Known as the birthplace of edgy designer clothes, London Fashion Week has taken a new direction.

The fashion industry has changed in the past few years, with smart designers responding to widespread changes in attitudes. This means that having a wardrobe with a conscience is now almost as important as celebrity endorsement.

Today, for the first time in its history, the British Fashion Council – which runs the iconic London Fashion Week – has added a sustainable catwalk show to its program. While ethical fashion has existed on the periphery of the industry for some time, it now finds itself sharing the limelight thanks to acclaimed international designers such as Christopher Kane and Burberry.

Clarence House is the setting for the open air event which will see established designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney joined by the likes of People Tree and Junky Styling – the former known for its celebrity partnership with Sienna Miller and Emma Watson. While both Westwood and McCartney will have later shows in London and Paris, their presence at the ethical runway adds significant clout and influence.

The show will be held in conjunction with the Prince’s Charities Foundation initiative START, which seeks to promote and celebrate sustainable living. London Fashion Week is already the site of Esthetica, the static exhibition which showcases those designers on the edge with a commitment to eco-sustainability.

The face of Burberry has leapt to his death in Milan.

Tom Nicon, 22, the French male model who has been the front of Hugo Boss, Louis Vuitton, Versace and Burberry campaigns, died after falling from his fourth floor apartment on Friday according to police reports.

Nicon was in Milan as part of the prestigious Milan Fashion Week which began on Saturday, and had attended a Versace fitting just hours before he was found dead outside his building, after his modelling agency, Success, searched for him following his no-show at a meeting.

Sources close to the model have suggested that he had been battling depression since he broke up with his girlfriend, which police described as a complicated affair. Authorities are treating the death as suicide and the organisers of the fashion shows said they would proceed as a tribute to the model.

Nicon’s death is another in string of suicides that have beset the fashion industry over recent months. In February, Alex McQueen, who this week had his ashes scattered in Scotland, took his life while in London after allegedly being unable to cope with the passing of his mother. In May, Noemie Lenoir, the French model who was the UK face of Marks & Spencer, attempted to commit suicide in a Parisian forest before being found by a member of the public. South Korean Daul Kim, 20, who had fronted campaigns for Gap, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood and Karl Lagerfeld, hung herself last year after another apparent battle with depression.

Emerging on the runway with bedrolls, cardboard boxes, sleeping bags, and other sorts of items, models for Dame Vivienne Westwood’s latest fashion line surpised fashion experts at last week’s Milan fashion week. The show, which featured Dame Vivienne’s latest menswear line, took place at the Museo della Permanente, Milan as part of the city’s famous fashion week taking place this week.

The idea behind the line was hobo-chic with models emerging looking more like rough-sleepers than high-street fashion gods. Westwood’s take on her theme encompasses a much broader viewpoint, however, which she said was inspired by a lawyer friend of her husband’s who works for a charity which centres around the homeless.

Ms. Westwood commented after the show that the line had been her husband, Austrian-born Andreas Kronthaler’s idea. The catwalk was decked out with cardboard boxes while model’s hair was intentionally dishevelled and discoloured.

Despite, somewhat shocked reactions most critics seem to be upholding the move as brave and innovative, with one media outlet saying that the move
was odd, but heroic.

Westwood said that, although she has no lens into the life a homeless person, she was aware of the delicate subject matter. Westwood ended the show by being wheeled onto the stage via an ambulence stretcher to a huge applause from the audience and critics in attendance.