Make Cotton Sustainable

NEWS REPORT / GUARDIAN

Ethical Fashion Takes The Ramp Around The World

The Ethical Fashion Show, devoted to sustainable fashion, is now in its seventh year and becoming increasingly mainstream with over a hundred brands represented reports Kate Carter for the Guardian.

The clothes on display range from the impressive but quirky - a jaw-dropping couture dress made from recycled film stock – to the more wearable and commercial, like 50s-style skirts in organic cotton and silk from French/Vietnamese brand All, and British company Terra Plana's recycled leather shoes.

This year the show has been taken over by Messe Frankfurt, the world's largest trade show organiser – a sign that despite the recession, ethical fashion is still a growth market.

Ethical fashion is increasingly moving into the limelight - Mintel estimates that despite the recession the market has more than quadrupled in the last five years, to around £175 million in the UK alone. Last week saw the first sustainable fashion show at London fashion week, as well as a vibrant and busy Estethica showcase. But the organisers of this show are determined to make Paris the capital of ethical fashion - as well as couture and pret-a-porter, says the report.

SO CRITICAL SO FASHION, taking place in Milan from the 27th september to the 2nd october, will bring together fashion and “ethical consumerism” to create a new lifestyle, says Fashion & Runway This event, organized by Terre di mezzo Eventi in cooperation with Isola della Moda, will star brand new fashion brands, independent designers, social responsible and environmental friendly enterprises, working to conjugate trends and innovation.

According to the report, there is an increasingly widespread attitude among consumers towards buying “critical” therefore making a choice not simply in terms of aesthetics, styles and trends, but also considering the ethical standards of dresses and accessories: kind of fabric, environmental impact of production and distribution, working conditions, sustainable innovation, local roots linked to ancient traditions, etc.

The project was the result of a conviction: the fashion needs of new values and new practices  must be consistent with contemporary environmental and social needs and therefore can not break free from the impositions of the twentieth century marketing and consumerism, say the So Critical, So Fashion Organizers.

Montreal’s ethical and equitable Fashion Salon Modethik, now in its fourth edition, joined Montreal Fashion Week  (MFW), on September 28, reports ecouterre. Over the past three seasons, Modethik has provided 60 socially and environmentally focused fashion brands with the opportunity to make their mark locally and internationally. This partnership between an NGO and a Fashion Week, is the first of its kind in North America, following in the footsteps of those developed in London and Paris in recent years.

During MFW, Modethik will feature a fashion exhibit and talk about ethical fashion. Following this will be a collaborative fashion show featuring nine sustainable designers, Cherry Bobin, Croquis, El Naturalista, Harricana, Myco Anna, Nicole Bridger, Rachel F., Ressac and Olga Tigirlas. A section will also be reserved for these ethical fashion designers in the MFW Showroom.

In London, the sustainable catwalk organized by the British Fashion Council organized for the London Fashion Week marked the first time room was made on the official fashion-week schedule to showcase ethical designers, says ecouterre. The catwalk featured established designers like Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney, as well as smaller but rising labels such as Junky Styling, People Tree, Henrietta Ludgate, and From Somewhere.

Read the Full Articles:

Sustainable chic hits capital of fashion in the Guardian

So Critical, So fashion in Milan in Fashion & Runway

MONTREAL EVENT: Ethical Fashion at Montreal Fashion Week in ecouterre