Livia Firth
Livia Firth (née Giuggioli, 1969), executive producer of the 2015 documentary “The True Cost”, is also founder and creative director of Eco-Age, a consultancy firm that provides sustainability solutions for brands looking to improve their supply chain. Clients of the company, founded in 2009, include fashion names like Chopard, Erdem, Stella McCartney and Gucci, as well as non-fashion companies like Welltower, the English Football Assiociation and Wembley stadium. The firm's purpose is to compose campaigns and strategies for their clients with their expertise, enthusiasm and talent in order to bring about substantive change towards sustainable and ethical fashion.
“Call it ´eco fashion´ if you like, but I think it´s just common sense.”
Livia Firth became concerned with the importance of ethical fashion when visiting a clothing factory in Bangladesh in 2008. "What I saw shocked me and once I came back I could not pretend they didn’t exist. We talk a lot today about feminism, and we should interpret this also as sisterhood - holding virtual hands with the millions of women who make the clothes we wear every single day. We want them to know we respect them and value them."
The Green Carpet Challenge is Eco-Age´s sustainability initiative that encourages celebrities to wear ethical designs at high profile events to amplify brands´ environmental principles. The GCC Principles are a benchmark against which brands can measure themselves, showing a commitment to ethical, social and environmental behavior in the workplace and through supply chains. The GCC Brandmark is not a certification and doesn’t replace third party certifications, but recognizes best practice. The criteria take into consideration best practices, innovative solutions and appropriate certification standards that are relevant to the work. Until recently, sustainability was always considered something that would affect the design of clothes, but designers who participated in The CNMI Green Carpet Talent award last year showed how sustainability can enhance the design. Designers today are inspiring the next generation and they prove that designing sustainable fashion can be done quite easily.
“When you are in control, it means you can take responsibility.”
Firth is also a women's rights campaigner and launched The Circle, together with Annie Lennox, an advocacy group working to overcome poverty and empower women around the world. Furthermore, she is a UN Leader of Change and has also been recognized with the UN Fashion 4 Development Award.
Livia Firth´s advice to consumers who want to live more consciously is to ask yourself ""Do I really need this? Am I going to wear it a lot?” If the answer is yes, buy it. But you’ll be surprised how many times you’ll say “Not really”. Maybe you’ll wear it to a party and another couple of times, and put it back. That’s the starting rule for sustainable fashion."
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