PHOTOS: Summer Rayne Oakes Mixes Science, Environmentalism, and Fashion
For Summer Rayne Oakes, being a fashion model is about more than just walking a runway. She combines her love of -- and degrees in -- science and entomology with modeling as a means to promote sustainability and environmental awareness. Earlier this year, OnEarth talked with Oakes about why she prefers insects to outfits and thinks we should all wear fewer clothes. As Fashion Week descends upon New York City once more, we thought it was worth revisiting that discussion, this time in photo form.
Oakes graduated from Cornell University with degrees in environmental science and entomology, but by the time she finished school, she was already moving in and out of the world of fashion as well. She told us: "I realized as an undergrad that university research was only going to get me so far. I had been doing sewage sludge research and had a paper accepted for publication, but I knew it wasn't going to change federal regulations or even land-use permits. I decided if my work was going to get to a wider audience, it had to be somewhere other than the environmental industry. The most achievable thing to me seemed to be fashion."
Note: All images courtesy Summer Rayne Oakes.
