RE:fashion award winners announced at glitzy celeb filled occasion

Last night saw the ultimate event in ethical fashion with the RE:fashion awards held at Shoreditch town hall (just round the corner from our HQ, where Elton had his 60th) where all the hot ethical designers mixed with celebs such as Daisy Lowe, Pixie Geldof and Leah Wood.

Established designers Vivienne Westwood, Zandra Rhodes & Katharine Hamnett showed their support for the awards with their outfits, created exclusively for the event, being modelled on the RE:design catwalk.

RE: Fashion Designer of the Year was awarded to From Somewhere, (right) beating off fierce competition from Safia Minney of People Tree, and Oliver's favourites Junky Styling.

Izzy Lane, who rears her own sheep for her very British collections (shown below), walked away with New RE:Designer of the Year Award.

Other awards and winners included:
Fashion retailer Adili - RE: Retailer of the Year
Pioneering jewellery label Made - RE: Africa award
From Somewhere - RE:Use Award

It was the first event of its kind, though trends would suggest there will be more to come, following the Estethica area at London fashion week for the past 5 seasons which has been growing in size and quality every time.

For the full report check out glam Sarah from Greenmystyle who was right in there with the action.

Green Gods - but where's Oliver?

On their blog this week the Daisy Green girls announced their Top 10 green gods ("The men making ethics sexy")! I thought their choices were pretty interesting - although some of the top ten may well rightly deserve their place, the 'God' factor did seem to be a bit more 'Hollywood' than 'green'. It's great that celebrities can use their media draw to publicise environmental destruction and ways we can be more eco-friendly, but we should also celebrate the hard-working heroes on our doorsteps.

So I would like to nominate Oliver Heath as the 11th Green God. He's played a crucial part in bringing sustainable design into the mainstream through his TV work, has acted as a media spokesperson for both the Waste and Resources Action Programme and the Energy Saving Trust, and has written for the Observer and Friends of the Earth, Earth Matters magazine. By putting environmental thought into his design and architecture work he has helped emerging eco-friendly businesses, and even co-founded one of his own - EcoCentric!

An inspiration to us all, and in my opinion, well deserving of a place on the list.

Who would you nominate?

Oliver's book wins green award

Oliver launched his new book 'Urban Eco Chic' last month and it has already picked up an award. The ultimate onlne luxury lifestyle magazine Hot Brands Cool Places gave the book its Green Award.

Urban Eco Chic is a design-led guide to eco-decorating, helping interior designers, green builders, and homeowners make eco-friendly choices that transform the home into a sanctuary of sustainable style. The book is filled with loads of inspiring colour photographs and presents the visionary eco-style of green designer Oliver Heath, who believes in balancing the elements of nature, vintage, and technology.
Urban Eco Chic is also about achieving a balance between function and style, teamed with a conscious effort to reduce one's environmental impact. Urban Eco Chic combines the use of pioneering technologies powered by the least energy possible, sustainable natural materials that leave the lightest footprint and recycled or recyclable products such as vintage furniture and accessories.

Oliver is giving sneak previews of elements of the book on his style column on the ecocentric website.
Read the Hot Brands Cool Places review of the book here

Oliver will personally sign all copies of the book bought from ecocentric, and you can also request he add a special dedication - an ideal Christmas gift!

Congratulations to the Peoples Award winners

Congratulations go to the Zon hearing aid who won the Peoples Choice Award from Cooper Hewitt Design Awards

It was a hot contest, in which our Ovetto recycled recycling bin held its own. It was great to see over one fifth of the nominees were green or sustainable designs, showing that this sector can compete against the big boys in the design world - a trend that I'm sure will only increase over the years.

London is the fairest city of them all!

Today London will become the world's largest Fairtrade City. Almost 1,000 retailers and 600 catering outlets have signed up to stock fairtrade certified goods.

London is the 400th place in Britain to be awarded the status by the Fairtrade Foundation.

The Metro was happy to report that Boris Johnson said it was 'super news'.

It is great to know that people are sticking to their values despite talk of recession in the news. Sales of Fairtrade increased by 55% over the summer - word is obviously spreading about the message and the benefits these certifications offer to producers worldwide - and, of course, that it is often the highest quality product...

Having been a supporter of Fairtrade for years it is really exciting to see them becoming more the norm in households across the UK.

Design classic up for an award

We are very excited that Ovetto, our recycled recycling bin, is one of this year's contendors in this year's Cooper Hewitt Design Awards.

The competition gives people the chance to vote for their favourite example of good design.

We think Ovetto is not only a good design product. It's green, recycled, educational fun and practical.

At the same height as a 4 year old, it is the ideal little friend for a child with colourful doors and slots that beg to be pushed, pulled and played with.

So if you think the Ovetto is the best thing since Eero Saarinen (think Tulip chair) or Verner Panton, then go ahead and vote

It'll be a tight contest - check out who Ovetto is up against!

We'll let you know what happens when the results come out next Friday...