Ecouterre has nominated seven designers, not only for their groundbreaking designs, but also for their commitment to sustainability and socially-responsible production.
The nominees are Casey Larkin, Tara St James, Tata Eisenber & Inessah Selditz, Ada Zanditon, Kizzy Jai Knight, Susan Woo and Leanne Mai-Ly Hilgar.
My vote is for Ada Zanditon!
You can vote at Ecouterre
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What you’ve been to since fashion week?
AD - Since making my catwalk debut at London Fashion Week with Vauxhall Fashion Scout I have been working on production of Spring Summer for the for London boutiques Beyond The Valley and Digitaria and also immediately starting work on my next collection for Autumn Winter 2010. I have been organising my first sample sale, which will be at my stockist in Soho, Digitaria on the 26th & 27th of November. It’s going to be a really fun evening on the 26th from 6.30 – 9.30 pm with fabulous singer songwriter Bishi screening her video and Notion Magazine teaming up with me for the evening to do a promotion and giveaway of their new fashion supplement.
I also had an amazing time at the Estethica press day at the May Fair Hotel, where I was one of six designers to win the ethical mentoring award from the British Fashion Council which means I will be working with Bev Malik (previously buyer at Browns & Harvey Nichols) to develop my collection and business. It’s an amazing opportunity and I am really thrilled.
You showed as part of The Ones To Watch – was it a successful fashion week for you?
AD - Yes, the response has been excellent and it’s great to see the images on Vogue.com. Vauxhall Fashion Scout really provided a brilliant platform for my debut, the venue (Freemasons Hall) was spectacular and the show was absolutely packed. There was an immediate and very positive response on Fashion 156 as well as much other online press including Amelia’s magazine.
Will you be showing next season?
AD - I am planning to show or present my next collection with Vauxhall Fashion Scout as they are such a good team to work with and provide all round support including excellent hair and make-up teams. I think the overall quality of the designers showing with them is great and is going from strength to strength with every season.
What advice do you have for the high street in regards to ethical fashion?
AD - I definitely would encourage high street brands to be open to using ethical materials and creating ethical ranges within their own ranges.
It is encouraging to see how many high street retailers have signed up to the ethical trading initiative and have introduced ethical products in store. Top Shop have introduced a wide range of eco products and done well at promoting the ethical ranges they have in store. It’s great to see Marks and Spencer have excelled at communicating about their environmental policy Plan A and really embraced using organic cotton and recycled PTA.
I would also advise that high street brands consider the merits in hybrid designs rather than feeling under pressure to create products that are 100% purist eco friendly, that is still very challenging and so much good can be done by increasing the use of eco & fair trade fabrics by percentages. The high street has a fantastic potential to make an enormous difference as they are the ones producing volume and when they purchase more ethical fabric in bulk more becomes available on the market as demand has increased. This benefits smaller designers too when production is increased.
• Would you ever consider creating a capsule collection for the high street?
AD - Absolutely! I would love to! It’s one of my main goals and ambition’s. I think that it is great that in recent years we have seen brands like Giles Deacon, Comme des Garcons and Stella doing excellent ranges for the high street. It enables consumers to buy into designer brands at affordable prices. I think that there are equal amounts of creativity and innovation required at each market level and the added bonus is that you might actually get to see people walking down the street in your clothes often!
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Backstage with Vauxhall Fashion Scout’s Ones To Watch: Ada Zanditon, Dean Quinn, Hermione de Paula and Marko Mitanovski.
This was a very busy crazy backstage show to style with four designers and 50 looks. It’s quite a challenge as the designers share the majority of the models - which makes time management the biggest challenge. Not only are the models doing fittings but they also need to have hair and makeup done and it all happens within four hours! It’s quite a short time for everything, fortunately I had a great team - Rachel Wood did the makeup direction and hair looks were created by Tim Furssedonn.
The show looked great and I’ll be posting some catwalk pictures soon!
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One of the main questions I’m asked is can ethical fashion be fashion forward? Of course the answer is yes! If we think to just a few years back it was hard to find organic food and now it’s just part of ones normal grocery shopping experience- we might even be buying organic milk without even thinking twice about - so why not fashion? Ada Zanditon has always been designing fashionable clothes - they just happen to be ethical.
Q- Were you always interested in ethical fashion?
AZ - In some ways yes but not consciously at first. I started making things by taking the clothes I was bored with and re working them so I would like them again which is actually a very green thing to do. My great grand father wrote an ethical will as well as a legal one and this legacy inspired me that no matter what I ended up doing in life I wanted to combine my ethics with it which are benefiting people and planet and creating a good business.
It was two things that really made me want to do ethical fashion, the first was my friend’s thesis about Eco fashion that she wrote for her final year paper and the second was the event organized by anti apathy called RE: fashion at which Katharine Hamnett spoke about the issues around organic cotton.
.jpg "An Interview with Ethical Designer Ada Zanditon")
Q - You’re also an illustrator?
AD - Indeed! I have shown my illustrations as posters on the underground in Embankment, Knightsbridge and Holland Park stations as well as various London Galleries such as Nog Gallery on Brick Lane. Recently, I was commissioned by "Artist Gallery" in Moscow to create 4 new works which were exhibited there in Moscow alongside the photographer Mark LeBon. I use my illustrations to create artwork for my own designs (digital prints in my graduate collection and for the Jacquard in AW09) and I design prints for other labels.
Q - Is it difficult to source fabrics?
AD - From someone else’s perspective they would consider that my choices are more limited however for me personally I never feel limited by my choice of fabrics because I really don’t enjoy working with a fabric that is not sustainable and it pushes me to be more creative and inventive with what is available. 
Q - What inspired your collection?
AD - The incantation of Amergin is inspired by the verse of the aforementioned bard who was the first poet of the Irish people and the book Soil and Soul by Alastair McIntosh. The book follows Alistair’s journey to help the residents of the Isle of Eigg to prevent their Laird from developing their mountain “Roineabhal” into a superquarry. The spirit and philosophy that the book presents is one that highlights the importance of ecology not just from a scientific point of view but from that of a community and human spirit. Ada also drew inspiration from Celtic mythology and much of the Megalithic architecture from across the United Kingdom and Ireland. Through creating strict silhouettes with modern and elegant fashionable shapes Ada is exploring how modern man can have the same desire for beauty and luxury whilst also engaging with eco consciousness.
Q - Where are you based?
AZ - I’m based in the East End of London! my studio is in Whitechapel.
Q - Will you be doing a show in September at London Fashion Week?
AZ - We’ll see…………….
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Ada Zandition is part of London Fashion Week’s Estethica - a showcase for eco-sustainable designers now in its sixth season. I can’t wait to see it. There’s so much discussion about ethical design - people wanting something more fashion forward - well this is it!
These images our from the look book shoot. We did two shoots as Ada has a ready to wear collection and a couture collection.
AUTUMN WINTER O9/10 THE INCANTATION OF AMERGIN
Photographer Paul Morgan
Stylist Rebekah Roy
Hair by Christian
Make-Up by Anita Brulee
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