I’m going to make a confession so promise not to judge me, OK?

Here goes… I love the fashion programmes on TV. There, I said it!

From ‘America’s / Britain’s Next Top Model‘ to ‘Gok’s Fashion Fix‘ and ‘The Clothes Show‘ I consider having the time to watch them a real treat and when I get the chance happily soak in all the beautiful, glittery frivolousness of them. I love the colourful fabrics, art direction of the photo shoots and the seemingly mystical techniques of accessorizing.

These days my Netvibes profile is full of feeds from fashion, style and craft blogs and every now and then I indulge in a copy of British Vogue.

Being as I’m beginning to learn dressmaking myself my interest in these things is becoming a little more than entertainment into something rather educational. Well that’s my excuse anyway.

I have to say though that so often I find a very big gap in the conversations on these TV shows and magazines. Why is no one in the mainstream talking about the ethics behind fashion? OK, so occasionally we’ll get a ‘green’ feature here and there or a dedicated show like ‘Blood Sweat and T-Shirts‘ but ethical fashion is really treated as an aside or optional extra, not a necessity.

With the recent news about Primark’s factories I was horrified to hear a young lady being interviewed on the radio saying that she didn’t care if clothes were made by children and that it’s the price tag that really matters! I guess I’ve naively thought that if people knew of the pain and suffering caused by the production of their clothes then they wouldn’t want to contribute to it but I guess I was wrong. Similarly, what about other issues such as the environmental impact of clothing production and the use of animal skins or fur?

On some of the TV shows I’ve seen them present items of clothing from particular labels that I would not buy because they’re known to sell fur or use sweatshop labour. Why aren’t these shows taking the opportunity to talk to their audience about becoming aware of how and where their clothes are made? Of course they won’t want to name and shame particular labels but how about presenting some of the green or Fairtrade options and using that as a reason to buy an outfit? Encourage the fashion show fans like me to ask questions of the high street shops, it doesn’t need to preach but at least make it an intrinsic part of the decision making like the reasons for choosing a particular cut of jacket or shape of trouser leg.

With the amount of money that goes through the mainstream fashion industry I can’t help but think that it’s not such a frivolous interest after all.

I was quite pleased to see that BBC Thread (BBC’s online ethical fashion magazine) are supporting the movement of ethical fashion into the mainstream by running a contest to find an ethical fashionista to help style a show at London Fashion Week. Oh how I’d love to have the time and experience to give it a try! Check it out at: www.bbc.co.uk/thread/stylesearch