But unlike most other shows, all the floral dresses, trending workwear and double-denim outfits were second hand at the event by charity Oxfam and online used clothes retailer Vinted’s “Style for Change”.
Bay Garnett, a sustainable fashion pioneer who picked out the pieces from Oxfam’s warehouses, called the runway “really exciting”.
“When we first did this show eight years ago, it was really not like this,” Garnett told AFP backstage, noting the stream of enthusiastic attendees.
Despite the excitement surrounding the Oxfam show alongside another “pre-loved” runway by online auction site eBay, British fashion is struggling with sustainability.
Around 44 percent of all British companies overall have put in place a structured climate action plan, according to insurance company Aviva’s “Climate-Ready Index”.
By contrast, the fashion world is lagging sorely behind, a situation the Collective Fashion Justice (CFJ) charity said was “an embarrassment”.
A recent CFJ report found that just seven of the 206 members of the British Fashion Council (BFC), which organises London Fashion Week, had set out targets to reduce their carbon emissions.
And only five of these — or less than 2.5 percent — had goals aligned with the 2016 Paris Agreement to cut global warming, CFJ said.
The UK is the third largest footwear and clothing market in the world, after China and the United States, according to analysis by the Fashion United platform.
A 2018 report from sustainability consultancy Quantis said the sectors account for around eight percent of planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions.
Luxury fashion giant Burberry — a LFW veteran — is one of the handful of brands publishing scientific targets.
Known for its tartan branding, the fashion house recently raised its emission reduction goals and hopes to be carbon neutral by 2040.
But BFC chief executive Caroline Rush said: “To set carbon reduction targets, you need a team to be able to measure your targets, understand how to reduce them and then report on them.”
“For a small business that’s quite a challenge.”
To help, the BFC now has some 50 businesses that will go through its “low carbon transition” programme for designers.
Ideally, advocates say the programme should be extended to help brands monitor and report their carbon reduction plans.
Copenhagen Fashion Week has taken its own step to require all brands involved to meet a series of environmental goals.
In the United States, reform could come with a “Fashion Act” under consideration by the New York authorities, which would legally require businesses to cut emissions and take into account those of their entire supply chains.
“I think a lot of the issue is (that) the fashion industry can try to handball its problems to other industries,” said CFJ director Emma Hakansson.
