Supermodel Elsa Hosk looks like she walked out of a 1950s movie, filmed in the south of France. Elsa is wearing tailored must-haves from her new Helsa Collection — created in the mood of Katharine Hepburn and lensed here by Yulia Gorbachenko [IG]

In 2016, on the icon’s 109th birthday, Vanity Fair wrote “The Most Daring Thing About Katharine Hepburn? Her Pants”.

Of course, Hosk’s own collection feels very modern, in an updated retro kind of way. There’s a lot of Grace Kelly glamour in these images.

Writing about the debut of Helsa last August, I said: “Hosk is keeping this launch like a quiet ebb. The Scandi beauty has always stressed the importance of sustainability and it would be shocking if she doesn’t create sustainable products.”

I will learn to stop speaking about our top models launching collections with a strong nod to sustainability — because of course they will. LOL

Many of the Helsa pieces are made with Recover, a recycled, heavy-duty cotton. Bravo. I love Elsa Hosk with my whole heart, but sustainability is not a strong message in Helsa so far.

Visually, yes, in that these clothes looks like they want to be sustainable. And I assume the next image down is using the Recover fabric — which looks great. But I only learned about Recover reading a Helsa discussion on Harper’s Bazaar, not the website.

To be fair, on Elsa’s [IG], she mentions her Helsa underwear inspired by '90s minimalist shapes in the softest organic jersey and eco rib.

Vogue Business had an excellent article today ‘Sustainable fashion is stuck in ‘pilot phase’.

“We are still stuck in the pilot phase,” says Bel Jacobs, former fashion editor and co-founder of the Islington Climate Centre. “The major players still believe that voluntary agreements and the tweaking of fabrications will be enough to address the crisis, despite all evidence to the contrary. Fashion needs to engage in a huge structural shift before it comes even close to appropriate action.”

Elsa Hosk is not alone, AND I am not critiquing her because she fronts sustainability brands whenever possible and AOC thinks the world of Elsa.

Sustainability is nowhere in Gigi Hadid’s Guest in Residence label. It’s in the marketing “Our mission is to create future heirlooms, knitwear designed to last . . . “ but that only happens when both customers and the business model of a brand consciously commits to asking people [indirectly, of course . . . but then again] to buy fewer of their pieces.

The point of the Vogue Business article is that no one wants to speak to that reality — although H&M has acknowledged that they know they must commit to producing fewer units — that recycled fibers alone won’t begin to get us where we need to go.

Pharell Williams has managed to make sustainability work for nearly a decade but it’s no after thought. This late November article about Williams’s Selfridge launch of his Humanrace skincare brand — which is totally sustainable unlike the glut of new brands that came to market in 2022 — shows how deeply invested and determined Williams is about sustainability. His work with adidas is also largely sustainable fabrics and packaging.

Also Candice Swanepoel in Tropic of C swimwear is as devoted as she can be to sustainable fabrics and packaging. Candice is always speaking to sustainability like Pharell.

To finish where we began. Elsa Hosk’s Helsa campaign images and the product itself look fantastic, as does she wearing them against this heavenly backdrop.

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