There are 15 of us standing at the top of
Vancouver’s
Grouse Mountain who look a little out of place. “I’m guessing you guys are not going skiing,” a woman in a fuschia snowsuit calls out as she snowplows by us. We are not. Myriam Laroche, the founder and president of
Eco Fashion Week, is wearing a sparkly beaded sweater. Designer Jeff Garner is sporting a silk neckerchief with a
pale pink hemp shirt and a leather vest. Garner’s muse, Morgan Bradley, is dressed in a shiny black blazer with cream wide-leg trousers, chunky black pumps—and no socks. (But she does have a parka!) We’re a well-dressed group on our way to dinner at Altitudes Bistro on the eve of Vancouver’s Eco Fashion Week. But before we taste the Ocean Wise salmon, we’re going to tour the world’s first commercial wind turbine, the Eye of the Wind, which provides up to 25 percent of the power for the Grouse Mountain resort area. To get there, it’s a bit of a hike—through the snow—plus a ride up a chairlift. “As you can see, there are lots of skiers,” says our guide Maddie, as she leads us up the mountain toward the Peak Chairlift. “Please stay to the left so we avoid them.”
(more…)