NEW YORK - As an escape from the economic meltdown that's seeping under the hemline of high fashion, Manhattan is looking back fondly at some of couture's halcyon moments. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the "Model as Muse" exhibition demonstrates how iconic models influenced fashion from 1947 to 1997. Across town, the International Center of Photography is paying homage to the late Vogue photographer Richard Avedon in the largest retrospective of his work since 1978.
Both shows are lavish, flawlessly curated affairs, but have a desperate air of clinging to an opulent, devil-may-care period in fashion that no longer exists. When Christian Lacroix files for bankruptcy, Dior scales back its Paris runway show, and Anna Wintour makes nice with Morley Safer on national television, it's clear that a fashion apocalypse is upon us.
Which is why it is almost a relief to see the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum looking to the future of style rather than the past. Its current exhibition, "Design for a Living World," presents a single challenge to an eclectic list of fashion and product designers: Make things of beauty out of renewable materials - even materials that are otherwise regarded as throwaway.
Among the 10 participating designers are fashion bon vivant Isaac Mizrahi, who stitches up a dress of dried salmon skins, handbag magnate Kate Spade collaborating with Bolivian weavers, and jewelry designer Ted Muehling, who trades diamonds and gemstones to work with sustainably harvested pearls and vegetable ivory, which is a seed with a color and texture that resembles elephant tusk.
In many ways, the Cooper-Hewitt exhibition, which is presented in partnership with the Nature Conservancy, makes some very safe choices. Taking well-known and talented designers and asking them to create with unique materials will inevitably result in beautiful and unusual objects. But there is a key "a-ha!" moment revealed as Mizrahi discusses his work with salmon skins.
"Who knew that salmon skin could be so resilient?" he says in a video interview that accompanies the display of his dress. "I always think of salmon skin as something you peel off your food - but in fact it's a beautiful substance."
To get tastemakers such as Mizrahi thinking about using renewable materials in their projects is key to making changes in the ways that the fashion and design industries approach their work. To date, there have been a handful of big-name fashion designers who've played with eco-friendly fashion, and there are several up-and-coming designers who design exclusively with green materials, but these have felt more like graduate school projects than viable business options.
Mizrahi has no plans to put his salmon pelt dress, jacket, and matching shoes into mass production, but the caviar egg of an idea has been planted. Perhaps instead of selling the winning look from "The Fashion Show" on Bravo, he should be thinking of selling salmon skin mini skirts.
Not all the eco-friendly projects in the exhibit successfully combine style with sustainability. Kate Spade designer Paulina Reyes's purse looks ready for the discount bin at Ten Thousand Villages, and Ezri Tarazi's bamboo poles, refashioned into lamps, CD holders, and speaker stands, look like something that could have been found in Thurston and Lovey Howell's hut on "Gilligan's Island."
Other than the fundamental gee-whiz success of some of these projects, it's encouraging to see designers showing honest-to-goodness enthusiasm for their work. When discussing his project, graphic designer Abbott Miller can hardly believe his success with his gorgeous Bolivian plywood chair, which looks like it would cost a small fortune if it were for sale at Design Within Reach.
Downstairs from the "Design for a Living World" exhibition, the Cooper-Hewitt is showing how another unlikely material - felt - can also be used in innovative ways in its "Fashioning Felt" exhibition. Designers work with the ultimate renewable resource, scraps of wool, to create everything from sophisticated felt pantsuits to cutting-edge felt seating. True, these pieces don't always have the beautiful lines of an Avedon photograph, or the glamour of a Versace evening dress at the Metropolitan exhibition, but they do offer a realistic and enthralling glimpse into what future style may look like.
"Design for a Living World" runs at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum through Jan. 4, 2010.
Christopher Muther can be reached at muther@globe.com. 
