The country’s first-ever fashion week shows there’s more to Cambodian fashion than fainting garment workers.

These days, Cambodia is known more for its clothing manufacturing than its clothing design. But with the launch of the first-ever Cambodia Fashion Week, that’s about to change.

Festivities kicked off yesterday in the capital city of Phnom Penh and continue through November 5, with a full slate of fashion shows, invite-only receptions, celebrity studded after-parties, and all of the glitz and glamor you’d expect from an international fashion showcase.

But in Cambodia, Fashion Week takes on additional significance in a country where most people subsist on less than $2 a day, and the clothing manufacturing industry provides a much needed step out of extreme poverty for many rural poor. Difficult working conditions, child labor, and toxic waste still permeate the industry, a fact recently spotlighted after a string of mass fainting incidents in Phnom Penh factories – suppliers to fast fashion giants like H&M – hit the mainstream media.

Event organizers are hoping to trump that negative attention and are more focused on Cambodia Fashion Week highlighting the more positive side of Cambodian fashion: its ability to showcase the country’s rich artistic and craft-based heritage.

Keok’ Jay, Fall ’11

“There’s a lot of manufacturing here, but very little design,” says Rachel Faller, founder of Keok’Jay, a social enterprise that will debut its latest collection at CFW. “Fashion Week will be a great opportunity for Cambodia to create and promote its design identity.”

Faller is one of many local designers who are proving that it’s possible to produce great fashion while respecting human rights.  Since 2008, she has worked with low-income, HIV-positive women to create sustainable apparel and accessories. Her latest collection is inspired by the sea, and makes plentiful use of recycled jersey and fabric scraps, but in a way that’s cohesive, not patchwork, she says. The collection will be sold at Keok’Jay’s three Cambodia retail locations and an online retailer located on their website.

Another ethical highlight of the week is the opening show from Eric Raisina, a Madagascar-born designer who has worked with traditional silk weavers to produce unique textiles for nearly a decade. His Siem Reap workshop employs nearly 30 Cambodian artisans, each groomed by Raisina himself, trained in a diverse set of skills, and paid a living wage.

Eric Raisina

Raisina’s new collection is inspired by the black orchid, a rare flower found only in Madagascar. “This collection will show exactly what Eric likes to do with silk in Cambodia,” says Christine Gleizes, Raisina’s publicity director. The show will also feature new prêt-à-porter items made from cotton, linen, and other fabrics found in local markets, which will be sold in Raisina’s new Phnom Penh boutique.

The week will culminate with an exclusive two-day shopping event featuring participating designers and local boutiques. The event will also include a social enterprise showcase, with projects and products from socially responsible businesses and NGOs. Unearthed are some great treasures including contemporary ikat handbags and accessories from Push Pull Cambodia; traditional krama check urban gear from Good Krama; pop-art inspired t-shirts from Friends International, an NGO that works with marginalized youth; and much more.

“Traditionally there is no social enterprise component to a Fashion Week,” says Emma Fountain, Marketing Advisor for Friends International and a showcase organizer. “But Cambodia is a special case. With the essence of the country still recovering, it is important to acknowledge this in a country where fashion is still very much emerging.”

Check out the full schedule online and follow the action on Twitter by following @CambodiaFW.

Suzanne Rae presents spring ’12, proving pattern, flounce and tailored silhouettes can seamlessly blend.

Brooklyn designer Suzanne Rae’s influences from the New York art gallery scene, design ateliers of Costume National in Milan, and Morgane Le Fay in New York always permeate her designs and we are appreciative of that. In fact, we specifically look for such influences in her collections.

Spring ’12 continues to satisfy our eclectic souls, drawing inspiration from 19th century-Japan and Rae’s collaboration with photographer Renato D’Agostin and his body of work Tokyo Untitled, “reflecting a modest era with a zen like quality that is at the same time optimistic for a better tomorrow.”

Rae’s artistic draping of crepe de chine, silk chiffon, hemp jersey, raw silk and hemp jersey were skillfully employed into tailored, high-waisted pants and shorts, flowing bustles, versatile mini-dresses, trendy jumpers and printed bikinis. All pieces that were easily translatable from runway to street.

We loved the raffia capes for a fun editorial touch and the Bruce Lee flats that added an effect of effortlessness to each model, each a style icon in her own right.

Here are some of our favorite looks.

Beauty turns up in the strangest places.

I love that when you first glance at this necklace from VivaTerra, it looks so sweet. Don’t get me wrong, it is, but the fact that the brass casing are actually remnants from a rifle range gives the sweetness a little edge. The resourceful designer and metalworker who finds the brass bullet casings that she re-purposes as glittering jewelry hammers flat the shells of fired rounds, then assembles them into a loop of cascading flower petals strung on Japanese tasso silk.

Wear this and it’s like a powerful amulet to shoo negativity away.

$69

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

Loomstate’s feminine summer styles offer comfort and grace in the face of summer heat.

In the summer months, all we want is something light and gauzy to get us through. Loomstate always has the perfect summer dress to take on this task and this Zostera Dress from the New York City based brand is perhaps our season’s top pick.

A sleeveless dress with shoulder detail and tie back made from organic cotton and silk, the Zostera Dress will take you from morning coffee to late day cocktails in sustainable style.

On sale, $146.25

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

Ikou-Tschüss is an indie brand that started as a hobby and has grown into a fully operating fashion business.

Ikou-Tschüss is Guya Marini and Carmen D’Apollonio, two friends who’ve coined their brand’s name on the fly: Ikou means ‘let’s go’ in Japanese and Tschüss means ‘bye’ in German. Since 2006 when the brand started, Marini and D’Apollonio have never gone anywhere but up in terms of how recognized the indie label has become within the greater fashion industry.

Their site says the label’s earliest beginnings began with the two designers meeting every summer in Zürich and exchanging ideas, but the lack of proximity kept their collaboration from coming immediately to fruition.

“Guya stayed active in Paris, doing her styling; Carmen, in Zürich and sometimes New York, was kept busy as the invaluable assistant to Swiss artist Urs Fischer. Then, meeting up again in the beginning of 2006, the two decided to focus exclusively on making handmade knitwear and croched silk foulards. Guya showed the pieces to her friend Livio and Stephan from the Parisian press office. Livio and Stephan were instantly taken with the knitwear and in their excitement planted the seeds for what was soon to become Ikou-Tschüss, demanding that Guya and Carmen formally create a label for the work they had brought in.”

When it comes to sustainability and still a strong fashion appeal, their main focus lies in sourcing quality materials. Most of their wool is either 100% cashmere or merino, and the silk comes from fair-trade locations in either South America or Tibet. They also incorporate recycled or vintage materials whenever possible and embrace the long-held tradition of knitting and crocheting which they themselves learned while growing up in the Swiss capital.

Their designs are made by hand and “the process of doing the work is vital to the form the design takes,” says the site, so production is staffed exclusively by grandmothers, who retain the old craftswomanly approach to handwork—skills that Guya and Carmen feel are disappearing today.

Kou Tschuss is located at 8 Centre Market Place in New York City and online.

Threads For Thought uses sustainable fabrics such as organic cotton and polyester recycled from plastic water bottles.

I’ll have to admit, I bought this top from Threads For Thought the other day and can’t stop finding new ways to wear it. Made from organic cotton on the front and a recycled polyester that feels like silk on the back, this cropped top is so light and breezy you’ll never want to take it off.

Seeing as it’s named the “I’m With The Band” top, who knows what will happen when you wear it.

$34

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

Australian designer Karla Spetic’s prints are something to lust over.

Karla Spetic is a Croatian-born designer now living in Sydney, honing her talent for balancing soft colors with vivid graphics and  specializing in making floaty dresses, simple trousers, and slim-cut blazers printed with winding roads that take you on a “Journey” through her collection’s countryside. Her Journey shirt makes us want to have our own, all the while wearing something of hers of course.

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

H Fredriksson is created from natural materials and made in New York City.

It’s hard to find a jumper that isn’t overly cute or too roomy to add bulk to what you might consider “Problem areas.” This silk jumper is the perfect solution for your day to night dilemma when on vacation or when you know going home, won’t be an option until late. A change of jewelry and shoe will make this piece have an altogether different vibe.

Helena Fredriksson of H Fredriksson is a master of draping and sexy silhouettes that would never confuse anyone that you are anything but a mature woman ready to spend a day doing whatever it is one does in a sexy jumper. Even if it’s just, jumping.

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

Spring’s little white dresses will take you softly into summer.

A clean canvas to build from.

A youthful embrace.

A sexy something to spend a summer day in.

Can you hear it? Your Little White Dress is calling you.

We agree with Lucky Magazine: white dresses are right on trend and really, what don’t they go with? Here are some of our favorites this season:

Kelly B’s Cedar Voile Dress, 100% Organic Cotton Voile, $165

Elroy’s Larkspur Dress, 95% Modal, 5% Spandex, $73.50

Rogan’s Electra Dress, 100% Space-Dyed Jersey, (optional black, 100% silk slip included), $375

Loomstate’s Nautilus Dress, 100% Organic Heavy Gauze Cotton, $295

Feral Childe Loopy Pleated Dress, 100% Organic Cotton, $145

Loup Charmant’s Raglan Touring Dress, 100% Organic Cotton, $312

Linda Loudermilk Lounge Dress, 100% Seacell, $192.50

Main image: John Patrick Organic

Alison Kelly’s Dahl dresses can’t help but make you feel pretty.

Dahl’s 50s-inspired tank dress (cut from their very first custom printed silk), will have you spring or summer party ready. We also advise you carelessly spin a few times to fluff out the full skirt and feel even more bubbly. $224

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com