London: Home of Green Fashion?

When it comes to fashion week, London has never had the pure style bloodlines of Milan or Paris, or the money of New York. The fashion crowd came to London for two things: edge and parties.

Thanks to the recession, the parties have been toned down, but the edge still remains. London is at the forefront of green style, but not shapeless hippie organic cotton dresses and clumpy vegan shoes. We're talking beautiful clothes that anyone -- green aware or otherwise -- would love to wear.

London Fashion Week's Estethica (make that estETHICa, if you're still puzzling over it) green showcase is in its sixth season, but this year the British Fashion Council signaled its commitment by making it an opening show on the first day. Sponsored by high street brand Monsoon -- which uses vegetable dyes and local crafts -- Esthetica has grown from 13 exhibitors in its first outing to 37 at this year's fashion week.

On Friday, Feb. 20, as models wearing clothes made partly from recycled materials minced down the catwalk and the fashion pack sipped champagne, the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) launched its Sustainable Clothing Action Plan. It's a series of green pledges from 300 stakeholders in the fashion industry -- among them heavy hitters like Marks & Spencer -- to tackle disposable fashion and expand the development of sustainable textiles.

Dressed in a crumpled new suit, Lord Hunt, the U.K.'s Minister for Sustainable Development and Energy, pointed out that London Fashion Week was the only fashion trade event in the world with a dedicated exhibition for eco-friendly and fair trade clothing.

Next up: Noir, a sexy Danish label (motto: "do no harm") that easily upends every ethical clothing stereotype. All black leather and inky blue satin, the show featured high-waisted leather pencil skirts, wasp-waisted coats and pretty draped tops with antique sequins. All this and -- according to designer Peter Ingwersen – the clothes are dyed in Swiss factories that clean the water so well afterwards it can be drunk. Do no harm indeed.

Some other standouts

• Nina Dolcetti, whose luxe shoes are made entirely from reclaimed materials. Dolcetti is practically eco royalty -- she's the daughter of the founder of From Somewhere, West London's hip recycled fashion shop. Dolcetti has left behind last season's candy-colored brights for shiny mock-croc and sophisticated neutrals.



• The very traditionally English Eloise Grey, who reworks 30s and 40s shapes -- think fine tailoring -- with the weavers of the first certified organic tweed on the Isle of Man. As is fitting, her love of tweed -- and books -- Grey's collection has pencil skirts named after writers Rebecca West and Antonia White and jackets named Alice Toklas and Evelyn Waugh.



• People Tree -- the pioneers of 100 percent fair trade fashion -- once again attracted big name designers for collaborations. Karen Nicol -- an alum of Chanel, Chloe and Givenchy -- produced hand-knitted sweaters and cardigans that feature pretty floral designs with hand-painted petals, while design duo Eley Kishimoto contributed cute, patterned dresses. And Bora Aksu -- in his fifth collaboration with the label -- designed a red silk dress that more than rivals Noir in the sexy sweepstakes.



• Elena Garcia, a Spanish-born Londoner whose couture mixes organic and recycled materials. Her signature is felting on silk, and she's all about glamour – she has prices to match (think $1300 for a white silk jacket). "People are not just going to spend money on something because it's organic," she says. "We can't compete with China and the big money factories, so we'll make something so beautiful that people will want to buy it no matter what."

Courtney Rubin is a London-based writer whose articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Time, Marie Claire and other publications. A former senior writer at Washingtonian magazine and a staff writer for People, for work she has travelled to six continents, reporting on topics ranging from Afghanistan and the Asian tsunami to the Cannes Film Festival and the wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Her book The Weight Loss Diaries – based on her popular monthly column for Shape magazine – was published by McGraw-Hill in 2004.