Image courtesy of British Fashion Council

This February nine new labels will take to the catwalk for the estethica exhibition at London Fashion Week. They join founding labels Noir and Bllack Noir.

The British Fashion Council created estethica three years ago to showcase the growing movement in London of cutting edge designers devoted to working in sustainably.

estethica, sponsored by Monsoon, continues to grow in strength and, from its first season of 13 designers, is now a collection of 37. All estethica designers adhere to at least one of the estethica principles of Fairtrade, organic and recycled and are selected for both their ethical credentials and design excellence.

The new labels joining the estethica exhibition include:

Butcher Couture, whose range of sunglasses is exclusively made in France, using only organic vegetable tan leather and hand finished with Oeko-Tex certified threads. The philosophy behind the leather eyewear range is ‘high fashion, high standard with low impact to the environment’.

Eloise Grey, who has found the inspiration for her first estethica collection in the fine tailoring of the 1930s and 1940s and the work of writers such as Evelyn Waugh and Antonia White. Her aim is to make fine clothing that embodies stewardship of the land and respect for the garment makers.

MIA, is a collection of clothing, from designer Mia Nisbet, that fuses recycled fabrics with traditional Malawian textiles to produce a collection that combines the richness of African textiles with Western styling.

Raeburn Designs. Christopher Raeburn states his garments are all ‘Remade in England and produced in East London’. His trademark is the use of fabrics sourced from de-commissioned European military stock.

Reet Aus, founded her own name label in 2005 with the ethos ‘slow fashion, beautiful clothes’. Her latest collection is made from recycled jeans – a garment which, as the world’s most popular fashion garment, normally makes up a large percentage of waste.

estethica is a British Fashion Council initiative co-curated by the British Fashion Council and Orsola de Castro and Filippo Ricci founders of From Somewhere. Hilary Riva, Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council, said:

estethica was established to show the amazing creativity and diversity of designers working in ethical fashion. Three years on, the number of cutting edge designers working in this way is increasing and estethica continues to promote their work to media and buyers interested in this growing sector of the industry.

Orsola de Castro added:

estethica is high end fashion without compromise. It is a celebration of the talents and commitments that are pioneering a new definition of luxury; a new concept, a new alternative, a new idea and a new breed of emerging labels that are inventing a new language that brings pride with purchase.