Hudson Valley Sustainable Fashion Week 2026 at Stone Ridge Orchard

Golden light settled over the apple trees at Stone Ridge Orchard. A slight breeze pushed long, wispy clouds across the sky, carrying the sweet smell of apples beginning to rot on the ground. Crickets chirped; a dog barked. Models of different ages, sizes, and skin tones sashayed through the rows in flowing garments: a pink satin slip dress beneath a sheer floral robe; a button-down patched with lime green and burgundy; a blue checkered skirt paired with a Peter Pan-collared blouse; a two-piece set of embroidered vintage fabrics that billowed in the wind. There were no flashing lights, high heels, or pounding beats, just the clicks of cameras and rustling fabric. 

Two hundred and fifty attendees of the fourth annual Hudson Valley Sustainable Fashion Week (HVSFW) lined the Organic Runway, lounging on picnic blankets lining the catwalk. The crowd was as eclectic as the runway collections: New York City fashionistas in head-to-toe black, a Brooklynite in a tutu and neon graphic tee, a middle schooler in leopard-print leggings and an oversized blazer, and an older gentleman in a fedora and loud orange jacket. 

Yet the atmosphere was remarkably calm. Even backstage, models sipped tea, had their makeup done, posed for photographs, and chatted with family members before lining up to walk. The September 25 show was a collision of fashion and farm, inspired by French designer Simone Porte Jacquemus’s hot pink runway running down a lavender field in Provence in 2019. 

“We’ve been fed this story that we have to go fast and hard, take what we can, and leave no prisoners,” says Kaitlyn Murray, HVSFW founder and creative director, and owner of Kingston fashion boutique Maison Après. “But humans are innately part of nature.” 

Runway Rooted in the Land

This year’s HVSFW runway showcased eight local designers, whose garments used at least 90 percent repurposed materials. The following day’s inaugural Slow Fashion Fair was postponed due to rain. The new date and indoor venue will be announced on social media. The fair will celebrate textile circularity, fiber craft, and slow fashion through live demonstrations, workshops, vendors, music, clothing swaps, and mending materials. 

The idea isn’t simply to make fashion less harmful, but to change the way people think about their clothing. In a culture built around novelty and microtrends, HVSFW offers a different model: look at what already exists, learn how to repair it, and support the people and systems that keep materials in circulation. The Organic Runway makes that philosophy tangible, turning castoff wedding gowns, antique textiles, old suiting, and other overlooked materials into something desirable without pretending they’re new. “We see the abundance of clothing that already exists, and we want to inspire individuals and the industry to reimagine and reuse those materials,” Murray says.

HVSFW has already organized clothing swaps with the Newburgh Farmers’ Market and mending workshops with Repair Cafe in Irvington. Murray sees those efforts as part of a future in which the nonprofit builds a larger funding network to enable year-round swaps, repair events, and potentially a free store.

Murray came to that perspective after studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology and spending eight years at Hermes in New York City. She was formulating her own brand, La Vie Apres L’amour, on the side, when she came across a 2020 National Geographic story about the dramatic improvement in air quality during India’s Covid lockdown. With factories shut down and transportation reduced, pollution levels dropped, and people in northern India reported seeing the Himalayas through skies that had been obscured for decades. NASA satellite data later confirmed that aerosol levels in the region had reached a 20-year low for that time of year. 

“The Earth can heal herself; we just need to help her,” Murray remembers thinking.  

By the end of that year, she had launched her brand online. In 2021, she left Hermes and moved back upstate after 11 years away. What came next was less a business plan than a series of connections. 

Planting Fashion Week Seeds

In fall 2022, Murray joined the Hudson Community Incubator, where she met Joanne Louis-Paul. During New York Climate Week and Fashion Month, Murray was frustrated by the disconnect between the industry’s growing conversation about sustainability and what she actually saw on the runway. “I wish there were a sustainable fashion week in the Hudson Valley,” she told Louis-Paul. 

“Well then, let’s do it,” Murray’s soon-to-be business partner replied.

The first HVSFW event, “Spread Love, Not Trash,” was a discussion at Co in Rhinebeck in February 2023. Connections to local designers and Marist College’s fashion program quickly followed.

That September, HVSFW held its first runway at Rose Hill Farm in Red Hook, and returned there for three years. This year’s move to Stone Ridge Orchard supports another Hudson Valley farm and introduces the event to a new community. Murray envisions a future sustainable fashion week that moves throughout the region, from Beacon and Newburgh to Kingston, Red Hook, and Hudson. 

Something Old, Something New

Meg Knudsen, the designer behind KNUD, returned to HVSFW this year as an independent designer after showing as part of the Marist student collection last year. “Continuing to discover myself as a designer on my own time in my Newburgh studio apartment has been both challenging and rewarding now that I don’t have the structure of school,” Knudsen says.

Their 2026 collection, “Frankenstein’s Bride,” began with a problem they encountered while working in vintage and consignment shops: wedding gowns. Shops overflowed with never-worn dresses, their “extreme” 1980s silhouettes leaving them stranded on the racks. So, Knudsen deconstructed and rebuilt the garments into unconventional bridal pieces, with exposed seams, undergarments, textures, and hardware left visible enough to suggest their previous lives. An Edwardian bedspread became a skirt and top, using the material so completely that there was no scrap left over. Knudsen largely avoided traditional patternmaking, instead draping the garments or working from pre-made patterns, reducing the amount of material required.

Clare Herron, founder of Clare Bare and Hidden Gem in Hudson, began her collection with a similarly antique box of trims and fabrics that had been sitting in a friend’s mother’s attic for generations. She merged those materials with her collection of vintage fabrics for a final collection of lingerie-inspired layers, belts, slips, and robes in colors and textures designed to stand out against the orchard’s earth tones.

“Wearing lingerie styled as clothing sends a signal to the world about who you are,” Herron says. “It doesn’t have to be overtly sexual, more so about feeling good and at home in your body.” 

She began making one-of-a-kind pieces from vintage fabrics in her Brooklyn bedroom 18 years ago. As business grew, so did pressure to mass-produce and expand. Herron moved production to a Los Angeles factory for a decade, experimenting with sustainable materials, deadstock, and surplus fabrics. “I grappled with the pressure to scale up while remaining sustainable and creatively inspired,” she says.

Eventually, Herron returned to self-made garments, with made-to-order core styles available online. “That’s the most sustainable way to produce anything new,” she says, “though it takes time and patience.” 

Slow Living

Murray has grown wary of the word “sustainability,” which she feels has become so ubiquitous that it’s lost its meaning, instead favoring “thoughtful” or “slow living.” She says HVSFW isn’t asking everyone to dress alike or adhere to one prescribed version of ethical consumption, but to consider where a garment came from, what it’s made of, whether it can be repaired, and what happens when its first life is over. 

Murray’s own 2026 collection, “Work Softly,” follows the same philosophy. After years grinding in corporate fashion and building her own business, she’s embracing a gentler lifestyle. Some of that softness comes straight from her wedding this summer, for which she upcycled two looks. Murray incorporated scraps from her wedding dress—including pieces from her mother’s dress—into the collection. She transformed a silk robe and scarf into a two-piece set, and reworked men’s suiting, continuing an idea she explored last year when she transformed a pair of trousers into a dress.

“It feels insane,” she says of both organizing and walking looks at HVSFW. “But I didn’t want to show in isolation. So much of the fashion industry is competition and vying for attention, and we’re in this together.”

As the final looks walked the runway, the sky flamed peach and purple over the orchard. Guests drifted down to the tavern for pints of hard cider and more mingling. After an evening spent rethinking what clothing can be, the show ended where it began: among the apples.

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