This Monday I was lucky enough to be invited to the beautiful EcoLuxe sustainable fashion show – a truly unique event at London Fashion Week.

EcoLuxe was founded by planet-minded designers Elena Garcia and Stamo, who made it their mission to showcase luxurious fashion that’s also eco-friendly . The first Ecoluxe London exhibition took place in September 2010 with 13 labels showing a wide range of products ranging from garments, footwear and accessories to hats, swimwear corsets and skincare. Since then, this non-profit organisation has continued championing the best in sustainable luxury fashion, while pairing up with harities, organisations, social enterprises, other non-profit entities, corporations and the media to promote this very noble cause. To date, their close partners include Cultural Business Investment, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, Coco Eco Magazine, European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Fashionworks, to name a few.

In this year’s fashion show, a variety of eco-conscious brands showcased their beautiful work on a very different catwalk – co-founder Elena Garcia presented every brand, introducing us to the companies’ philosophies, designs and choice of materials. A lot of which were, as it turns out, cruelty-free.

WELLICIOUS

Don’t we all wish we could wear this to yoga? Wellicious was founded by London yogini Heike Schnell in 2007 and the brand focuses on yogawear in organic cotton – and counts Gwyneth Paltrow among its fans.

NJEMA HELENA

Established in Nairobi, this ethnic-inspired brand aims to unite a modern aesthetic with African influences, relying on sustainable fabrics. We’re particularly crushing on their A-line, V-cut summer dresses.

NANCY DEE

Created in 2008 by sisters Seraphina and Tamsin Davis, this British brand has a strong ethical philosophy: all of pretty pieces (including a few summer dresses that had us reaching for our wallets) are made in Britain with renewable natural sources such as soya, bamboo and organic cotton.

FASHIONCORK UK

The first and only brand on the UK market to produce fashion accessories made entirely out of cork, this brand unites style and sustainability in a product that represents a whole new take on cruelty-free.

SUPPORTED BY RAIN

Have you ever stumbled upon something so amazing it made you kick yourself for not having thought of it first? Raincoats made of recycled umbrellas is definitely one of those things. This brand creates chic rainwear (perfect for life in Britain!) and names their creations after Amazonian rainforest tribes.

GRACE

Representing affordable luxury for “real women”, Grace offers striking styles in sizes 6-24 – using only organic and fair trade fabrics. We were blown away by the gorgeous colours and dramatic cuts.

CHURECA CHIC / ELENA GARCIA

When you buy one of Chureca Chic’s paper bead bracelets, you help plant five trees in Nicaragua – if this isn’t planet-friendly shopping, we don’t know what is. The gorgeous clothes you see in the above photos are courtesy of EcoLuxe co-founder Elena Garcia – she works with peace silk, a material that allows the silk worm to continue its life unharmed, using just the broken coccoons to make the gorgeous fabrics.

JOYCE PENAS PILARSKY

This Filipina designer is based in Germany, where she creates daring, glamorous gowns in a variety of materials – this red carpet-worthy dress made from pineapple fabric caught our attention. The elaborate design and striking shades are truly deserving of showing up on a Hollywood star sometime soon.

Sascha Camilli

Founder and Editor

A passionate changemaker, Sascha Camilli is the founder and editor-in-chief of Vilda Magazine. Born in Moscow and raised in Stockholm, she has also lived in Los Angeles, London, Milan and Florence, before landing in her current hometown of Brighton, UK. She was chosen as one of Vegan Good Life Magazine's Vegan Business Influencers of 2015 and nominated for Best Vegan Entrepreneur by Unicorn Goods Best of Vegan Awards 2017. She is also a Huffington Post blogger, THRIVE Career Mentor at Reading University and speaker at events such as VegFest and VegoVision Sweden. She loves to travel, do yoga on her sea-view balcony, and drink too much coffee.