Founded by Isabelle QUÉHÉ, the Parisian Ethical Fashion Show® is a European event centred on Ethical Fashion. More than just a trade show, ETHICAL FASHION SHOW® seeks to be a unifying event where the fashion industries’ various players meet.

The fashion presented at ETHICAL FASHION SHOW® is based on solidarity and is dedicated to fostering development. It is a trend-setting fashion, respectful of people and the environment. Today all fashion is concerned with this phenomenon, from the haute-couture world to streetwear, every trend benefits from the influence of ethical fashion.

Linda Row, Founder of Clothworks and also an exhibitor at the Ethical Fashion Show, reports for PK her 'Pick of the Bunch' from this years Show!

The Ethical Fashion Show in it's third year, has a growing attendance of both press and buyers. The exhibitors are a mixed bunch, with interesting stories behind their labels, all adhering to fair trade principles but environmental animal rights issues seeming not of paramount importance to all. You can therefore wander up to someone selling real fur and very non-organic cotton next to a jewellery designer who creates their own pieces from seeds and fruit peel in the Rio de Janeiro countryside. The Ethical Fashion Show seems to have spawned a number of ‘ethical’ fashion fairs and there is now also an ethical fashion section at Prêt a Porter in Paris.

Marcio Alves Jewellery

Carol (Caloli in Chinese) and her partner Zheng Qing, went to China in search of traditional medicine plants. Whilst there they noticed some wonderful skirts in a local market, Carol asked where the skirts came from and was given an introduction to the Bouyei tribe in Guizhou, one of the poorest regions of China. In Guizhou they make these traditional skirts for special ceremonies. They are made from locally grown organic cotton, mixed with unknown fibres from local plants that produce linen like fabric. These are then dyed with indigo - also made by local family production. They are pleated by hand and bashed with a piece of wood to retain the pleats; finally being immersed in a solution which give them stiffness – a bit like Elizabethan ruffs.

These garments are beautiful and can be worn as skirts or wraps. Some of the wealthier members of their society possess ten, worn one over the other. Caloli and Zheng are dedicated to supporting this community and maintaining their tradition, which would otherwise die out.

Marcio Alves is a jewellery designer living in Rio de Janeiro. He creates his pieces from natural materials like seeds and fruit peel. Off for days in the countryside, he returns to Rio with a rucksack full of pods containing the seeds to create his jewellery. The finished pieces have strong colours and forms and are truly original.

POSCH Vintage Bag

Lucy Beaulieu from Canada is an eloquent campaigner. She makes shopping bags from recycled bedlinen (well cleaned) - in order to avoid the production of plastic bags - and reusable shopping bags made from new cloth. She also makes T-shirts from cut up old ones, which are then printed with political images.

One of these images is the piping plover bird, a reference to the fragile members of the earths eco systems, as the coastal habitat of the Plover is changing due to climate change.

Emmeline 4Re is an English label making clothes from textile waste. Emmeline spent two years looking into waste and landfill schemes. She then decided to create a collection of unique pieces made from diverted textile waste. The clothes have an eclectic style, which although very modern, have a historical flavour.

	Anneke Copier

My neighbour at the show, Soochi, was a lovely girl from Calcutta promoting fair trade. Having witnessed the horrific circumstances of tailors in Calcutta, she produces modern designs using traditional Indian textiles. These include fabrics that are made from miss-printed off cuts, shredded into strips and woven into beautifully textured cloth.

The Craft Felt Makers had created strange and wonderful garments that the catwalk show producer loved. Anneke Copier from the Netherlands uses strong colours and felts onto pieces of silk chiffon, resulting in amorphous pieces with transparent sections of silk. Whilst Colette Robin from Belgium makes huge coats from thick felt, which compliment taller persons with their height offsetting wonderfully the depths and size of the coats. Although Colette has no training in pattern cutting, her clothes are folded and wrapped around the body with great panache. I particularly liked her cream felt boots that fastened down the back of the leg.