Yes it’s that time of year, when stocks of Champagne, canapés, skinny lattes and Smythson notebooks run low and the heels run sky high, as a buzz of fashion bloggers, journos and editors get busy looking at frocks in the world’s style capitals.

So far, so not very Slow.

But, hold on, it’s not all about what’s hot today and so not hot tomorrow. Slow fashion is afoot too. By Slow, we mean fashion that is created ethically and sustainably, whether that be a beautifully up-cycled jacket from From Somewhere or a vegetable tanned shoulder bag from Sonia Kashmiri.

These are probably names you’ve not heard of, right? There’s no shame in that. It’s still early days for ethical fashion, but the good news is that momentum is building. Just this season, in the UK, two new initiatives have launched which will see ethical fashion reach its broadest ever audience.

Ethical Fashion online

The first is a collaboration between the British Fashion Council, Estethica (the ethical fashion Zone at London Fashion Week, launched by the BFC five years ago) and fashion website Yoox.com.

To celebrate ethical fashion at Fashion Week, Yoox.com has created a special online retail space dedicated to seven leading ethical fashion designers. In Yooxygen, Yoox.com’s green space, you’ll find an Estethica section, and within it you can shop from the following ranges:

From Somewhere: Uniquely upcycled pieces made from old scraps.

Nina Dolcetti: Shoes to die for, that no-one has died for.

Environmental Justice Foundation: Famous for its designer collaborations on organic cotton tees that raise money for charity.

Sonia Kashmiri: Sonia uses veg tanned leather and organic cotton linings to create exquisite accessories.

Goodone: Upcycled pieces with a particularly urban edge.

Henrietta Ludgate: Henrietta focuses on using Scottish fabrics and manufacturing within the UK.

Max Jenny: Amazing outerwear in innovative shapes constructed with 100% recycled PET bottles.

EcoLuxe – ethical fashion week

The second initiative is the launch of a whole new space, alongside London Fashion Week, called EcoLuxe, showcasing even more ethical collections. Featuring Autumn / Winter 2011′s collections, it’s not open to the general public, but the good news for ethical fashion fans across the globe is that this season’s London Fashion Week is attracting some very high profile fashion editors, who might spare ten minutes to cast their eye on the world of Slow fashion.

Hey, if Anna Wintour pops into EcoLuxe today, and chooses to give just one brand a mention in US Vogue, it will be time for eco designers, and not just the fashion press, to enjoy a glass of Champers or two.

[Image: Goodone]

If you visit Varanasi, the cultural capital of India, you will experience the mystic hustle and bustle of pilgrims and slow-moving boat wallahs on the banks of the ochre-hued River Ganges. Yet, alongside the commotion is a vast peace of silk emporiums, a token tribute to an age old slow tradition of community weaving within the region that once clothed the Indian Maharajas and the Dalits (low caste) alike.

For 1,000 years, weavers willingly surrendered themselves in spiritual reverie to the quality-focused techniques of hand-looming within the city’s twisted alleyways, where kilometres of refined, luxurious thread would hang forth and feed the streets.

The silk, sometimes created in a co-operative partnership between two weavers, would be opulently embroidered with gorgeous motifs of myth and nature such as marigolds, swans and griffins through binary systems (perhaps the origin of computer’s today) and often enhanced with gold or silver (zari) thread.

Oscar de la Renta once commented that, ‘”Silk does for the body what diamonds do for the hand.”

However the fast pace of modern life, the adoption of mass production and the acceptance of “poor-quality, cheap machine-silk has substantially impacted the brocade craft and its unique results.

“Many looms are lying silent today and many have even been sold off. As the traditional sari has been pushed to a side of the wardrobe of the modern woman, so have these weavers been pushed to the fringe of their community.”

This lost craft has erupted into discord for the 150,000 remaining weavers, forcing them into a vulnerable life of unemployment, who often migrate to hard labour away from their skill and home.

Yet there is hope of revival through The Varanasi Weavers Project, which is re-training weavers and bringing the old craft up-to-date and making commercially viable. Moving away from the myriad spectacle of colours, the collection offers Western sophistication with classic colours of blacks and natural shades, while entwining clean-cut contemporary designs with the traditional aesthetic in order to make it more desirable.

The famous Varanasi embroidered “Zardosi” buttons crafted by village women, that has been long-applauded for its fashion finesse is also being revitalized, while the pure silk fabric has also been made lightweight, colour-fast and machine washable.

“We believe that these weavers have magic in their fingers; they are not asking for pity.”

Showcased to audiences at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris in Autumn 2008, it is hoped that the project, of which now encompasses 60 weavers working in three Dalit villages around the city, can expand its aesthetically-charming and socially vital grassroots industry.

Photos:  Varanasi Weavers Project