Fashionably Green

As London Fashion Week gears up,  it seems fashion now has a greener future. London Fashion week already  has a well established showcase for environmentally aware designers, Estethica, and now Livia Firth, owner of Eco Age, a green retail store in West London and actor Colin Firth's wife, has been busy publicising the Green Carpet Challenge, a campaign she helped set up to promote eco-fashion. Livia ensures that everything she is photographed in at premieres is made by designers who promote environmental and social justice, looking at designers who use materials with a low environmental impact and also assessing production techniques, supply chain values and even the end use of garments.  Green Carpet Challenge already blogs online with Vogue and triumphs last year included one dress designed by de Castro made from scraps of material salvaged from the skips of the world's luxury fashion houses. More support for the green movement in fashion comes from the UK's Ethical Fashion Forum and from the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at the London College of Fashion - and now includes jewellery as well as fashion. The Green Carpet Challenge pieces will be auctioned at Selfridges in London on March 31st as part of the Oxfam Curiosity Shop.Estethica, now in its tenth year, profiles over twenty cutting edge designers, chosen for their design excellence and commitment to working in a sustainable way are exhibiting this season and all adhere to at least one of the key Estethica principles of :- fair trade and ethical practice in the production process; the inclusion of organic fibres; the use of upcycled and recycled materials and fabrics.See more at http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/ and at  www.vogue.co.uk/blogs/livia-firth/  and www.oxfam.org.uk/curiosityshop