Posh Swaps Blog

An eco fashion company from the Isle of Wight is taking on fashion’s last big challenge –making eco fashion cool.

Rapanui use eco-textiles like organic cotton and bamboo, trade and manufacture ethically using renewable energy and host an award winning traceability tool on their website where shoppers can quickly find out exactly how and where their clothing is made. Now that they have established an eco-friendly supply chain the company has turned its attention to the design challenge – turning eco-fashion around from hippy to hip.

Their women’s collection is about creating super soft, flattering basics- eco fashion essentials that are made to last and outlast seasons. From knickers and socks to leggings and great basic t-shirts,

Rapanui have created a collection full of wardrobe essentials made ethically from natural, organic materials – eco clothing that packs a serious style punch.  

Designer Martin Drake-Knight  states “We all know, at the back of our minds, that fast fashion has some quite serious and negative consequences, but it can be hard to find out exactly where clothing comes from and how it is made, and the ranges that clearly are eco-friendly are also clearly not chic. At Rapanui we want to change that, and make it convenient for people to shop quickly, with a conscience. Eco Fashion no longer has to be exclusive or expensive.”

Rob Drake Knight, Co Founder, continues, “The great thing about using eco-fabrics is that they are naturally softer, more breathable and comfy. We’ve also developed initiatives like Traceability and Eco-labelling to make ethical shopping easier on the high street and online.”

The brand says that it’s not that people don’t care about these issues, it’s just they don’t know and suggest that fashions unique power to inspire trends could be used to some good.

Rapanui are winners of the 2010 Sustainable Business Awards, Runners up at the 2010 Enterprising Young Brits Awards and finalists at the 2010 RSPCA Good Business Awards. Rob and Mart Drake-Knight are also listed on the Future 100 List of Top Young Ethical Entrepreneurs.

So take a look at their women’s organic clothing and do your bit for nature.

My name is Laricea Ioana Roman and I am a student at Kingston University, London. I am doing a Master in Marketing, Advertising and Communications and at the moment I am writing my Dissertation. My topic is related to ethical clothing, more specifically, I am investigating how personal values influence customers’ decision to buy ethical clothing. In order to come up with some answers for my topic, I need some opinions from people who actually bought ethical clothes. Thus, I am kindly ask you to complete my survey, which will take you no more than 10 minutes and It could give you the chance to win £30 vouchers at The Body Shop and three eco-fashion books.

You can complete the survey here

Although many people wear leather shoes, few would consider buying or recognise the benefits of vegetable tanned leather. When leather is tanned, a cocktail of highly toxic chemicals are used. Lead, zinc, formaldehyde, dyes and cyanide-based chemicals are just some of the substances used to remove the flesh from the skin and stabilise the structure of the leather. Tanneries are also notorious for causing severe air and water pollution which is damaging to the environment and the health of those living nearby. Workers in the leather industry are often exposed to these dangerous chemicals sometimes without any protective clothing or even shoes.

Spartoo sell a range of vegetable tanned shoes which are a great eco friendly and ethical alternative to conventional ethical shoes and are also beautifully made with great attention to detail.

These stylish Thailandia Mar shoesare made with vegetable tanned leather by Pikolinos. A Spanish brand that manufactures comfortable shoes with respect for the environment.

These Iggdrasil  Maki shoesare also made using vegetable tanned leather, this time by El Naturalista,  a brand that specialises in eco friendly shoe designs.

These stylish Equador shoes are also by Pikolinos and feature two colours and lace cut out leather for an unusual design. This shoe is perfect for those who are concerned with style as well as comfort and the impact of fashion on the environment.

Finding a classic style of shoe that works well with all sorts of casual and smarter outfits for the summer can sometimes be challenging. These Mocassins by Pikolinos combine attention to detail and comfort in a shoes that will go with almost any casual summer outfit. We love the stitching and the neutral, versatile colour. They also have an anatomic sole for maximum comfort.

These shoes have also been made with minimum impact on the environment. Whilst most leather is tanned using a cocktail of chemicals including chromium which are bad for the environment and damaging to the health of those working in the tanneries, these shoes are made using vegetable tanned leather. Tanneries often cause substantial pollution of the air, water and land in surrounding areas. Vegetable tanning uses only natural agents which is much kinder to the environment.

Pikolinos is a Spanish brand with a focus on natural design and artisan manufacturing giving high quality, comfortable shoes that are made with respect for the environment. Their shoes all conform to their three fundemental values which are unique, natural, and authentic. They have a range of shoes available on Spartoo.co.uk including sandals, court shoes and boots.

Pop Singer Lily Allen has announced that she is to launch her new fashion business, named ‘Lucy in Disguise’, this Summer during Vintage at Goodwood Festival. She has also announced that she is turning her back on her music career to concentrate on the new business venture, which will feature vintage clothes with her sister Sarah Owen. The event is to take place over a long weekend in August this year in the grounds of the grand Goodwood Estate in West Sussex. It is to be hosted by Red or Dead founder and designer Wayne Hemmingway, and it will be the first festival of its kind to combine music, fashion, design and retail.

Lily Allen has commented in the past that she was considering the idea of taking a break from music, quoting ” To me, the idea of music and fashion being separate is just not possible- one can’t exist without the other. If you can’t find something here you are passionate about I would be very surprised!” The festival will also have its own ‘High Street’- which will contain temporary pop-up shops from the likes of The Body Shop, John Lewis, and Oxfam, as well as hair salons where stylists will recreate styles from past eras. There will also be a ‘Vintage Marketplace’, where vintage lovers will be able to browse around and shop in their own personal heaven! A main music stage will play host to several live acts, including Sandie Shaw, who will be performing for the first time in 20years.

It seems Lily Allen wants to take a serious shot at her fashion business, hence why she is retiring from music. It looks like her range will be a massive success, working under guidance of Wayne Hemmingway who has already been a huge success in the vintage market. “The thing I love about vintage is that it is incredibly well-made,” says Lily- “it lasts forever!”

Picture taken from www.telegraph.co.uk

For those blushing brides who want to look their absolute best on their big day without worrying about what impact their dress has on the environment, they will be pleased to hear that a new website has been launched which features wedding dresses that are produced in India and Nepal, under strict fair-trade conditions using eco and sustainable fibres and fabrics. Tamman Wedding Collection, who also offer a bespoke service as well as their internet service, were inspired to create these stunning dresses from details of Indian and Tibetan traditional dress style, mixed with futuristic ideas from creative art.

With prices starting from £450, there may be brides out there who still want to have their perfect wedding dress, do their bit for the environment, whilst keeping to a budget- and what better place to start looking than Posh-Swaps.com! Posh-Swaps is the website to swap, buy and sell unwanted clothing and accessories- so you could find yourself with a beautiful wedding dress that has only been worn the once- for FREE! And at the same time, perhaps swap it for that something in your wardrobe that you don’t wear anymore!

However, if you are a bride who has already had her perfect day, then another great way to help save the environment is to recycle your wedding dress by either swapping or selling it online. You may find that you are happy to swap it, and if your dress is worth a few hundred pounds, you may be able to negotiate a swap for a few more items of clothing- perhaps a pair of shoes, jeans, and a new top, or anything else which you have perhaps been thinking about having to update your wardrobe!

Picture taken from www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk

Posh-Swaps.com have announced that we are celebrating our first birthday at the end of April 2010! Our website, which is fast becoming a popular place to swap, buy and sell clothes, will celebrate the occasion with a fantastic prize-draw for anyone that registers and lists clothes to swap during the month of May 2010, with prizes to be won including £100 of shoe vouchers! The website was launched almost a year ago for people to do clothes swapping for free.

There are other clothes swapping websites which have introduced fees everytime someone swaps, buys or sells, but we have no plans to do so ourselves. The aim of the free service is to encourage everyone to swap clothes without the need to throw them away, and so recycling them to do our bit for the environment.

This first year has certainly been a busy one for us at Posh-Swaps, with plenty of successful online swaps and two swapping parties (known as swishing) held in Chiswick and in Bath. Clothes swapping is becoming increasingly popular lately, as it is a great way to refresh your wardrobe- gaining new clothes and discarding others which you never wear, and thanks to Posh-Swaps, all for FREE! You also get a great sense of having done a really good thing for the environment, by reducing what goes to the landfill sites and reducing the environmental impacts associated with the manufacturing of new clothes.

Our website constantly keeps you up to date with the latest fashion and eco-fashion news with plenty of different blog posts published each week, plus a fantastic newsletter that gets sent out every fortnight to let ypu know of the latest items available for swapping.

Picture taken from www.ask.com

Whilst you might think carefully about where you buy your clothes and how eco friendly they are, shoes are something that not many of us pay much attention to. The manufacture of shoes can be environmentally damaging with the use of chemicals as adhesives and for tanning leather as well as a range of non biodegradable materials.

Swapping clothes and buying second hand clothes is a great way to get sustainable style, but sometimes it is not that easy to find just the right pair of shoes in your size. A great sustainable alternative to second hand shoes is eco friendly shoes. There is a growing choice of eco shoes available ranging from organic, natural, biodegradable and recycled options. We have just discovered Spartoo, an online shoe store with a great selection of eco friendly shoes including brands like Think, El Naturalista and Pikolinos.

The notion that eco friendly shoes mean boring, frumpy or unfashionable footwear goes completely out of the window with these gorgeous, trendy and stylish shoes which are good for the environment and good for your feet.

Vialis by Campari - this delicate and on trend summer sandal will work with so many summer outfits from military shorts to floaty maxi dresses.

Schlapfa Divg by Think- this lovely bright mule is made manually using 100% natural materials, ou would never guess!

Nayeri by Panama Jack - a sturdy and very wearable medium height. Very now and very versatile try wearing with feminine floral dresses and jeans.

A new online boutique company called Sequel London has arrived on our scenes- one of the latest boutiques to launch that are eco-friendly. Sequel London offers a range of leather handbags, which have been made from recycled leather jackets, discarded silk ties and curtains that are no longer wanted. The company has been created by cousins Claire Baigent and Laura Queening, both of whom want to reduce waste and to encourage sustainability in fashion by choosing unwanted clothes and accessories from Oxfam’s Wastesaver Warehouses, and using the materials to create their stunning new range.

The collection features bags made from leather including leather buttons, a removable silk tie decoration to add colour and style to the bags, and recycled curtains which are cut so to provide the lining of the bag. The ties on each bag will vary by design and will depend on the amount donated to Oxfam, so no two pieces will be the same. All of the Sequel London products are made in London itself, and the company is aiming to use recycled materials wherever possible- from the leather and the curtains, to the packaging and the stationary which will be made from recycled paper. All of the products have been designed by co-owner Laura Queening, who graduated from the London College of Fashion in 2007. “We decided to launch Sequel London as a way of encouraging sustainability in fashion by using those cast-offs that most of us have in the backs of our wardrobes, to produce classic, beautiful pieces that can be worn with pride time and again,” comments Laura. “We only choose the best quality material, even if the clothing itself has passed its fashion sell-by date.” Claire Baigent graduated from Newcastle University in 2006, and holds a CIPR Advanced Certificate in Public Relations.

The Spring/Summer collection, which is only available to buy online at sequellondon.co.uk, consists of six designs which are priced from £39 to £79, and offer beautiful and durable designs to last a life-time at high street prices.

Pictures and Quotes from www.sequellondon.co.uk