Here’s a subject we haven’t considered before.

Susie Orbach, the foremost British psychologist on issues of body image and author of the book Fat Is A Feminist Issue, has accused lingerie companies of misleading the public by hiring models who have had breast augmentations to pose in their goods:

“I have plenty of clinical evidence to show that surgically enhanced models create a situation in which young women and girls feel inadequate,” Ms Orbach said. “They begin to think about how they can get their breasts to look like the ones that they see on ads. They feel dispirited because even though they know these images don’t necessarily relate to ‘natural’ bodies, they appear to be the norm and they feel left out.”

This reminds us of the controversy over using false eyelashes in mascara commercials, an issue over which a Rimmel ad was banned in 2007. But let’s open it up to the commenters: Do you feel inadequate when looking at lingerie ads featuring models who have surgically enhanced their bustlines?

If you’ll be in London next month, make a point to stop by the U.K. Aware 2010 exhibition from April 16-17. This is the third annual event and this year features 200 booths and 50 guest speakers who will show you how to give your life a green makeover.

E.S. friend TRAID will be there to lead DIY projects to update your old closet workhorses.

According to the event organizers, the £6 cover charge will net you the following perks:

• The Green Machines Expo: the UK’s largest showing of low carbon vehicles.
• The Green Business Start-up Surgery: an oasis of solutions for budding entrepreneurs to help make dreams become reality.
• Clothes swapping party: a chance for anyone to get a completely new to you wardrobe without damaging the environment or spending a penny.
• Kids area: shows and interactive activities designed to inspire young minds…a perfect Easter holiday outing!
• Morsbags: an oasis of creative surprises and haberdashery delights — voted best feature by our visitors last year.

Register here for the early-bird discount!

“I’m wearing a dress made for me by Orsola de Castro. She is behind one of my favourite labels, From Somewhere, and is totally on my wavelength. Orsola is the queen of upcycling so everything about the dress has been salvaged from the waste bins of some very prestigious labels, no less, so my dress will be made from waste but you’d never know. I’m also wearing ethical pink diamonds from Australia, by Cajella (on loan of course), and my bag has been made for me by Bruno at Roger Vivier from offcuts. It’s really beautiful.”

– Livia Firth, wife of Best Actor nominee Colin Firth, on her elegant eco-pick for Oscar night. Want your own From Somewhere dress at a fraction of the price? Check out the brand’s new collaboration with U.K. discount retailer Tesco.

Tesco is in some ways the U.K. equivalent of Target — a place where you can buy well-priced groceries and clothes in the same trip. Now, in the tradition of Target’s eco-minded Go International collections, Tescois releasing a sweet sustainable clothing line in collaboration with From Somewhere. Fast fashion, this isn’t.

As Ecouterre reports:

Made up of damaged stock, end of rolls, and pre-consumer textile waste from Tesco’s own supply chain, “From Somewhere to F&F” consists of six striking, paneled designs that are being produced in a LEED-certified factory in Sri Lanka—the first apparel factory in the world, in fact, to receive a Gold rating for lowering its carbon footprint by 48 percent and using 60 percent less water than a standard factory.

Also, the clothes are pretty hot — we’d wear any of these dresses out on the town. Well played, Tesco!

The dresses, which start at £16, are set to go on sale on Tesco’s website this spring.

In September, when British designer Mark Fast first sent a few plus models down his Spring/Summer 2010 collection runway, the aftershocks were felt all around the world. At the time, we declared: “Curvy models are having a moment.” And nearly six months later, that moment is still going strong.

Plus model Crystal Renn walks the runway for Mark Fast's Fall 2010 Ready-to-Wear Collection at London Fashion Week. (Courtesy of Style.com)

It has no doubt been helped by Mr. Fast’s continued inclusion of size diversity in his Fall 2010 Ready-to-Wear show as well, which debuted at London Fashion Week on February 20.

The renewed commitment is commendable because members of his own design team quit last fall amid accusations that hiring models of more than one size was nothing more than a publicity stunt. But it seems that Mr. Fast is no flash in the pan after all.

We applaud him for sticking to his guns and not backtracking with a more mainstream set of models for his newest collection. His S/S 2010 show last September could easily have been merely a fluke, a gimmicky move that attracted headlines but effected no actual change in his design strategy.

But instead, he seems to have dug his heels in and set himself apart as a designer who is intrigued by the notion that even women who wear a size 12 want options for high-end clothes — and indeed have the power of the purse behind them.

However, before we get too far into this lovefest, we have to quibble with a few fit issues that became evident on the runway.

Among the models he hired for London Fashion Week was Crystal Renn, the most famous and well-paid of plus models working today. Hers is not a particularly difficult figure to fit, what with her small waist and well-proportioned bust and hips.

Yet in the above still frame from the show, even allowing for design elements like ruching, the dress is clearly pulling in myriad directions. Her breasts are straining the fabric, her hips look mashed inside, and the sleeves look downright uncomfortable. A well-tailored dress should not restrict movement to that degree.

Other creations from the collection would have had better success on her proportions, such as the gold-hued asymmetrical belted dress that appeared halfway through on a standard sample-sized model. The cut of that gown, with the defined waist and elegant draping, would have easily lent itself to an hourglass figure. (You can see the full collection in slideshow format here.)

With such options at his disposal, it’s odd that Mr. Fast and his stylists didn’t make more inspired choices for the plus models. There is no reason to stuff women into ill-fitting garments that seem to call attention to lumps and bumps rather than flatter the fuller figure. But perhaps if he put a too-flattering dress on a plus model, how would anyone know she was plus at all?

This isn’t to imply that what Mr. Fast has done is not groundbreaking and inspiring. It is so refreshing to see this level of body consciousness in such a mainstream setting as London Fashion Week. But his next challenge should be not only to design clothes that plus-size consumers can wear, but to make garments they will want to wear as well.

Of course, the question remains: When will petite models get their day on the runway? The shorties of the world want to be represented, too!

Great news! Levi Strauss & Co. and U.K. charity Forum for the Future have jointly launched a new project to urge the fashion industry to collaborate on sustainable development with an eye to the future.

The Fashion Futures project includes a sustainability report and the production of four videos that envision what the world will be like in 2025 (focusing on the role the fashion industry plays in helping bring that about).

Says Peter Madden, CEO of Forum for the Future:

“The global fashion industry generates a trillion dollars a year. What we wear – and how it’s made and sold – can have a huge positive impact on our society and environment. This report describes how fashion’s future could be greener.”

You can watch the “Slow Is Beautiful” video above, and the other three mini-movies — titled “Community Couture,” “Techno-Chic,” and “Patchwork Planet” — can be viewed on the Fashion Futures website.

Hey guys — looking to keep warm this winter? You might have to dig deep to avoid looking as fashionable as “a microwavable kebab.” Hilarious men’s fashion writer Alexis Petridis bemoans the state of faux fur for men in the U.K. Guardian:

Once, they were the height of louche sophistication, the kind of thing the Rolling Stones wore while looking elegantly wasted. Perhaps the rock star’s penchant for fur coats hastened their fall from grace: by the late 70s, they had become associated with a rock aristocracy so irritating that people felt impelled to form Sham 69 and spit at each other in protest. The moral argument has an impact, too. You want fake fur to look like the real thing, but too much and you risk Chrissie Hynde chaining herself to you whenever you step outside.

So, there aren’t many about: I ended up with a too-small women’s one, which made me look as louche and sophisticated as a microwavable kebab.

Mr. Petridis can take heart that plenty of vintage fur exists on eBay from the very era he’s trying to channel. No word yet whether Mick Jagger is ready to part with his old coats, though.

Going in the opposite direction of V Magazine’s “Size Issue,” which featured all plus-size models, the U.K.’s Love magazine has published nude photographs of eight of the world’s top supermodels — complete with their bust, waist, and hip measurements.

Love’s editor tells Vogue it’s all about showing diversity in beauty:

“For this issue of LOVE, we took eight women who are generally acknowledged as the most beautiful in the world, got them to show off their bodies – widely regarded as the most perfect in the world – and photographed them all in exactly the same position for the cover,” LOVE’s editor-in-chief Katie Grand told VOGUE.COM. “We did this to show how much they differed physically from one another, which is why we also printed their measurements.”

“The point is that ‘perfection’ is not fixed, timeless or transcendent,” Grand – who put Beth Ditto on the cover of the first ever issue ofLOVE – explained. “It varies, as the measurements of our cover girls show.”

The photos are provocative to be sure, but with nary a plus model or unconventional beauty among them, we’re not sure that the point about “perfection” in flux is well made. Is the difference between a model with a 23 inch waist and a 24 inch waist so great that we don’t recognize the same-old when we see it? And isn’t reducing these women to mere numbers a little dehumanizing?

(via The Cut)

Prince Charles is reportedly planning new initiatives to bring wool back into fashion by promoting it as a green alternative to other textiles.

According to Luxist.com:

The Prince hopes his efforts will help make wool more popular once again for both clothing and carpet and rugs. Wool has a bad reputation as being bulky and itchy but the new push for wool plans to highlight the green benefits and beauty of wool compared to synthetic materials. Modern wool fabrics are also sleeker and softer and are being used in more innovative ways by top designers showing up in traditional Savile Row suits but also in wool bags from Marni and trendier pieces from Burberry and Paul Smith.

The Prince has his own organic flock of sheep and is aware of how lowering wool prices have affected farmers. British wool competes with wool from Australia, New Zealand and China among other countries.

In addition to the new label, Prince Charles is planning to help plan Wool Week, which will precede London Fashion Week this fall. Wool Week will be sponsored by British chain Marks & Spencer.

The U.K. Telegraph took issue with V Magazine’s “Size Issue” this month, questioning whether the theme was merely “a publicity stunt”:

It includes a photo shoot with heavier, semi-clad models proud to flaunt their curves. The debate over plus-size models enflamed last year when Mark Fast, the fashion designer, decided to use size 14 models at London Fashion Week. At the same time, the popularity of Crystal Renn, the size 14 model, suggested that curvier models were becoming more acceptable.

Do you think the fashion world should use more plus-size models? Is it a welcome tangent to the size-zero debate? Or perhaps you think this photo shoot is just a publicity stunt? Which would you rather look at?

The headline and last question reveal a bit of journalistic bias on the part of the Telegraph, in our opinion. Curvier beauty ideals aren’t contrived — it’s simply not true that thinness has been universally prized throughout human evolution. Including plus-size models in magazines is about accurately representing the fact that plenty of women of size also want to dress fashionably and fashion rags are now beginning to respond in kind to that desire.

For more about the ethics regarding plus-size modeling, check out this post about Mark Fast and another about blogger backlash over Glamour’s similarly minded plus-size fashion spread.