Livia Firth in a mud-dyed silk dress by Les Racines Du Ciel at Katrina Phillips. Photograph: Will Whipple for the Observer
She is seen as the world's most glamorous champion of "eco style" and has been dubbed "the queen of the green carpet". Now Livia Firth is moving into design: last week she revealed she is working on a line for the online retailer Yoox's eco brand Yooxygen, in partnership with Reclaim To Wear, which helps designers recycle textile surplus and waste.
Upcycling – or remaking cast-off items into something different and better – is something of a Firth speciality. She first drew attention to Reclaim to Wear when she wore one of its 1950s strapless cocktail dresses in silver satin to the Venice film festival. For the Paris premiere of
The King's Speech, starring her husband
Colin Firth, she famously wore an outfit made of one of his old suits.
When Livia wears something, she does it with flair: when her husband hosted the Met Ball in New York this year – one of US
fashion's biggest nights – she worked with Stella McCartney on a silk all-in-one jumpsuit covered in reclaimed vintage beads for the occasion, with a detachable skirt made of hemp.
The consort of an Oscar-winner has to work doubly hard to earn the adulation his or her partner commands; one of the first reviews of her eco store in west London wondered whether she was "just another bored housewife who wants to 'dabble' in fairtrade fashion, bankrolled by her super-famous husband". But in a world where she could easily be made to sound like a character from
Absolutely Fabulous, Firth, 42, has forged a reputation as a supporter of eco causes who demands to be taken seriously.
Red-carpet spouses are usually regarded with contempt by the fashion press and keenly scrutinised for supposedly idiotic "civilian" style mistakes. "Not enough celebrities take an interest," says Safia Minney, founder of People Tree, one of the UK's most successful designer eco labels. "But the clever ones do. Livia is intelligent and a truly gorgeous person inside and out. She's beautiful, Italian, with great taste... How could she go wrong?"
Jane Olley, director of clothing label Annie Greenabelle, recently named one of
Marie Claire's top 10 eco brands, says Firth is "a fantastic ambassador for green style. She is fully informed and engaged with the cause she is promoting. She understands the preconceptions out there that ethical garments are perhaps made from less desirable fabrics and textures than conventional garments, and she understands how she is in a position to prove that women can still be stylish and socially responsible. She seems approachable and up for a discussion rather than someone who preaches. I respect her very much for the fact that she is helping lesser-known designers show their work. Although some celebrities dabble with ethical garments for certain events, they abandon the cause when life becomes busy. She stands out as she really follows her beliefs."
Firth raised eyebrows when she announced two years ago that she would embrace the "Green Carpet Challenge" and wear only clothes designed by ethical companies. Her husband's film
A Single Man, for which he was later to receive an Oscar nomination, was about to open the Venice Film Festival.
The King's Speech was released the following year. Firth must have been aware of the timing of all this – known that she was about to become more scrutinised and that this represented an opportunity.
Already credited with giving a boost to eco designers such as Prophetik and Komodo, Firth has also recently announced a new phase of her challenge: now she's pushing others into it. Firth is helping to pair 10 "top luxury designers" with 10 celebrities. Stella McCartney, Gucci, Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen and Alberta Ferretti are already on board. To get big names like this to sign up to a
Blue Peter-sounding "green challenge" is no small feat. Designers don't like restrictions – especially not when they're working on a dress that will function as the Hollywood shop window for their brand.
The Firths met 17 years ago on a film set in Colombia. She was 25, he was 34, filming
Nostromo for TV (not his most successful project) and recently separated from the actress Meg Tilly. Livia Giuggioli was a production assistant on set. They married in 1997 and have two sons: Luca, 10, and Matteo, eight. She credits her husband with her "political awakening" and says that when she met him "I was still very much a kid".
Livia grew up in Rome, one of four children. A traditional Italian upbringing informs her views on the environment, says the
Observer's Lucy Siegle, author of
To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World? and a friend of the Firths, who have both been involved with the
Observer Ethical Awards. "It's an innate thing with her. She has a sensibility regarding fashion and consumerism and she has traditional Italian values. She has been connected to social justice issues for a long time. I would say that for her it's not so much about going green, it's about being ethical, about equality, fairness, the supply chain.
"The Green Carpet Challenge happened almost by accident. She said to me, 'I'm going to have to do this red carpet thing and I just don't want to phone around all those fashion houses.'"
On the red carpet you are expected to wear a designer dress specially designed – and usually borrowed – for the occasion. "She needed to have something to raise her interest," says Siegle. "Imagine trawling around after your husband to all these awards ceremonies. So it became a way of narrowing the parameters, by wearing only sustainable style. It's a way of marketing ethical ideas in a glossy, high-end way."
In 2008 Firth opened Eco Age, a shop in Chiswick, west London, where the Firths live, for "curious consumers". It is eco-chic at its most discreetly lavish: the website was designed by Saatchi & Saatchi's Italian team. The shop sells what you'd expect – £600 white cashmere cardigans and a £325 Italian leather handbag "tanned using a traditional technique based on the bark of the native chestnut tree and the mimosa flower" – but also what you wouldn't: scented candles and £25 scarves.
Firth is described as being down-to-earth and having a sense of humour about herself. Annika Sanders, the designer founder of Junky Styling, a London-based brand that works with upcycled clothes, was working behind the counter of their shop in Brick Lane when Firth walked in one day carrying one of her husband's old suits. "We upcycled it into the 1950s-inspired dress she wore to that Paris premiere. It was a navy blue, very high-end designer suit of Colin's. But the moths had got hold of it. It was hard to salvage and would have been unsalvageable as a suit. We managed to save big pieces of the fabric and panel it into a pencil skirt and bodice.
"We call it 'wardrobe surgery' – people bring us their treasured possessions that have been ruined or gone out of fashion and we rework them into something wearable."
Sanders is impressed with Firth's approach. "She has great vision. She knows what suits her. And she looks great in anything," she says.
"Yes, she is a lucky cow in that way," says Siegle. "She's got that bone structure and she's sickeningly good-looking. But she's not a glossy, groomed type. She attaches very little importance to that kind of thing. I don't dread going to meet her because I've got bitten nails."
It's this combination of natural, unforced glamour and integrity (Firth wants to achieve what she calls "a meaningful aesthetic") that has captured the fashion world's imagination. "I think people are really sick of seeing people who are surgically enhanced and look a certain, unattainable way. She's a positive fashion role model – and in many ways an accidental one."
Firth recently said how hilarious she found it when, while talking to the singer Annie Lennox, a renowned feminist, Lennox apologised for referring to her as "Colin Firth's wife". She laughed and replied: "What is the problem? I don't care. Why does being a feminist mean you can't be someone's wife?"
After all her advances in "green fashion", her new design role at Yoox should finally see her recognised as a force in her own right. Or perhaps, given her spouse, that's impossible: her most recent interview ran under the superfluously worded headline: "Livia Firth on living with husband Colin Firth."
The home of "party dresses for green goddesses", all made from organically grown and recycled fabrics. Check out their pixie-bow-embellished minidress - very Lily Allen.
A darling of the women's magazines, Sarah Ratty's label is known for its cut and quality. Splurge of the month? £34 Liberty-print side-tie panties.
The original "Fairtrade fashion pioneer" has collaborated with designers like Thakoon and Bora Aksu. Most recently known for three collections designed by Harry Potter actress Emma Watson.
This denim brand, founded in 2001, designed the first all-organic and Fairtrade jeans.
Having started out on a stall in Camden Market in the 1980s, Komodo is now known for its bright, colourful designs. Great menswear.
