Colin Firth’s eco-warrior wife slammed by TV tailor

COLIN FIrth’s ‘ eco- warrior’ wife Livia is admired by the fashion elite for her ethical clothes campaigning and has even recruited film star Emma Watson to back her cause.

But approval from one of Britain’s leading designers is harder to come by. savile row tailor Patrick Grant, a judge on the BBC’s Great British sewing Bee, has accused her of being blinded by the allure of fame, money, and ‘looking cool’.

‘I don’t know how she’s being sustainable, I really don’t,’ Patrick, 45, tells me. ‘I don’t know what her Green Carpet Challenge [where designers are urged to create ecofriendly outfits fit for the red carpet] is about other than it relies on celebrities to sell more stuff.

‘It’s difficult because you want to sell a good amount, but if your whole model is predicated on using celebrities to sell stuff, you lose something important. It becomes just about money, rather than the clothes.’

Patrick, owner and creative director of stylish menswear label E. tautz, recently set up the Community Clothing project to help revive the British clothes manufacturing industry by creating jobs.

Livia, 47, has been married to Colin for 20 years and they have two sons. she founded Eco-Age in 2007 to deliver ‘ a unique and powerful positioning for brands’, which include luxury labels such as stella McCartney, Gucci and Erdem.

the firm has since set up the Green Carpet Challenge, which has won the support of hollywood names including Watson and Bradley Cooper. Its aim is said to ‘pair glamour and ethics to raise the profile of sustainability and social welfare’.

Patrick says of his own sustainability endeavours: ‘ We’re doing something on a proper, large, industrial scale. It’s about creating jobs in the UK and as a by-product it ends up being sustainable but we didn’t set out to be a “green” company or an “eco” company. We set out very specifically to create as many jobs in Britain as we could.

‘ that’s what sustainability is about; it’s not about looking cool and having celebrities promote your brand.’

A spokesman for Livia tells me: ‘Livia actively works against needless consumerism. We absolutely support all companies working to be more sustainable.’

PLANS for a £300,000 statue of Margaret Thatcher in Parliament Square were rejected by the Government over fears it would be vandalised by Left-wingers. But her former Education Secretary, Lord Baker, claims there’s a more crucial reason why it should not be erected. ‘No one should have a statue up — even the beloved Margaret — less than ten years after they have died,’ he tells me. ‘I didn’t like the one that was suggested. It wasn’t very nice — it’s all in her regal peeress robes and that’s not like her at all.’ And he added: ‘She should have a handbag!’