Is fashion wearing out the world?

It's a big week for ethical fashion, with Lucy Siegle's long awaited launch of her book To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World?, and the fifth birthday celebrations of London Fashion Week's Estethica.

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The ethical fashion movement comes of age this week. Livia and Colin Firth are hosting the book launch tonight of Lucy Siegle's book, To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World? The book is a thoroughly researched, hard-hitting (and occasionally depressing) look behind the scenes of the fashion industry, focusing on the environmental and social impact the industry is having on the planet. Siegle, who has been assisting Livia Firth on her Green Carpet Challenge highlights the people who are part of the long chain who all contribute to the making of our clothes, from the farmers who plant the cotton and herd the goats to the machinists who sew our dresses and T-shirts. A farmer in Gujarat gets 13 rupees for 500 grams of cotton, while a pair of designer jeans weighing 500 grams sells in the west for the equivalent of 1500-1700 rupees.

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In pictures: Livia Firth's green hits on the red carpet

There are some moments of light. I love the idea of Choolips , whose clothes are pictured here, a company that works with batikers and tailors in Ghana. Siegle paid £70, placed her order and then followed her dress for two months as it was being made from the printing of the fabric, the cutting of the pattern and the sewing to the finishing and final packaging. Each part of the dress's journey forms a kind of blog which is sent to you so you can be part of the whole process. 'I can't think of anything more different from the fast-fashion experience,' Siegle writes.

Siegle was also in attendance on Friday night with Livia Firth for the launch of Fashion's Fairer Footprint, an initiative set up by LSE Students' Union Fashion Society ' to build awareness about sustainable fashion and beauty, and inspire future industry leaders'.

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And tomorrow sees the 5th birthday party of Estethica, the British Fashion Council initiative to help promote sustainable, responsible fashion at the industry's cutting edge. Estethica's designers include Goodone, Ada Zanditon, Junky Styling, Noki and From Somewhere whose designer Orsola de Castro is also the show's curator and a passionate campaigner.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, will be attending the party to launch his own green initiative, Greening London's Fashion Industry, outlining 'straightforward ideas to save money and the environment'.

To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing out the World? is £12, published by 4th Estate.

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Livia Firth is green queen of the red carpet

The dress which Livia Firth, Golden Globe winner Colin Firth's wife, wore on the red carpet at the weekend was outstanding, in many respects - not least because it was a glamorous example of eco-chic.

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The dress was made from hand-dyed indigo 'peace' silk, also known as 'ahimsa' or 'vegan silk', and it was designed by the American 'eco warrier' of fashion, Jeff Garner, a poet and former mover and shaker in the music industry, who is now a regular star on London Fashion Week 's stage. It was, in fact, at LFW in September, where Livia first became aware of Prophetik, when she attended Garner's spring/summer 2011 show with fellow eco-campaigner, Laura Bailey.

Check out Livia Firth's 'green' red carpet hits

"We both loved the romance of Jeff Garner's gowns. There is nothing 'Granola' or worthy about the way they look. I really appreciate the way Garner is able to approach problems in the fashion chain, like the heavy chemical pollution associated with dyeing, and come up with a considered response. His understanding of ecologically-intelligent fabrics and processes, is extraordinary, as is his respect for the natural world."

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Garner set up his fashion label, Prophetik , in Franklin, Tennessee, an old American Civil War town, nine years ago. His designs are sustainable, made from organic cotton and corduroy, hemp, flax and 'Greenspun', which comes from recycled bottles, and dyed with plants and herbs from his garden; indigo for blue, for example, as in Livia's gown; marigold for gold; and yurba mate, for silver. Past collections have also featured splatter-prints, 'painted' by elephants in a southern Thailand sanctuary affiliated with the Asia Elephant Art Conservancy project.

Apart from Livia Firth, Prophetik's Planet Earth-conscious designs have also been worn by Cameron Diaz, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Sheryl Crow, the Kings of Leon and the Jonas Brothers.

Although it was Livia's first outing in a Jeff Garner Prophetik design, it was one more fashion step forward in her 'Green Carpet' challenge. She started the project in September 2009 when Tom Ford's movie, 'A Single Man', for which her husband received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, opened the Venice Film Festival. On that occasion, she wore an ethical blue cocktail dress by the ex-Central St Martins designer, Sara Shepherd, and vowed she would henceforth only wear eco-fashion on the red carpet.

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She has proved resolute and re-created herself as 'the green queen' of the red carpet, turning heads with her subtle, sustainable approach to glamour, a head-turning contrast to the heaving cleavage, corsetry, de luxe embellishment and extravagance which is the Tinsel Town, awards gala or film premiere norm. For the Golden Globes in 2010, she chose what the American fashion press called a "re-purposed", ie. recycled, wedding dress, by Christiana Couture. She walked the red carpet for the Academy Awards in Hollywood that year in a dress by the From Somewhere founder and designer, Orsola de Castro, and more recently, chose a design by Junky Styling for the Paris premiere of the acclaimed movie, 'The King's Speech'.

Many of Livia's favourite eco labels are long-established names at London Fashion Week's Estethica exhibition, which she is a keen supporter of, while Jeff Garner's Prophetik shows under the banner of the Vauxhall Fashion Scout new talent programme.

She is far from a stranger to the eco fashion movement, having opened her own one-stop eco-shop in Chiswick in 2008. Komodo , Outsider, Article 23, From Somewhere , and Made jewellery - for whom Livia has recently designed - are among favourite brands, and the store also has occasional '12 Degrees of Fashion' pop-up shop events to showcase designers who are working in a sustainable way.

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"Quite rightly fashion has attracted attention over labour rights and its environmental footprint, but there are also some amazing skilled designers with a stunning aesthetic and vision, but who also prioritise the environment and social justice. I wanted to help give them a platform.

With Colin Firth tipped to win the 'Best Actor' Oscar at this year's Academy Awards, Livia will definitely be at his side on the red carpet. We may not know yet what she will wear. But of one thing we can be certain, it will be 'green'.

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edited by:Tiffany Jewelry