost 10 years since I made the film that led to the organization. I always had an active role, but a couple of years ago, I stepped in as CEO. It went from a full-time preoccupation to being every waking moment, and every sleeping moment, too. It’s like my third child. We have a staff of 15; the majority are in New York, two are in D.C., and one is out here.
We do a lot of film and content around the topic of maternal health. Most of our funding goes toward access and improving the quality of care, mostly for underserved women—but honestly, any woman could benefit from having more knowledge and a better experience. Transportation has been a focus. A lot of people are like, “What do you mean, transportation?” In underdeveloped places, you can physically be very far from reproductive health care providers—even in this country. Making sure women are able to actually get to care in a timely way is a focus of ours, and we’re supporting some legislation along those lines.
How is the current political climate affecting your mission?
I mean, funding-wise, it doesn’t, because we don’t receive funding from any governments, and a lot of the grantees we support are mostly not reliant on the whims of the administrations. I think if anything, people are becoming more engaged, knowing that it’s going to take more individual action—it’s empowering to know that if you care about something and you have an opinion and you have a voice, that you’re able to do something.
Is maternal health care facing any specific legislative threats?
In New York state, in terms of abortion care, it’s very precarious. And what you will see are more maternal deaths when women are not legally able to have that care. You’re seeing it already across the country in states like Texas. Women are having to travel a lot further to get that care. But also, not giving more young women the education about sexual and reproductive health in school when they really need it and should have it—that’s been pretty static for a while, and it has a terrible impact on so many people’s lives. And then obviously, there’s health care and what will happen with Medicaid, what will happen with the Affordable Care Act. This just makes it more clear that small organizations and individuals can help fill those gaps. There are enough people out there who can come together and actually make sure that care stays as consistent as possible for those who need it the most.
We are at a moment when women are reclaiming their power. What do you think about the wave of reckoning in the fashion industry brought on by #MeToo?
I mean, it was bound to happen, right? I think a lot of bad behavior has been tolerated for a long time in every part of society. It’s good to have the lens on certain industries to have answers for it and have a little bit more transparency and responsibility.
Did you encounter any bad behavior as a young model?
Not personally. I mean, I was never approached; I was never put in an uncomfortable position; I was never singled out.
You started quite young, yes?
I was 14, 15. But I always had a grown-up around in the beginning, and then at the point when I didn’t, I had enough attention on me that I probably was not so touchable. So, I feel lucky. As a young woman—and my daughter’s around that age now—walking through the city, when I first got to New York, you could not walk down the street without catcalls. And I’m sure it happens now, but it doesn’t happen everywhere. Or you feel like at least if you responded, other people around you would also agree that it’s not appropriate. But I feel like there was a time where it was sanctioned. Some people think that with women, they have a right to all kinds of opinions about our bodies.
But I think from that exposure of seeing how men can be as a young person, that just becomes the end of your innocence, really. Not that it’s normalized, but you do grow a thicker skin to that kind of behavior. So, I’m sure there are things that I probably was uncomfortable with at the time, but you kind of forget. Which is the beauty of right now. Because hearing other stories allows you to go, “Right, well, maybe that wasn’t appropriate, what I saw or what I heard.”
How do you approach this moment as a parent of middle school–aged children?
You hope for yourself, but you also hope for your daughter that you don’t have to have those extra worries. And then I have a son, too, so it gives me an opportunity to also educate a boy about how to be respectful and considerate and how to acknowledge when somebody else is not, and how to defend somebody, and how to defend yourself. It’s an interesting time. It’s like Pandora’s box, but I think as things start to settle, it won’t go back to what it was. People are fired up in a positive way. We have to hope, right?