Wednesday 25 February 2009

London Fashion Week goes all eco....

My attention was grabbed by an article in the Guardian (reproduced here) which featured a whole slew of names showing their latest eco-friendly and/or fair trade designs on the catwalk this week. You could be excused for getting the impression that the whole British fashion scene has gone ethical (it hasn't) but nevertheless the breadth of designers showing their ethical fashions is truly encouraging.

Whether in a "eco-collective" such as the Conscious Designers Collective (it would be rude to suggest that London Fashion Week designers by nature spend most of their time unconscious) or Esthetica (a London based sustainable fashion initiative) or a snazzy underwear producer "Pants to Poverty" or ultimate recycled fashion in the shape of Junky Styling, there's clearly a lot going on.

In amidst all this, Defra (no not a fashion label, it stands for Deparment For Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, but you knew that didn't you?) launched its new Sustainable Clothing Action Plan.

"The Sustainable Clothing Roadmap has brought together over 300 organisations, from high street retailers, to designers and textile manufacturers to battle the environmental impacts of 'throw away fashion'. Companies and some of the biggest names in fashion have signed up to take actions to make a significant difference to the environmental footprint and social inequalities which blight some of the production and retail processes of consumer fashion."

It's good to see Continental Clothing (our supplier of organic t-shirts) and featuring prominently in a separate Guardian article on this initiative. Of course there's a slew of other bigger names in there, like M&S, Tesco and Sainsbury - they'll no doubt not be stopping selling throwaway clothing but at least will be featuring more prominently lines which are ethically produced and will last more than two washes.....

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