Ethical Fashion Pioneer Returns

Photo: Jeff J. Mitchell / Reuters

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Organic cotton t-shirts? Recycled denim? Sneakers made from plastic bottles?

Ethical fashion is certainly in vogue, and that is just fine with Katharine Hamnett.

Hamnett was all the rage years ago for her t-shirts featuring bold statements, such as "Choose Life" and "Use a Condom." But, Reuters reports, Hamnett had a hard time pushing priorities such as organic cotton on the fashion industry.

The designer is quoted in the article: "Years ago when I was talking about this I was a voice in the wilderness and now I have people come up to me and say 'Oh, you were right all along.'"

The article says though she was once a fixture in the London fashion scene, she severed her contracts with licensees four years ago when her environmental pleas were unpopular.

But today she's enjoying a revival of her slogan t-shirts, and plans to launch an ethical denim jeans line.

She feels shoppers have finally woken up to the plights of workers and environmental issues, but she hasn't lost her business sense.

Hamnett said in the article: "It's got to be fashion first, and then environment. Nobody's going to buy clothes out of pity, you're going to buy clothes because you want them, it's something that makes you feel great, it's not anything that's kinda brown and lumpy."

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