SUSTAINABLE

Sustainable Gift Shops

November 10, 2020 in SUSTAINABLE, SUSTAINABLE GIFTS

Looking for sustainable online shops to find all your ethical gifts? we have complied a list for you below to help.

Eco Life London

Our mission is to promote sustainable products and practices to help reduce waste and environmental impact.

We want to make sustainable purchases accessible, clear and without fuss.

https://www.ecolifelondon.com/

Tabitha Eve

‘We believe in being kinder to the planet on which we live, and helping you lead a lifestyle with less waste.’

https://www.tabithaeve.co.uk/

Wearth London

‘Wearth was launched in 2017 and we now partner with over 250 independent UK brands that make contemporary eco-friendly and ethical products, making it easier for you to shop and live more consciously.’

https://www.wearthlondon.com/

Ethical Gifts

‘Ethical Gifting is about self care and caring for others. In amongst our busy lives it’s amazing what a little calm can do for you! Burning a candle, drinking some tea, having a relaxing bath with essential oils and scrubs, using fragrant natural soaps or even having a chocolate. All these self care rituals can contribute to your wellbeing. We can make more conscious choices about the products we buy and still enjoy ‘the little things in life’.

https://ethicalgifting.co.uk/

Alice and Peg

‘Ethical Gifting Made Simple We work with UK based independent makers to curate thoughtful, eco-conscious gift boxes filled with handmade, sustainable, cruelty-free products.’

https://aliceandpeg.com/

Zero Living

‘Zero-Living the conscious consuming lifestyle platform.’

https://www.zero-living.com/

Authentic House

‘Our aim is too keep you inspired on your path to ethical living’

https://www.authentichouse.co.uk

The Handcrafted Curator

‘A curated collection supporting small independent artists, designers and makers.

From their hands to yours....’

https://thehandcraftedcurator.com/

Pom to the People Exhibition!

October 25, 2017 in EVENTS, EXHIBITION, SUSTAINABLE

The Pom to the People Exhibition was shown at the Gallery at 164 in Leeds.

It was called Pom to the people by Stitch up. Stitch up are a social enterprise, keeping the value of craft alive, they run local workshops for all things handmade, teaching people who are eager to lean new skills crafting.

The exhibit showed lots of colourful handmade pom poms transformed into typography artwork. The Pom poms were made from various workshops held by Stitch Up. They were very sustainable and used scrap yarn and material, recycling the yarn into amazing artwork.

Normally typography is harsh and sharp in 2D form, but with this artwork it had a soft edge to it as it. made up of colourful fluffy Pom Poms, showing texture and a 3D element.

I particularly liked the Love art, this was made up of four separate letters, its very versatile, you could move the pieces horizontal to have the artwork shown in a different way.

There was also a long piece of paper in the middle of the exhibition saying what makes you happy? There was all these colourful answers. manly people answered saying their pets made them happy. This was a great activity to get involved in.

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Modern Japanese Design Exhibition & Material World Debate!

March 30, 2017 in TRAVEL, SUSTAINABLE, EVENTS

Modern Japanese Design Exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery!

This was one of the reasons we went to Manchester, I have been looking forward to this exhibition for a while, as I'm very inspired by Japanese culture and their values.

The exhibition was situated at the Manchester Art Gallery. The art gallery was showing room after room of paintings. One modern painting in particular caught my eye.

The painting showed Skulls growing out of a plant, this was painted on reclaimed wood which was a great contrast and an interesting material. The image itself played on the idea of the living & the dead.

Roses 2007

Jai Redman an inspiring artist, an environmental activist with thought provoking art.

We walked up to the Modern Japanese Design exhibition area on the third floor.

The exhibition was in a spacious room. On the right hand side there was this beautiful arrangement of clothing and interior design pieces. The colour scheme was monochrome with hints of bright red, the concept was very pleasing to look at. This exhibition was showing the work of great designers such as Issey Myiake, Rei Kawakubo.

The garments were a mixture of draping and 3D shapes.

I wasn't so keen on the way garments that were placed in the middle, of the room. There was no colour scheme involved, the garments looked like they needed ironed, they just didn't sit well together, which was a shame.

Among the exhibition there were Japanese definitions on the walls, which were great to read.

Among the exhibits there was a variation of clay items that were transformed into geometric shapes, which resembled pleating.

There was also plastic art, made out of recycled PET bottles, they were formed into geometric shapes that could be flat packed and opened out.

Wandered about Chinatown!

Basically a row of Chinese restaurants takaway and gift shops which where very cute, selling all sorts of gifts. The main reason we went was to look at the immense Chinese gate.

Afflecks Palace

A building that's full of creativity. You could spend hours in there getting lost. The best thing was whilst walking up the stairs they had thought provoking words advertising no derogatory labels.

https://www.afflecks.com/

Image credit: http://www.johnmeephotography.com/return-to-afflecks-palace/

Bundobust

We visited bundobust for a quick snack, the restaurant was a lot bigger than the Leeds venue. It was between 12-4pm so we were able to get 2 dishes for £7 they tasted delicious and were quite filling, my favourite dish was the okra fries. They have a great variety of vegan options which is great!

http://www.bundobust.com/manchester/

Material World Panel Debate at Selfridges

Whilst we were walking around the venue we spotted signs on the rails of designers for the Material World campaign. I was slightly disappointed there wasn't a whole concession/area specifically for material World. The talk was on the menswear floor next to the community clothing concession. We were welcomed to the event with a champagne reception also elderflower and raspberry drink for the non drinkers. It was one of the most intriguing and thought provoking events I have attended.

Talking about all things sustainable and what the panellist do to retain a sustainable business. They offered advice on what emerging designers could do to be sustainable.

Read more about Selfridges sustainability policy here:

http://www.selfridges.com/GB/en/features/info/sustainability

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The True Cost Documentary

September 11, 2016 in ZERO WASTE, DOCUMENTARIES

Image from https://truecostmovie.com/‘This is a story about clothing. It’s about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the huma… — Image from https://truecostmovie.com/
‘This is a story about clothing. It’s about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have grown dramatically. The True Cost is a groundbreaking documentary film that pulls back the curtain on the untold story and asks us to consider, who really pays the price for our clothing?
Filmed in countries all over the world, from the brightest runways to the darkest slums, and featuring interviews with the world’s leading influencers including Stella McCartney, Livia Firth and Vandana Shiva, The True Cost is an unprecedented project that invites us on an eye opening journey around the world and into the lives of the many people and places behind our clothes’
Extract from https://truecostmovie.com/

Watching this film changed everything, from my personal life to my business. It was shocking to watch! It made me realise how much fashion plays a huge part in ruining the Earth, as well as the lives of people involved within the fashion industry. From people that live near factories, that leak out chemicals into the water supply, slave labour from children, to people working every hour of the day for little to no money, fashion has ruined people lives. Consumers should to be aware of this!

In the documentary it revisits the horror that was the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in 2013, bringing fashion factory workers health and safety to the forefront of the news around the world.

People buy into fast fashion so easily without considering the impact. Designers & brands used to only produce 2 collections a year, now it’s 52, a collection out each week of the year, it just shows how bad fast fashion has got.

Ask yourself a few questions when you next go shopping: How can this t-shirt only cost £5? How was the fabric grown and produced? Where was the the garment produced? Who made the garment? Are they getting paid fairly? What is the carbon footprint of this item? The most important question is Can I make a difference?

After watching the documentary it made me realise that I can make a difference, being a fashion designer. I can make changes for the better. Showing consumers that you can have luxury contemporary fashion that is also ethically made and sustainably produced. I am hoping other businesses realise that they can make a change for the better.

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Is it difficult to become a fully sustainable business? Yes it is but it was the best thing we ever did. Everything is a learning curve, we are always trying new ideas and improving to make things better.

We were already using end of roll fabrics, these fabrics would otherwise end up as landfill waste, and we were producing garments in house, but we knew we could do more.

Zero waste is also a move we wanted to do for a while, by using fabric in the most economical way. Also rather then only recycling the fabric waste, we are now recycling everything from patten paper, card, and branding materials. If we are outsourcing a product we make sure the business has the same ethics as us, and rather them then discarding the waste, we ask them to send it to us for us to reuses or recycle, we do this so we are fully knowledgeable of where the waste ends up.

We are aiming to be be a transparent business. What we mean by that is if a customer asks where were their garments produced & where the fabric was made, we want to be able to answer that question confidently. Currently all our organic fabrics are all fully traceable. We at ZARAMIA AVA have also since gone vegan to have the least carbon footprint as we can. Going vegan as a business makes you question everything from the fabrics to the dyes, prints and packaging.

Read our Ethos here www.ZaraMiaAva.com/Ethos

Links:

A film by Andrew Morgan

https://truecostmovie.com/

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