Just because an object of clothing is green, doesn’t have to automatically mean it’s made of hemp, or shapeless – or any number of the other decidedly non-fashionable attributes that tend to get associated with eco-friendly fashion. "I’d love to see the day when we’re no longer divided into ethical and nonethical fashion," Orsola de Castro, designer of the eco-enlightened label From Somewhere recently told WWD. De Castro recently helped curate Estethica, the British Fashion Council’s nod to "ethical fashion" at The Exhibition @ London Fashion Week, focusing on fashion that - while green, eco-friendly, and fair trade - was primarily about good design. "Of course, being ethical sets limits, but that encourages creativity." Rather than guilting people into buying green, the Esthetica designers are employing a stealth approach: use cool design - rather than guilt - to further the cause of ethical fashion. "It was more important that my work is a fashion statement so it can provoke real change. That way we can show that sustainable can be beautiful," says Deborah Milner of London’s Ecoture - financed by the Estee Lauder brand Aveda - which produces custom-made evening wear from naturally-dyed fabrics that benefit indigenous communities. "I feel like Rumpelstiltskin," joked Katharine Hamnett, (referring to spinning straw into gold) about her new Katharine E Hamnett line which fulfills almost any eco- & fair trade-friendly criteria possible. (Prices range from around $60 for a tee, to $160 for trousers, and just under $300 for a dress.) Adds de Castro – who will be opening a new store in spring 2007 featuring garments fashioned from fabric remnants salvaged off of other designers’ cutting room floors: "Everyone recycles. It doesn’t make you a hippie."

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