With the 2010 fashion weeks falling around Fairtrade Fortnight, we haven't failed to notice that ethical, eco-friendly and Fairtrade fashion has been one of the biggest talking points in Milan, Paris, New York and London. Some of the biggest fashion weeks have dedicated shows and events to Fairtrade and eco-friendly fashion, with Esthetica at London Fashion week showcasing 28 designers who fit the friendly fashion bill. Of course we've all known this for a while, but if it gives us some more Fairtrade fashion to admire then who are we to complain?

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Between the 22nd February and the 7th of March, Fairtrade are celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight 2010. The fortnight is a chance to raise awareness of Fairtrade values and to help change the lives of disadvantaged workers worldwide. Here are some simple ways that you can become part of making a change, and it even involves drinking as much beer, tea and coffee as you can manage...

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Ben and Jerry are world famous for their ice cream, a range of flavours with cutesy names and packaging ('Yes Pecan!' a new flavour created for Barack Obama's inauguration is my favourite name). Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield started the company in 1978 after taking a correspondence course in ice cream making and have always focused on making their product and practices the best possible ethically, socially and environmentally, using free range eggs, sustainable dairy farming programmes and starting initiatives like the Climate Change College. The company was taken over in 2000 by multinational corporation Unilever, to wails of dismay and cries that they were selling out, but the brand has managed to remain ethical in its operation, today announcing its commitment to go 100% Fairtrade by the end of 2011. Hippyshopper caught up with Ben and Jerry for a short chat as they launched 100 Fair trades in Leicester Square this morning.

Q: Nowadays most companies are increasingly aware of ethical issues, as are consumers, whereas previously they weren't so prevalent. When you guys started out, what made you so environmentally and socially aware as a central concern of your company?

Ben: I just think it's what we cared about as people and then as the business started becoming larger we felt like we were in danger of just becoming another part of the corporate machine that tends to exploit the society and the community and the environment and its workers. We made a very conscious decision to only continue the business if we could find a way to use the business to be beneficial to the society and the environment and its workers and that began an experiment 25 years ago. You know, socially responsible business did not exist at the time and we had no idea whether we were going to be successful at it or not.

Bulldog has become the first male grooming company to launch a range of Fairtrade products. The new range, which consists of Bulldog Eco-System Shave Gel and Bulldog Eco-System Moisturiser will launch ahead of Fairtrade Fortnight (22nd February to 4th March).

The new products include amazing natural Fairtrade ingredients from across the globe. The range contains green tea from Sri Lanka, organic shea butter from Ghana, organic sugar from Paraguay, sesame seed oil from Nicaragua, and Brazil nut oil from Peru.

Bulldog Eco-System Shave Gel - (175ml, RRP £3.69) - Containing Fairtrade Green Tea from Sri Lanka, Organic Sugar from Paraguay and a unique blend of eight essential oils to soothe the skin following the rigors of shaving.

Bulldog Eco-System Moisturiser - (100ml, RRP £6.49) - Containing Fairtrade organic shea butter from Ghana, Fairtrade sesame seed oil from Nicaragua and Fairtrade Brazil nut oil from Peru and a unique blend of eight essential oils to hydrate the skin.

The Bulldog range was born out of frustration that there were no options available for switched-on men who wanted to reduce the number of man-made chemicals in their bathrooms.

The Fairtrade Foundation was established to focus on better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest and weakest producers.

It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives. More than 7 million people now benefit from Fairtrade, with products coming from 58 developing countries all around the world.

Life is Not Fair but my Knickers Are is the latest range of Fairtrade nightwear and underwear.

Beautifully designed and made from certified Fairtrade cotton, the UK label includes flirty lingerie, flattering loungewear and seriously luxurious pyjamas.

With Fairtrade Fortnight and Valentines just around the corner, there is no better time to show commitment to Fairtrade and share it with a loved one.

Now available from By Nature and Fashion-Conscience.com. Prices range from £10 to £25.

During the week commencing November 23rd, AMT Coffee will be celebrating the fifth anniversary of its conversion to selling 100% Fairtrade coffee throughout its shops.

To thank customers for their support over the past five years, AMT will offer anyone who purchases a Fairtrade drink the chance to buy a Fairtrade brownie for half price. The offer will take place nationally at AMT's railway and airport outlets.

Say Allan McCallum Toppin, Operations Director for AMT: "We went Fairtrade as that is what our customers wanted and we believed it was the right thing to do. Seeing the growth in Fairtrade since that time has been fantastic and hopefully we played our part in that change. Our company mission statement and proven track record of delivering a high quality product at a reasonable price really dispels the myth that going Fairtrade will mean compromising on either of these factors".

The first national coffee company to go Fairtrade, AMT were also the first to use 100% organic milk.

To celebrate the launch of the first Fairtrade beauty products this summer we are pleased to offer 40 goodie bags to give away.

To date, 57 beauty products have been licensed by the Fairtrade Foundation from six companies including Boots, Bubbles & Balm, Essential Care, Visionary Soap, Lush and Neal's Yard.

Each beauty product contains one or more Fairtrade certified ingredient such as cocoa butter, shea nut butter, sugar or brazil nut oil, benefitting disadvantaged producers from countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Through Fairtrade labelled beauty products, producers will benefit in three ways.
• Producers will get the Fairtrade minimum price plus a premium, a bit extra to invest in community projects such as schools and healthcare.
• The companies behind the products will have a partnership plan in place showing how they will additionally support producers to develop their businesses and communities.
• The Fairtrade Foundation has worked hard to set minimum thresholds of Fairtrade ingredients at levels which allow best selling volume lines of beauty products containing natural ingredients to be certified.

Introducing Fairtrade labelling to beauty products will increase the overall number of Fairtrade products in UK shops and the volumes of ingredients which producers are able to sell under Fairtrade terms, which in turn increases the benefits back to farmers.

Bochica, a pleasingly affordable eco-chic boutique for men and women that's usually to be found only on the web is teaming up with bespoke textile design team Emmeline 4 Re to open a pop-up shop in London for one week only (this one). So I recommend a visit if you're in the London area and want to stock up on some ethical threads before summer kicks in properly.

Prices start at just £8 (almost unheard of in the eco fashion world!) which is why I'm heading over there right now!

Related: Emmeline 4 Re: from landfill to catwalk

We're into the second week of Fairtrade Fortnight now, and judging by the official calendar of events, this second half of the event seems to be all about the tastier things in life: if you're in Brighton, you can drop in on Infinity Foods on North Road for a spot of chocolate tasting, all day with Divine. In Leicestershire, kids can take part in what's promisingly called a 'choca moneky challenge' at South Wigston High School, Wigston, while Bassaleg school in Newport is holding 'Bring a banana to school day'.

So what's the big deal with bananas?

Divine make some of the scrummiest fairtrade chocolate around, in my opinion, and to mark the start of Fairtrade Fortnight, they're giving away a free bar to anyone who takes the time to fill out this form.

The reason Divine tastes so good may well come down to the quality of the cocoa butter that goes into the chocolate and I was interested to learn that Divine uses the very same melt-on-the-skin cocoa butter from Kuapa Kokoo as The Body Shop includes in its Body Butter products. Through trade with both organisations, over 50,000 small-scale farmers now receive a fair, above average price for their above average cocoa butter. The trade also contributes to Kuapa's social fund which is used to provide schools, wells, drinking water and medical facilities.

Related: Recipes with a heart from Divine Chocolate

Fairtrade fortnight gets underway from next week, and alongside the official programme of events, there are loads of activities with a fairtrade theme going on.

Cafédirect are marking the occasion with a programme of foodie-friendly events at Whole Foods Market, Kensington High Street in London, and they're offering you the chance to win a pair of tickets to any of the 'Meet the Expert's sessions and Acoustic Music nights during TasteFair

Read on after the jump for details

Related: Stars go nuts for Fairtrade Fortnight

We're only a week away from Fairtrade Fortnight, which promises to be full of more events and happenings than any other year. And to remind us all of the upcoming occasion in style, a bevvy of celebs including ER actress Alex Kingston have donned jewellery made from fairtrade nuts provided by Liberation Nuts. The images will be included in an exhibition opening at the Eden Project in Cornwall next week.

Fairtrade Fortnight has become an annual fixture in any green's calendar, and I always find it immensely cheering to learn how much progress has been made with each year that passes. It kicks off this year with a fun family sports day on London's South Bank, which promises to be even bigger than last year's hugely successful fairtrade fairground! Watch this space for more details.

Related: Date for your diary: World Fair Trade day - 9th May

Say the words 'fair trade' to most people, they'll probably think about coffee. Or perhaps tea, chocolates or not-very-sexy jewellery. But fair trade is about so much more than commodities, which is why World Fair Trade day, taking place this year on 9th May is so worthwhile.

As a consumer, you can make a far bigger impact on global poverty than you might have realised, and harnessing that power is what World Fair Trade Day is all about. Run by the World Fair Trade Organisation, this year's theme is 'Big Bang' and events will be aimed at beating the drum for fair trade in all sorts of ways.

I doubt that many people would be surprised to hear that France's fashionable First Lady decided to bring back a piece of local style from her first official overseas visit; a recnet trip to Khayelitsha, South Africa. But Carla Bruni-Sarkozy also made sure she was doing her bit to help local communities when she picked out this brightly-coloured 'township' bag to sell back home, with profits going towards establishing a new cooperative that will provide sustainable employment for ten disadvantaged women.

The bags (which seem to have been re-named the 'Carla'!) are made from a hessian and cotton blend, and are bound to become fashion statements overnight. If you want to be ahead of the curve (and do some good at the same time) you can pick one up for € 100.00 at Colette.

However good your intentions are, it isn't always easy to equate that tiny 'fairtrade' logo that appears on certain products with the real lives it represents, making it all to easy to overlook those products in favour of other that are a bit cheaper.

Liberation Nuts is one company committed to fairtrade and to remind you of the stories behind the label, they've produced this excellent video, featurnig farmers from a Nicaraguan co-operative. Then see how much you still want to buy cheap nuts...

Liberation Nuts have started a debate over on facebook about fairtrade and why people should get involved. If you'd like to contribute, it's happening here. (and you can grab some free nuts there while you're at it)