Admired for her innovative use of wool, Sylvester's knits are now all made from Zque-graded merino wool, meaning the journey of each garment, from farm to runway, can be traced, ensuring it is organically and ethically sound. "First and foremost, my label is a fashion brand," she explains. "We want to make people look nice, but I also recognise that we want to feel good about looking good."

Sylvester's environmental epiphany occurred a few years ago. "As a consumer, I was starting to think differently about how I purchased goods for myself, and the origins of products and their effects on the environment," she recalls. "If I was rejecting plastic bags at the supermarket and buying organic, locally produced foods as often as possible for my home, it dawned on me that I needed to make my business greener, too. So I began investigating ways to do that. Now, we use environ-mentally friendly light bulbs in the office, have a worm farm to dispose of the staff's food scraps, and are increasingly using organic materials in the three main lines that make up the Kate Sylvester label."

Meanwhile, Sylvester ensures all the cotton used in her winter 2008 collection is organic and, by next year, she aims to make her label carbon-neutral. For more details, visit www.katesylvester.com.