Ever since I started my journey to My Own Version of Vegan and Stacy wrote about why she prefers real leather (I do too for the record) examples of when leather might be considered ethical have been constantly on my radar. Gucci is the latest fashion house to jump on the bandwagon and have teamed up with Livia Firth of Eco Age and the Green Carpet Challenge to create the world's first zero deforestation leather handbag collection featuring ethically sourced versions of its famous Jackie, Hobo and Tote bags. Made from the hide of cows raised exclusively on Rainforest Alliance deforestation free certified ranches in the Brazilian Amazon, each bag comes with a passport detailing its creation from calf to final product. Along with China, Brazil is now the world's top exporter of tanned leather with some 10% of it's hides exported to Italy where they are retanned and 

JOCELYN WHIPPLE might not be someone you may have heard of, but if you are in the ethical fashion business you would have certainly been exposed to her hand at some point. Heard of a little something called "The Green Carpet Challenge" with Livia Firth? Well Jocelyn is one of the key experts behind this initiative, and possesses an array of roles--ethical stylist, ethical fashion buyer and consultant, blogger, and the list goes on. With her ethical fashion agency, ELEMENT 23, it seemed as though there was nothing Jocelyn didn't know about the sometimes confusing world of ethical and 'eco' fashion. Going by this alone, you can imagine why someone so petite would leave such a large impression on The Conscience Collective. So, we sat down with Jocelyn at one of her events--this was part of another ethical initiative she is involved in called PureThread--and spoke with her about the 'eco' fashion industry in the UK, how it all came to be, and advice she has for small ethical brands as we get 2013 rolling.