As the Primark story of child labour dominates the front pages,we tell the latest good news stories in ethical fashion...

TopShop celebrates reusing, recycling & restyling 23-29th June

TopShop have been promoting Fairtrade & Ethical fashion for a while now. From 23-29th June, the stores have come up with a joint campaign with Rubbish Magazine to promote a greener approach to our clothes. There is a special website, setting out ideas of reusing your clothes, there is a gardening workshop & a big TopSwap event on Thursday 26th June at the flagship store in Oxford Street, London.

Check out their website - for lots of ideas and details of what is happening in your local store.

Goodone launches new charity project - no blood - no sweat - great T shirts

Goodone are a fantastic ethical fashion company that takes old sweatshirts & T shirts & gives them a miraculous new lease of life :) They are launching a new project - with six of the country's top charities' to produce limited edition garments using the charities' old campaign t-shirts.

Amnesty International, Greenpeace, WWF, Shelter, Liberty and No Sweat, have all agreed to contribute to this exciting project. Goodone has designed an outstanding dress and hoody jacket combination for the initial garments. This is in keeping with Goodone's contemporary style of producing recreated fashions from recycled fabric.

These are directional designs with an urban sport look bringing sexy style to an aspiring market and are produced at the highest level of quality. Goodone's unique handwriting based on panelled designs, echoes the looks of the season in an understated manner.

The HEBA Women's project in east London manufacture the garments making the link between social enterprise and high fashion. Sponsorship has been secured from YKK. The garments are available to purchase on goodone's website www.goodone.co.uk. These limited edition designs will go on sale on the 19th of June, prices from £50, with all profits going to the charities involved.

Re:Fashion - Awards for the Eco Fabulous

This new ethical fashion award is the 1st for ethical fashion. With sponsorship from Eve Magazine, and Ozwald Boetang as one of the patrons, this new set of awards should be a great vehicle to spread the word on ethical fashion and seek out the people within the fashion industry who are really making a mark for ethical fashion.

Eleven award categories cover key areas of the fashion industry - with top marks for innovation, cutting-edge design, and driving positive social and environmental progress within the industry. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on 13th November but the entrants need to apply before midnight on 20th August.

All the information about categories and event is here

The Primark Episode

As Primark hits the news & is featured in the BBC's Panarama programme we have 2 features on this subject.

Primark admits to having some of their clothes made with child labour, after being confronted with evidence by the BBC Panarama programme. Primark stated that they didn't know the use of children was going on & have pulled all the related clothes from their stores & no longer trade with the affending factories.

Click here for full story from the Times online.

This immediate withdrawal of business from the factory brings up an interested debate around the issue of what it means to behave in an ethical manner. Fairtrade has always been about developmental steps and seeing year on year improvement. So is pulling out completely an ethical thing to do? Read an interesting letter from Carolyn Whitwell of Bishopston Trading on this issue found on the Times Online. (Bishopston Trading is a Fair Trade clothing company).

...and finally VISA swap...We mentioned awhile back the news of the 1stVISA swap event - publicised using the face of Lindsay Lohan. Well get ready to swap ladies as the event kicks off at Convent Garden, London.

Check out the website for the dates & the details - there are vans picking stuff up as well & the whole event goes on through June & July with the final swap week on 19th & 20th July. Men are allowed to join in! & on the final week there will be tailors on hand to help suggest moderations to the new swap items you might have. Good luck with your swaps :)

Want to dip your toe in Ethical Fashion ? We have some great offers onKuyichi at the moment. Not only do Kuyichi concern themselves the fairly trading of growing cotton, they are also equally concerned about the manufacting process and the conditions of the workers.

They believe firmly that it is possible to get high street/mainstream styles grown & produced under fair trade principles. Kuyichi is based in Holland and in that market they are as well known as Diesel.

Kuyichi is also special in that it is a brand that is co owned - by Peruvian cotton farmers, Triodos Bank and Solidaridad (the fairtrade company that instigated the whole brand).

We also sell Khusibu - a small brand from Nepal. Poonam is the designer. Originally from Nepal, she had worked as a designer in France before returning to Nepal to set up a clothing factory project called PAX. They then went on to develop the brand Khusibu.

They love hemp and eco dyes and strive to ensure that clothing factories remain in Napel in order to keep the tailors in work.

Other brands we like :) People Tree, Gossypium, Organic Stereo, Ascension, Howies, Goodone, Hug