"I use hemp silk charmeuse a lot, which is smooth, silky and clings to the body," Lorna Tallowin, a fashion student at Nottingham Trent University recently told WWD. "I want to prove that clothes can be sexy and sleek and beautiful and still be ethical." Typical of the up & coming generation of fashion tastemakers, many designers of tomorrow not only use eco-friendly fibers like hemp, but they seek them out. "There's a huge awakening among fashion colleges," agrees Safia Minney of ethical fashion brand People Tree, who has partnered with Nottingham Trent to produce various student designs using karmically correct fabric. These days, many students are flocking to courses on sustainable development and ecology & ethical production being offered by New Academy of Art in Milan, and the joint British fashion school project with Labour Behind the Label, Fashioning an Ethical Industry. "I wanted to wear clothes made in an ethical and responsible way, but like many people my age, I wasn't fully prepared to sacrifice my style," explains former Nottingham Trent student Rachel Plant, who went on to create the Annie Greenabelle label. Similary, after learning about fair trade issues at London College of Fashion, Erin Tabrar helped created Amana (Arabic for "delivered in trust"), which contributes to carbon emissions reduction initiatives and creates garments from organic cotton, hemp and silk. Other successful ethical fashionista concerns include Green Knickers, founded by Goldsmith University eco-design graduate Sarah Lucy Smith, who crafts lingerie and other sexy unmentionables from hemp & silk.

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