Runway to Green Designs Hit Net-a-Porter

Stella McCartney design; Anna Wintour and Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet

If you’ve passed by Michael Kors’ new Madison Avenue boutique recently, you might have noticed that one of the window mannequins is currently dressed in a grass-inspired skirt. In fact, like many designers, Kors has been feeling green lately and so, in an effort to raise awareness about the environment, he has joined Runway to Green in its mission to bring together some of the biggest names in fashion for a very worthy cause. Each of the initiative’s participating brands was asked to create a design to be sold in retail stores and online on Net-a-Porter with a minimum of 10% of net proceeds going to benefit Alliance of Climate Protection, Natural Resource Defense Council, and United Nations Environmental Programme’s Billion Tree Campaign.

Runway to Green kicked off on March 29 at Christie’s New York in Rockefeller Center with a live auction and a fashion show of the designs, capped off with a performance by Nicki Minaj.

In line with Runway to Green’s mission, each of the designers made a commitment to try to integrate sustainable manufacturing practices into their production.The participating brands included: Prada, Gucci, Balenciaga, Burberry, Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, Diane von Furstenberg, Manolo Blahnik, Oscar de la Renta, Stella McCartney, Jason Wu, Alexander Wang, Tory Burch, Derek Lam, Notte by Marchesa, Marni, Michael Kors, Rachel Roy, Rag & Bone, Thakoon, Osklen, Pringle of Scotland, Aurora Lopez-Mejia, Tabitha Simmons, Kara Ross, Sergio Rossi, Timex 80, and Tommy Hilfiger.

All Runway to Green pieces are part of each of the participating brands’ Fall 2011 collections, so Net-a-Porter has quite the covetable exclusive as they have the full lineup of items already for sale on their site, allowing shoppers to get their hands on them months before they hit retail outlets.

Countless boldface names attended the New York City event – often Twittering furiously throughout – including Anna Wintour, Diane Kruger, Rachel Roy, Karolina Kurkova, Angela Lindvall, and Graydon Carter – so it’s little surprise that a number of the items have already sold out on Net-a-Porter.