According to a survey of about 7,000 people in Britain, over 55 percent had the greatest awareness of how garments are produced and 36 percent gazing for the country of origin before making any purchase.
The new wave of fair trade outlets face an uphill struggle to convince younger shoppers to buy organic cotton and ethically produced garments as only 14 percent felt the use of organic fibre was a very important consideration.
Presently 42 percent of aged under 25 took notice of ethical issues when it came to what they wore while only 27 percent of people overall were willing to pay more to guarantee their clothes were made in a sustainable way.
The plight of child laborers and sweatshop workers in developing countries is not known by most of the young people of Britain and more than half of under the age of 25 do not care how their clothes are produced.
Ethical clothes were defined as those not made by child labor or in sweatshops, for which the producers were paid a fair price, and where the environment was not damaged.
There is a lack of awareness of what's on offer as a quarter of respondents didn't know about the level of availability of ethical clothing and some big retailers may have misjudged public demand.
Overall, 76 percent of respondents viewed an end to child labor and sweatshops were a very important, 60 percent held offering producers a fair price was important and 50 percent wanted to reduce damage caused to the environment.
Of those who felt ethical production of clothes was important to them were 59 percent women.
Just over 53 percent felt they would buy ethical clothes if they did not cost more and those under 34 said price was more important than quality.
There were hectic requests especially from fashion students about how to source ethical clothes and materials.