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Livia Firth named global ambassador for Oxfam

Eco warrior and wife of Colin, Livia Firth, has been announced as Oxfam's latest global ambassador and will help the charity with its campaigning and fundraising work.

20 July 2012

Livia Firth models a Little Black Dress from her Livia Firth Designs collection

Livia Firth has become a global ambassador for Oxfam, joining the likes of her actor husband Colin, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Coldplay's Chris Martin, to partner the charity in its campaigning and fundraising work.

Italian-born Livia, who married Oscar-winner Colin in 1997, has supported Oxfam for years and has visited its programs in Bangladesh and Zambia. She has helped Oxfam to raise funds in the UK, America and Italy.

Livia also regularly supports Oxfam fundraising auctions and runs ethical e-commerce shop Eco Age , a shop-in-shop at online retail destination Yoox which sells only sustainable designs.

She donated the jewellery she wore to the 2011 Baftas and to the 2011 Oscars ceremony. Most recently she donated four gowns which she wore on the red carpet.

READ: Livia Firth kicks off her 2012 Green Carpet Challenge

The dresses by Armani, Valentino, Gucci and Prada are all bespoke sustainable pieces produced for Livia's Green Carpet Challenge, a project which pairs glamour and ethics to raise the profile of sustainable style at the world's most high-profile red carpet events.

Livia said: "An on-the-ground visit with Oxfam's partners really helped to open my eyes to the truth of the global supply chain for fashion. Meeting the women who produce our fashion brought me face to face with the realities of life in a garment factory and the urgent need for reform and equality in our supply chains.

"I am really excited to become an ambassador for Oxfam. I hugely respect the way that it works, supporting communities to find solutions to the problems they face, whether by safeguarding the rights of women, ensuring that people have access to health care and education or something as fundamental as making sure that everyone has enough to eat."

Claire Lewis, Oxfam global ambassador programme manager, said: "Livia is a wonderful ambassador to welcome into the organisation. She has a huge amount of energy and is passionate and committed in her support of Oxfam's work."

The Style Maven: global traveller

Kate Finnigan dreams of travelling through clothes.

BY Kate FInnigan | 08 July 2012

Photo: LAURA CALLAGHAN

I was in a swanky part of town the other day when a chic woman with silver hair and a rather nice Fendi handbag caught my eye. As I turned to watch her go, I saw the underside of the upturned collar of her denim jacket, embellished with coloured beads and ethnic-style embroidery. It was a nice touch, lending the subtle impression that this was a well-travelled woman, someone who had seen The World.

I like to think the jacket had been bartered for at a noisy market in Jakarta, but actually she could just as well have picked it up on the British high street. The global-traveller trend, having been spearheaded by designers such as Isabel Marant, Michael Kors and Burberry, has been a hit here this spring - something of a touchy subject for Marks & Spencer, which admitted back in April that it hadn't bought enough 'tribal print', poor things.

Perhaps you didn't spend April banging on the doors of M&S demanding a Masai-inspired style fix but the idea might be that bit more appealing by now, when you are either preparing to jet to some exotic clime or feeling furious that you're not. This trend works either way. If tickets for the Full Moon party on Koh Phangan are already yours, Marant has provided the perfect wardrobe.

But if you have no chance of hearing the sunset drumming on Benirrás beach or spotting an elephant in Namibia, a pair of printed trousers from Asos Africa, a Peruvian-style embroidered top from Zara or a silver 'taco' bracelet by Lucy Folk might make you feel better about the fact.

Rebecca Osei-Baidoo, the womenswear buyer for Browns fashion store, which has bought into the trend with big names like Burberry (now on sale) and smaller ones like Dezso - a jewellery line designed by a Mexican living in Jaipur - says the emotional pull of 'global traveller' has been significant to its success.

'Travelling makes people dream - that faraway beach, that place we found in Marrakech. Maybe we aren't spending as much money as we were on holidays but this look gives you a little bit of that feeling in your real life', she says. 'We can still dream through our clothes.'

From left: Stretch-cotton jacket, £345; Chloé, net-a-porter.com ; Stretch-cotton shorts, £35; Asos Africa asos.com ; Cotton and silver bracelet, £55; Lucy Folk, matchesfashion.com