Tuesday 22 August 2023
Green Deals Tuesday: what’s new in sustainable fashion
Hello sustainable fashionistas!
Wow, where has the time gone? For those very observant of you, you’ll notice that it’s actually three weeks not two since my last newsletter. While I had the best of intentions to send one out while we were on holiday, I’m afraid it was just too tricky while juggling two young children, so I apologise and hope that this week’s edition makes up for it!
This week, I bring you some end of season sales from some great brands like French Good Guys Don’t Wear Leather, and minimalistic luxury brand Eileen Fisher, and more sustainable fashion news.
What’s in the news?
What I notice a lot of is that more and more brands are incorporating sustainable and eco-friendly materials into their collections. And not just recycled polyester, which itself can be quite polluting, but we’re seeing more bio-based materials which have way less impact and, if used for the whole product, means that it is biodegradable at the end of life.
I love this, I truly do, but I’d also love brands to be shouting about their ethical stances and treating the people who actually make their clothes better. Like paying them for starters. Hello Nike.
I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter!
Some end of season sales & codes
- Eileen Fisher: For timeless & eco-friendly clothing, committed to ethical practices and environmental responsibility. Up to 60% off until 31 August.
- Good Guys Don’t Wear Leather (pictured): For funky vegan footwear as loved by Emma Watson. Up to 50% off in their end of season clearance or 15% off everything else with code GOODMAKERTALES
- Wolf & Badger: For pure gorgeousness, a round up of the best independent conscious designers. Take 10% off everything with code FINAL10.
- Toby Tiger: for colourful and funky organic cotton baby and kidswear, 10% off with code TIGER10.
- Baby Mori: for organic baby clothes and sleepwear, 10% off everything with code SLEEPTIME10.
- OMNES: for sustainable & affordable fashion made ethically from eco friendly materials. 20% off their spring edit with the code SPRINGREADY.
Quote of the week:
“Demand quality, not just in the products you buy but in the life of the person who made it”
Orsola de Castro
What news? Sustainable fashion in the press
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is investing £6million into sustainable fashion research
The money will be divided across three research teams at The University of Leeds, University of Exeter and Northumbria University.
The Leeds team is looking to establish a baseline to analyse sustainability practices in the fashion industry, helping to move the industry to a circular model.
The Exeter team will run the Future Fibres Network aiming to embed environmental sciences into the industry. While the Northumbria team will analyse the methods used to evaluate the environmental impact of fashion with stakeholders such as ASOS, Barbour and Montane.
Sustainable fashion brand Ninety Percent is popping up in Harrods!
For beautiful sculpted womenswear from sustainable, vegan materials, look no further than Ninety Percent. The ethical brand share 90% of their profits, 10% to the people who make their collections and 80% to causes they believe in.
If you’d like to touch and feel the brand, they are popping up on the fourth floor of Harrods until 17 September!
Nike: the good AND the bad
Nike is well known for many things, and now they’re taking the plunge into bio ingredients in their shoes. Their new sneaker, designed with Billie Eilish is using a pigment made from algae instead of petroleum based ink.
HOWEVER, this does not absolve them of their sins! Nike still owe $2.2 million in stolen wages to a total of 4,644 workers from Thailand and Cambodia after their factories were closed down during Covid.
If you’d like to help advocacy organisation Remake in their call to ask Nike to #justpayit, you can get the kit on how to hold them accountable through social media and other means HERE.
Stella McCartney creates luxury bag from Plant Based Leather
Stella McCartney has released her new luxury vegan bag at her winter 2023 show. The bag is made from MIRUM®, an animal, plastic and water free leather made from bio-based ingredients and completely biodegradable at the end of its life.
Coming in at $1,170 you might want to get saving now!
Higher priced clothing doesn’t neccesarily last longer!
A new study from Leeds University has found that a £5 t shirt to be more durable than one for £50! While it’s ratifying to know that a large part of an expensive brand’s cost may be down to branding and marketing, the study was commissioned by charity Hubbub and Primark, so it might not be the most reliable out there.
In the case of sustainable and ethical brands, you can be assured that the extra money you’re spending is going towards worker wages and healthy and eco conscious fabrics that don’t pollute us or the earth!
Under Armour is to start using hemp!
Under Armour have signed a nearly $6 million sourcing deal with Australian firm Hemp Black to incorporate the super fabric into its collection. It will be allocating a further $6.74 million into specialised manufacturing equipment.
Hemp’s qualities make it perfect for sportswear, being durable and water resistent, as well as naturally fire resistant. It’s so reassuring to see how many brands are taking up the use of this super fabric which uses a fraction of the water of cotton and naturally captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
I Hope you enjoyed this newsletter
For any comments or requests for different content in our newsletter, please get in touch and let me know! And to get the fortnightly newsletter straight to your inbox in advance of publishing, sign up below!
Have a great fortnight.
All the best
Julie
