Katwalker: Don't be green about green

Many in the fashion bizzo must be wondering what the Next Big Thing is, given the 'designers for' epidemic seems to have lost its gloss. Walking through Tarjay last week I swear there was an audible fizz of disappointment around the Stella racks, while in the UK Kate Moss has done her dash at Top Shop, meaning the trend has surely peaked; where can you go after 'Moss for the masses'? And that other renowned designer Madonna must now be throwing a major disco diva tanty given that sales of her range for H&M were less than stellar, though very likely not less than Stella.

I never really got the slumming it with the high street retailers' thing, particularly for 'real' designers. Why spend years creating a brand that is supposed to feel unattainable, only to dilute it for the value retailers? All this Robin Hood stuff about bringing the brand to the masses surely cannot flow from pure altruism. No, I reckon many designers are tired of mass market retailers ripping off their designs and have decided to rip themselves off, in the view that it's better than having someone else do so and pocket the proceeds.

So where to next? Well, given the guilty wake left by Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth - which promised Armageddon for planet earth unless the human race sharpens up its act on the environment - it seems green fashion is finally looming. This is particularly true in the UK, where it has worked its way into the fashion zeitgeist with a vengeance. Anyone who witnessed the release of British bag queen Anya Hindmarch's 'I am not a plastic bag' bag would have to agree. The hype surrounding the launch triggered all the usual bonkers behaviour... waiting lists burgeoned, women camped outside stores, promised their first born, threatened suicide and generally behaved badly, all for the sake of an ordinary canvas bag that could be purchased at any market stall, minus the retro text stating the bleeding obvious. 'I am a very clever marketing ploy' would be more apt. Hindmarch and her ilk are apparently so into the whole green thing that they are already treating it with the cynical irony unique to their profession, so you'd think an explosion of green fashion in Australia would be a no-brainer.