Last week I went to London to a seminar on Ethical Fashion.  It is nice to know that at last the fashion industry is getting a conscience...well beginning to. There are some sobering facts for you:

•  in 2000, 1 trillion dollars was spent on fashion, and 1/3 of that was in Europe?
• 1 million tones of clothing is put in land fills every year and the figure is growing.
• When you take clothes to a charity shop, 1/3 is sold in the shop, 1/3 is put in land fill and 1/3 is bought by an exporter who sells it in under-developed countries.

So what can we do to be more responsible?  Two ideas for you:

• Take the clothes you are bored with (but are still in good condition) and swap them with someone else. When lots of people get together to do this, it's called a swishing party.  Watch this space as we shall be having some!
• Take an old garment, or two, and make it into something new.  If you are not confident at sewing, ask a freind to help you.  If you want some inspiration go to http://www.junkystyling.co.uk . They do some very funky re-designing, as it is called.

If you have a favourite shop that you love shopping in but you don't thing it's ethical, rather than feeling guilty, ask them what they are doing to be more responsible.  The retail trade know that happy customers is good business, so tell them that you care about where and how clothes are sourced. Keep telling them, they will have to listen eventually!

I can away form the seminar realising that feeling guilty and never buying another piece of clothing (as if I could manage that!) is not what it is about. It's about everyone taking small steps and making small changes that they can stick to, or as a friend of mine says, 'You eat an elephant one bite at a time!"