A frock was just a frock until the "green thing" happened in fashion. But now a frock, trousers, shirt, even a pair of frilly knickers, can pose a string of moral questions.
And a growing green fashion movement is begging designers, manufacturers, retailers and particularly consumers to consider them all.
"It goes right back to the seed," says Katie Patrick, chief executive and founder of Green Pages — a directory listing environmentally responsible local companies that was launched online and in print late last year.
Already, fundamental ideas are changing among consumers. Owning a wardrobe stuffed with more clothes and shoes than a consumer could possibly need, for example, doesn't seem so glamorous any more. And the "glut" fashion culture among young consumers who shop for recreation and accumulate mountains of cheap, low margin, high volume import fashions that they soon discard or never wear, also seems on the decline.
Limited run, high quality, single designer and artisan fashion companies with responsible green policies such as top Australian designer Akira Isogawa's, on the other hand, are increasingly popular.
Although no accreditation system exists yet to mark out green fashion companies that have sustainable resource and energy use policies and that use certified organic fabrics, this hasn't stopped many companies using related accreditation systems, such as fair trade and the organic cotton industry's certification, to develop and market their own green future strategies.
Green Pages lists more than 6000 suppliers to the building, fashion and a wide range of other industries. "But our most 'clicked on' sector," Patrick says, "is fashion."
And one of its star listings is award-winning designer Lisa Gorman. Last year, Gorman hired an environmental consultant to oversee her company's carbon footprint, from the organic growers and mills she uses in Thailand and Vietnam, to her finished products.
Gorman is also involved with fashion's next generation. Christine Clark, RMIT's School of Fashion program manager, says 100 students will study practices at Gorman's factory and warehouse as part of their course.
â– Moorabbin textile mill the Speciality Group and the Council of Textile and Fashion Industries Australia are developing an industry-wide labelling scheme to recognise environmental efforts.
Dubbed Green Leader, fashion and textile companies will pledge to meet reduction targets.
With Asian imports competing with local products on price, and increasing quality, those behind Green Leader say involvement in the scheme will provide Australian companies with a unique selling point.
A logo and swing tags are being designed, and they hope to launch the scheme by June. （實習編輯：顧萍）