Summer Rayne Oakes

Biography

Summer Rayne Hyacinth Oakes (born June 1984) is an American fashion model, environmental activist, author, and entrepreneur, known as the first "eco-model". Oakes grew up in rural Pennsylvania, where her concern for the environment began early. She studied ecology in college, where she noticed that scientific papers on the environment received much less attention than popular media. She became a model in New York City, and insisted on only modeling clothing made from organic or recycled materials. These principles cost her work, but gained her notice and the title of first "eco-model". Besides modeling, Oakes has worked as a writer and editor for fashion magazine Lucire, as a television reporter for environmental network Planet Green, and has written three books: Style, Naturally, a shopping guide to eco-friendly fashion and beauty products; SugarDetoxMe, a book of recipes to remove free sugars; and How to Make a Plant Love You on raising plants in an urban homestead. She also co-founded an award-winning web site, Le Souk, formerly Source4Style, which connects environmentally conscious fashion designers to ecologically friendly fabric producers. She lives in a loft apartment in Brooklyn which she has filled with over 1100 plants, and formerly a pet chicken, who has now passed.

== Early life == Oakes was named Summer Rayne due to being born during a downpour in June 1984. Oakes's concern for the environment began early: while growing up, she would post photographs of appliances and dead animals left alongside local roads, hoping to shame the owners into removing their litter. While she attended Lakeland High School, she also worked at the Lackawanna County Conservation District biosolids program, which applied treated sewage sludge onto farmland. After graduating, Oakes earned scholarships, including a Udall Scholarship, to Cornell University, where she studied natural resources, ecology, and entomology. There she jointly published two papers on sludge toxicity and contaminants, but she was frustrated by how she couldn't communicate the relevance of her work beyond a narrow audience of scientists, and noticed how much more attention advertising and media received. In 2003, while a student at Cornell, Oakes became involved with "The Organic Portraits Project", a project to produce a book of photographs about humanity's connection to nature by New York City photographer John F. Cooper that had been put on hold due to the September 11 attacks. Oakes applied for and got a National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology fellowship for the project, which was instrumental in moving the project forward. The book Organic Portraits: A Photo Book of Polaroid & Film Images was published in 2015.

== Career ==

=== Model ===

Oakes began modeling in New York City during her sophomore year in Cornell. Within two months, she was working for lingerie company StockingGirl. When she graduated in 2004, she moved to New York City to model full-time. The title of world's first "eco-model" was first bestowed on Oakes by Grist Magazine in their 2006 Earth Day issue, since she models only clothes made from organic or recycled materials. The moniker has since been taken up by multiple newspapers in the US, UK, and Canada. These principles lost her multiple campaigns and her first New York City modeling agency contract, before she signed with Faith Kates of Next Model Management, who approved of them. In 2007, Oakes was profiled in Vanity Fair's "Green Issue", and was featured in a CNN video interview as part of the series "Young People Who Rock". In 2011, Oakes represented Aveeno beauty products in creating a temporary "pop-up" forest in Times Square. She also appeared in an environmental short film, eXtinction, which was shown at festivals around the world. She was photographed for the 2013 Pirelli Calendar by Steve McCurry. In 2012, designers for the Toyota Prius C said that they created the subcompact hybrid electric vehicle with Oakes in mind and named the "Summer Rain Metallic" paint color after her. Ironically, since Oakes lives in New York City, she does not drive.

=== Activist ===

Oakes says she sees modeling as "a conduit to get into socially responsible causes" such as fair trade and pollution from the textile and garment industry. Since 2009, she has worked to promote the Mezimbite Forest Center conservation project in Mozambique. She spoke about fair trade and the textile industry at the Hong Kong World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 2005 and attended the 2012 "Rio+20" United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, where she was profiled by the magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme. She teaches others to grow plants in a Brooklyn neighborhood community garden.

=== Writer ===