As consumers we are culpable, too. We buy the products that feed the business. This is like buying the drugs that keep organised crime in business. Only, the fashion business is very visible to us, and seemingly above board.

Recently, Channel 4 showed a documentary series on the fake 'designer product' industry, following Americans in Hong Kong visiting a seven-story 'department store' full of fake 'designer' and all the fun of getting a bargain bit of prestige. The following week's episode showed the real cost of that bag -- a Chinese girl physically chained to a sewing machine for 18 hours a day, to make those 'funny fakes'. There's no joke, irony or flattery in slave labour.

According to Katharine Hamnett, the highly respected London fashion designer who is also an ethical trade activist, there is no need for the business to be like this.

Katharine will be in Dublin on April 24-25 to take part in a two-day forum, Fashion Evolution, which has been organized by Re-Dress. Katharine will be participating in a public talk, as well as 'round table' meetings with business people and educators.

"I believe in the innate goodness of people. People want to do the right thing," Katharine explained to me. "The problem is that people [in business] are too lazy to look deeper behind their practices, to consider making changes.

"There is always too much emphasis on designers. It is the CEOs and the boards of directors, they haven't done their homework and realised that the consumer wants the business to change. And people in this business who have not done their homework should not be in this business and are destined to fail. This business is all about movement, change -- it is the only way to survive."

One corporation that is going with the changes in society is Marks & Spencer. Mike Barry is the head of corporate social responsibility at M&S and will also be taking part in Fashion Evolution. M&S is sponsoring the Fashion Evolution public talk on April 24, which I will be chairing and in which several members of the Irish fashion industry will be participating, including Christian Kemp of EDUN, Sophie Rieu of Unicorn Designs and Simon Ferrignio of The Organic Exchange (UK/US).

M&S has seen huge growth in its business due to the massive public response and support of its Plan A campaign, the promotion of organic food, the use of Fair Trade Cotton across its clothing and household lines.

"We want to share with people our knowledge about what is a rapidly emerging trend," Mike told me.

"We are a big business, putting our heads above the parapet and we are there because our customers want us to be," Mike elaborated. "Now [business] people are following us out there and going with the trend. But we have found with the whole issue of sustainability that you have to give the consumer engaging ways to recycle and re-use and it has to be practical.

"All these small things together help millions of consumers make a real change in the world."

Marks & Spencer's view is very much focused on climate change, the carbon footprint and Fair Trade. It also has the right attitude; it knows not to get defensive and closed but rather to embrace that demand and build a business on it. This is what Katharine Hamnett says business needs to do -- or get left behind.

"The bottom line is always economic," Katharine ex-plained. "The real cost of doing the thing properly is literally pennies to the manufacturer and retailer. There is no real reason for the business not to change." The only thing stopping them, she adds, is a lack of willingness.

"In Sri Lanka, factories there are converting to producing 'clothes without guilt'. That is the way it is going." Katharine said. "The saddest thing is that so many factories in Europe have closed. We don't make anything anymore. Everything is in China, where they even have production lines in prisons, on death row. There is massive complicity between big industry and government.

"But there is a sea-change going on. People have power. The consumer has more power than anyone else to make these companies change."

For most of us, knowing what it is all about is the first hurdle. This is why I urge you to attend at least some part of Fashion Evolution. There will be a small exhibition running in Film Base in Temple Bar from Saturday, April 19, for one week. The public talk is on the evening of Thursday, April 24.

"The aim of the public talk is to raise consumer awareness. We want people to walk away from it knowing the impact of their choices. To realise that their choices can make a difference and that they really are what they wear," Rosie O'Reilly said. She is co-founder of Re-Dress along with Kelly Dalton and Kate Nolan of Fable, Ireland's only organic, Fair Traded, T-shirt company.

"Fashion Evolution is not about the pointing of fingers," Rosie explained.

"It is about asking: what are the problems? How do you solve them? Become part of the solution."

When it comes to ethical fashion and climate change, a little knowledge goes a long, long way. I recommend you go, even if you can only attend one thing.

Do it because in doing so you could change your life and the future of millions of people and the planet.

All by just changing how and where you spend.