One Day of Ethical Fashion in London

London can surely be named one of the key cities in the world when it comes to green or – the British way – ethical fashion. I’ve just arrived last night and as the speed in London is accelerated, so has been my day…

- Starting with a nice stay at the home base of Sven, founder of the shoe brand Po Zu, one of the most innovative sustainable shoe brands on this planet. Recently, the brand is getting forward pretty well and you’ll definitely hear more of them soon..

- This morning I visited the launch of the Considerate Design Project by Professor Sandy Black, author of The Fashion Paradox and Director of the Centre for Fashion Science of the London College of Fashion. The project is aimed to create a technical breakthrough for new ways of mass customization, and combines technical and online innovations to offer new forms of customized production and in that way supporting the production of products that fit the consumer as a real alternative to the excesses of mass production.

- Lunch with Judith Condor Vidal from Trading for Development, who I’ve met a few years ago in Kenya and who’s working to promote fair trade in fashion for many years and a great linkage between small, fair trade projects in the south and the European market, and sustainable think tank thinker and blogger Sarah Ditty.

- On my way I passed on of the pop up stores of the sustainable shoe brand Terra Plana and the Junky Styling boutique. Junky Styling has been a pioneer in upscale recycling fashion and they’re selling their unique pieces all over the world now.

- For tea time I moved to the headquarters of the Ethical Fashion Forum at Rich Mix, who share a cosy stuffed office space with underwear label Pants to Poverty and the shoe brand Worn Again.

- This evening I visited the Ethical Fashion Social. A networking evening regularly organized at the showroom of the Foundation Agency, the major distribution agency for ethical fashion in the UK, with brands like Kuyichi, Komodo and Article 23 on board. Next to mingling, the evening hosted the presentation of three interesting fair trade projects, The Big Swap, a successful consumer campaign in the UK, the presentation of fair trade certified jewelry brand Cred, and the interesting story of the fair trade Panama hat company Pachacuti.

After one day of meetings, I get the feeling there’s a lot going on and the issue is still pretty vibrant. And, in London, the ethical fashion community is more and more interconnected with the mainstream fashion business.

To be continued…

- image by Po Zu -