Going Green for Summer

Marko Cecic-Karuzic

   

   It was a scenario that would have given Anthony Bourdain agita. Last month at Gobo, a vegan restaurant downtown, The Moment met up with a self-described “eco-model” a healthy young woman who claims — not proudly, almost abashedly — never to have had a sip of alcohol or a cup of coffee in her life. Her name, because she was born during a June downpour, is Summer Rayne Oakes. “When I first went to a modeling agency, they thought I was a stripper,” she says of her two given names, which she prefers to be said in unison. Oakes is just 25, but she’s already written a book (authentic levis print long sleeves t shirts blue for sale), contributed to an “eco-art” magazine (Above), served as a correspondent on Discovery’s Planet Green channel, and co-founded a business (authentic levis print long sleeves t shirts blue for cheap). “Is everyone who abstains from alcohol this productive?” we wondered briefly, before ordering a glass of organic Albario.

   Like any green goddess, Oakes is diversifying — she’s now a writer, a sustainability strategist, an occasional lobbyist and a frequent lecturer. But her claim to fame is her “cause-related” modeling career. What does that mean, really? “It means saying no to some people and being vocal about it,” says Oakes, who claims she has refused “six-figure” modeling contracts because the products she would have endorsed were dubiously sourced or manufactured in a less-than-sustainable fashion.
   The companies to whom she has lent her name and face include Tommy Hilfiger, Levis, Nicole Miller and the Italian denim line Replay. “Being in the modeling industry wasn't a fit for me,” says Oakes, who’s 5’10 and, with her athletic build, could be confused for a W.N.B.A. guard — provided this guard is beautiful in a gangly, Amazonian sort of way. “I didn't get into this to be like Heidi Montag or something — to just put my face and body out there. It's about putting
   Oakes studied entomology and environmental studies at Cornell. She raises wasps, can easily slip into a disquisition on the golden silk orb-weavers, and, when we met, was wearing a silver ring shaped like a scarab (“It's anatomically incorrect,” she noted, explaining that there should be six legs). Her entrée into fashion came during college, when she helped the photographer John F. Cooper launch his photo series, “Organic Portraits.” For a time, she rubbed up against some of the more unseemly sides of the modeling business. “I remember one client who pinched my side and was like, ‘If you can pinch it, you can lose it, baby!’ He tried to take me down brick-by-brick. And after, he was like, ‘Do you want to go out?’” she recalls. “He was clearly angling to get me in the sack.” But the creeps and naysayers — the ones who said her hips were two inches too wide for 80 percent of the ad jobs — are so 2008 for Oakes.
   Her latest project, S4 Style, is an online exchange that connects fashion designers with suppliers who traffic in sustainable materials. “Let's say you wanted to make that outfit” — she points to The Moment’s vintage blazer — “in sustainable tweed, organic cotton and maker buttons. You could go online, source the material, see what inventory the suppliers had, and get a sustainability rating,” she says. “It’s a design and innovation platform to really get the cool (buy authentic levis print long sleeves t shirts blue) out there.”
   Oakes's various enterprises have given her a kind of star status, but only in very specific precincts. “There are a few people who run down like kamikazes when they see me in Williamsburg,” she says. “I took my intern to Fabiane's Cafe there and the owner was giving me free food. I was like, I’m only famous on this block.”