Fashion-Conscience crops up at Camden Green Fair

Dithering around Noho on Sunday afternoon happened upon a signpost for the Camden Green Fair and Bike Fest, an annual festival dedicated to all things green, taking place on Cumberland Green in Regent's Park. Thinking it would be perfect preparation for Glastonbury (and let's face it, a pleasant stroll in the park win hands down against weekend shopping on Oxford Street, easy), trotted up Portland Place to check it out.
The pervasive scent of summer grass and damp mud certainly cemented the festival feeling. While munching our Spicy Mexican burgers from the vegan/veggie stall which seems to make it to every festival going (I have been known to harangue them at the now defunct Bristol Community Festival for runnng out of said choice), we checked out a live music stage, a Mad Hatter's sustainable tea party, stalls, learnt about home composting(!!), and perused plants from Herbal Haven - which didn't have enough pennies for at the time, but apparently can be ordered via their website. There was a vibey, deep drumming band entertaining a troupe of 40s-style tea dancers - unusual combo, but hey, it worked!
The whole event was kick-starting the three-week Love London Festival, a series of events all over the Big Smoke designed to encourage us all to live a little greener. I learnt this when their cutesy hearts-and-butterflies branding on their stand pulled me in like a satellite crashing to Earth. I am such a girl. As a real bicycle aficionado, I signed my I Move London pledge to cycle, walk and use public transport more - well, okay that's kind of what I do anyway, but it doesn't hurt to let the powers that be know, huh?
But my intended focus of this post was to mention that while traipsing the regulation clothing stalls (retching at the Peruvian cloaks - sorry Peru) I happened upon a friend of mine who last year quit her job as a celeb editor on a top women's glossy to pursue her dream of setting up an ethical fashion venture. You may have come across her website, called Fashion-Conscience - I know I keep seeing mentions in Grazia, Marie Claire and all the best titles. All the labels she stocks are ethical and often organic or recycled (there's a key so that you can see clearly what its attributes are - handy) - too many labels to choose one, but among the highlights of the options, I love the gorge vintage jewellery by Rachel Essex, especially the kingfisher and heart combos; breezy, shiny Ciel; slick, sexy tailoring of Danish label Noir, who have launched ethical line Blaak and whose LFW show in Feb was ultra glam; and of course the tongue-in-cheek Pants To Poverty, which are a great alternative to sweatshop designer briefs.