Mania Mia in Southwest London played host to New York City independent fashion labels Tess Johnson and JUNGWON last week. It was a preview of the AW13 Collection and it being the first really hot day of the year, my head wasn’t quite into the idea of heavy fabrics, coats and jackets; I was more in the mood for floaty silks and breathable linen.

But when I got up close, these designs inspired a leap of the imagination to October when the nights draw in and we’re resigned to six months of rain.

Tess Johnson digital print coats were a chic delight. My personal favourite was the leather crop jacket with digital print detail on the sleeves.

JUNGWON is on the right track with her structural rain macs, a designer reaction to the non-description anorak aesthetic dominated by technical clothing companies.

Both are graduates of New York’s esteemed Parsons. Johnson is keeping natural, man-made material central to her designs and JUNGWON is moving her operation from New Jersey and instead has plans to source and manufacture in her native Korea with a view to enter the Chinese market, in an attempt to keep her freight transport costs at a minimum.

Tess Johnson:

JUNGWON:

Photo credit: Michael Grainger | Model: Luke Palmer

I graduated from the London College of Fashion in 2010 with a BA in Menswear Design, and in all honesty I felt like an awkward teenager in the fashion world! Although I had always loved the creativity in clothing design, I had never been particularly interested in trend-led fashion. I was more intrigued by people dressing in their own style in ways that gave them a personal confidence, instead of following whatever was ‘on trend’ for the season.

I interned for about a year with a few different designers and it taught me a lot in terms of creative process and how the business side of it worked, but something still didn’t quite connect with me in the pressure to ‘fit in’, to always be competing and to know the ‘who, what, where, when’s’ of the fashion industry. When people asked me what it was I really wanted to do, I knew I wanted to start my own business but was scared to do it for fear of failure. I kept putting it off but the idea for REBORN LONDON wasn’t budging from my mind and so in September 2012 I took the risk.

I wanted to create a brand that combined urban creativity with ethical production. To be able to produce affordable, contemporary yet wearable menswear in a sustainable way was a challenge, so I spent time looking at factories in London and managed to find one to produce my designs at a price that was fair on both sides and who also offer training in pattern cutting and sewing to unemployed young people – which was right up my street. I also managed to partner with a fabric supplier in London who offered me some very high quality fabrics that were otherwise going to go to waste. REBORN LONDON is all about this idea of rejuvenation and creating clothing with a more bespoke feel; we only make up to five pieces of each design in any one fabric or colour in order to move away from the culture of mass manufacture and offer menswear that’s both accessible but individual.

People often ask me why I choose to create menswear, which I find funny because so many men design womenswear so I didn’t think it was unusual for it to be the other way around. I made womens clothing at high school, but was given the opportunity to design for men whilst on an Art Foundation course at Wimbledon School of Art and became very taken with it. I think the fact that it’s less experimental in shape appeals to me because you have to really think about how to make clothing different in a subtle way; you have to look closely to see all the detail in menswear and I like the small, almost unseen elements of creativity that can give an item a more personal touch.

I’ve always had a real thing about wanting men to dress in a way that’s unique and interesting, that shows they care about how they look but aren’t consumed by their looks. I try to design in a way that gives men courage and boldness to be an individual in what they wear; REBORN LONDON is not about intimidating fashion but about quiet confidence.

International clothing giant H&M launched their Conscious Collection this week although one does have to ask the question: is this just a retail marketing exercise that ticks all the right Corporate Social Responsibility boxes, or is H&M taking a genuine step forward toward a more sustainable business model?

I visited one of their London stores yesterday and was immersed in an aggressive visual merchandising campaign for the Conscious Collection. The window display, the front of the shop and signage in the store all shouted about the values of sustainable fashion. The staff wore t-shirts from the collection exclaiming ‘green’ this and ‘green’ that. There was even a recycling dropbox for last season’s cast-offs. It felt like a clinical, corporate take on the Occupy movement zeitgist.

There is a big spend here, which is not surprising because if H&M is desperate to shake off its disposable fashion image, it is probably worth every krona for them to invest in an image makeover. It certainly needs one: In 2010, The New York Times reported H&M slashed superfluous products in Manhattan’s back streets and a year later, a Greenpeace report linked H&M to toxic manufacturing processes polluting China’s rivers on a massive scale.

The latter terra faux pas was dealt with swiftly and sexily. H&M partnered up with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and hammered out a strategy for water stewardship. The issue of garment slashing was resolved with in-store recycling depots.

So how genuine is this latest step?

When the collection first launched in summer 2012, the clothes were nearly impossible to find. The London flagship store in Oxford Street didn’t stock it. At the Regent Street store, my requests were initially met with blank stares, but after much asking around, one member of staff with a good memory showed me to a rail tucked away in the basement. There was nothing to write home about, they were dowdy, shapeless entities desperate to be passed off as a tulip skirt. To an extent, this season’s collection addresses the lack of design integrity of the clothes.

Clearly something has changed. The company has made a big effort to bring what must have been an underperforming product line, to the fore. H&M has taken a risk with this collection, and stylistically it has worked.

For me, the strongest piece in the collection is the sateen print trousers and matching sheer top. The design is bold and bright, boasting a digital printed collage of tropical flora and fauna. It nods to fashion’s current love affair with Mary Karantzou and Prabal Gurung. The top is made of recycled polyester. The trousers are lined with organic cotton but the print side of the trousers are polyester suggesting that at best, only about 60% of the most design-led product in the collection is sustainable, but not necessarily ethical. There is nothing to suggest the cotton is fairly traded or if, for that matter, the garment workers are paid a living wage. And this brings us back to the question of really, how socially responsible this collection really is. The answer, sadly, is that we don’t know; the labelling simply doesn’t tell us the whole story.

H&M should be applauded for taking CSR initiatives seriously and righting the wrongs of their past practices: the water stewardship initiative, the recycling, use of organic cotton, garment workers education, all of which are detailed on its CSR page. But what I’d love to see is better supply-chain transparency at the point of sale.

Until then, I won’t be buying into large marketing campaigns like this, but instead will continue to seek out independent sustainable fashion labels that already do all the things H&M is desperate to catch up with.