This should clear things up.

mm, not really. still mostly unreadable.

My Swedish is very rusty, but here goes (dictionary in hand)...

*****

Portland, in the USA, offers up an ecological fashion utopia. The politicians are removing the chain stores from the heart of the city, and locally manufactured garments clothe the city's fashionistas. SvD has visited the world's first ecological fashion week.

Energy efficient incandescent bulbs, a catwalk made of bamboo, and models styled with environmentally friendly hairspray.

These are the details which distinguish Portland's ecological fashion week.

"Portland is a city of entrepreneurs, and has dealt with fashion by thinking for itself [???]," says Tito Chowdhury, one of the enthusiasts behind the fashion week.

Around 40 designers gathered this week in Portland in order to show the latest in ecological fashion. The local talent dominated, but the offerings also included international giants like Nike and well-known American fashion labels such as Stewart+Brown.

"It's about time that a city takes responsibility and advocates for a complete lifestyle [??]," says designer Modi Soondarotok, who recently relocated to Portland from New York to start the Idom label.

The west coast city of Portland lies south of Seattle, and has frequently been identified as the USA's most environmentally conscious city.

Portland has long attracted pioneers when it comes to locally grown food and hard-wearing [??] architecture, but in the last three years the city has also been invaded by fashion designers looking for affordable boutique space, ecological materials, and the possibility of local manufacture.

"Portland offers a unique lifestyle and attracts designers from New York and Los Angeles who want greater space/scope for their creations," says Vivian McInerny, fashion editor for Portland's daily newspaper the Oregonian.

Environmentally conscious fashion includes everything from ecological cotton to good worker relations. In Portland above all the concept of 'locally grown' has entered the fashion vocabulary.

"Our customers want to know who manufactured a piece of clothing just as they want to know who baked a loaf of bread," says Holly Stalder, who runs Seaplane, one of the city's most fashion-setting boutiques.

Seaplane sells clothing by scores of designers, and has a rule that all garments must be manufactured locally.

"Clothing makers here don't dream of becoming rich and outfitting celebrities; instead, fashion in Portland is primarily about making unique clothes and having a close relationship with customers," says Holly Stalder.

Portland politicians are eager/proud/jealous about the city's newly won fashion preeminence, and support fashion week. They have even instituted laws keeping the large chain stores out of the city center and helping designers to start their own clothing companies. The city has around 30 popular designers, and the majority of them run their own boutiques, laying the foundation for a unique fashion scene.

"My clothes are not distributed to the only environmentally conscious fashion boutique in Portland. Here you see clearly that people live an ecological lifestyle, and like to show that through their clothing choices," says New York designer Nina Valenti, who runs Nature vs. Future, which showed her collection in Portland.

All 40 spring collections were displayed [??] during Portland's fashion week.

And despite the fact that eco-fashion is all the rage the world over, it's still sporty simplicity which dominates, contributing to ecological fashion being placed in its own style category. The material is the sales argument more than the cut, and various materials such as bamboo, sea-grass, and corn are currently making their way into ever more fashion-[???] advanced collections.

During Portland's fashion week, innovative designers, for example Leanne Marshall, offered draped creations with an environment-friendly touch.

"I don't want there to be any leftovers/waste products, so I use remnants to create hidden pockets," says Leanne Marshall, the person behind the Leanimal label, who has also created a vest that can function as a handbag.

Portland's fashion week is global, but above all reflects the city when it comes to style. Individuality is more important than trends, and so fashion works on a small scale.

"The bigger you become, the more impersonal it becomes, and even though we've anticipated/waited for this notoriety for many years, we still want to continue to be unique," says Holly Stalder of Seaplane.

Portland's ecological fashion week is already in the planning stages for next year.

And even though the organizers are glad/eager to hold the title of world's biggest ecological fashion week, they hope to be able to act as a trend-setting example.

"Naturally we want to be the only ecological fashion week that matters, but we hope that if we continue to do our thing here in Portland, other cities will follow our lead," says Tito Chowdhury.