Big City Small Footprints

BCSF spent last Thursday night at Shoreditch Town Hall surrounded by celebrities, cocktails and clothes at the RE:Fashion Awards, the world’s first ethical fashion awards. Founded by Anti-Apathy, the Ethical Fashion Forum and Futerra Sustainability Communications, RE:Fashion’s mission is to “transform social and environmental standards in the fashion industry within a decade.”

Eleven awards in three different categories: Designer, Making a Difference and Innovation, were presented by a slew of VIPs including Sam Roddick, Guardian journalist Lucy Siegle and Whistles CEO Jane Sheperdson.

From Somewhere, the upcycling label that uses luxury designer offcuts to create one of a kind pieces (watch out for our forthcoming feature on them) was one of the big winners of the night, picking up two awards. Co-founder Orsola De Castro was overcome with emotion as they beat out formidable competition from People Tree and Junky Styling to win the night’s biggest award, RE:Designer of the Year.

Online eco-boutique Adili scooped the RE: Retailer award, and Marie-Claire won the judges vote for the RE: Consumer Awareness Award, in recognition of their June 2008 ‘Eco-chic’ issue. Cristina Cisilino, of Made UK, the Fairtrade jewellery brand that works with marginalised Kenyan communities, accepted the RE: Africa award for the best practice in manufacturing in Africa, and expressed hope that more companies would start looking to the continent as a viable manufacturing base.

A highlight of the evening was the Iconic Catwalk event - designers like Vivienne Westwood and Preen used fabrics sourced from Africa through a UN ethical fashion initiative called ‘Africa Inspires’. Modelled by the offspring of rock royalty – Pixie Geldof, Daisy Lowe and Leah Wood - Preen’s kikoy (a Kenyan sarong) dress stood out in particular as a relevant example of high-end ethical fashion.

Telegraph Fashion Editor Hilary Alexander (who judged the awards with panelists including designer Katharine Hamnett and Anna Orsini of the British Fashion Council) ended the evening on a note of optimism stating that with these Awards, “we are on the way to making ‘eco’ eternal.”

Will events like this push ethical fashion into the mainstream? A recurring comment we heard throughout the night was that the clothes were beautiful, but probably very expensive. People we spoke to at the Awards, who were by and large the converted, didn’t necessarily aspire to own any of the fashion on show, just to admire it from afar. Ethical fashion, just like ethical food, does tend to cost more, especially when compared to some of the disposable fashion on the high street. But as the number of ethical fashion brands out there increase, so does the range of price points.