Vintage Brussels: Boutiques to bric-a-brac & the Jeu de Balle flea market
From discovering old things to give new life to finding newness in the way we dress or decorate, vintage shopping in a different city often gives me fresh styling for thought. Brussels is bureaucratic yet bizarre, self-confident yet unshowy, and one of my favourite...
Ardingly wants to bring you flowers
Ardingly Antiques & Collectors Fair showed its mettle (albeit disguised as petals )this week, as a major fair that continues to attract a strong following of dealers, designers and private buyers. It could have been the sunny start and morning light hitting the...
Ethical & vintage finds for sustainable shopping in the San Francisco Bay Area
Had I not already left my heart in San Francisco in 2015 when I met the man I would marry seven months later, Love Street Vintage would have stolen it. Sustainable gems are dotted in many neighbourhoods, but High on a hill, Haight Street calls if you are after a...
Seasonal vegging & voguing
This edit sums up my mood for the month ahead. It's that time of year when your pinkie ring should give you super powers and you can cloak your face and your body in pillows [when not showing off that you're capable of dancing in white whilst eating cranberry...
Going Zero Waste could be the best thing to happen to you hair
Is it me or are haircare ads stuck in the 1950s? Can the contents of one plastic bottle really deliver on all of those promises? And are we even looking for those things at the end of a good shampooing? Hair diaries of women with great locks usually involve a lotta...
“we could be the ones to change it all” – Sustainable steps at London Fashion Week
Paolo Carzana, the boy behind this quote and the collection below titled The Boy You Stole was one emerging talent presented in the season that put sustainability top of mind at LFW. The British Fashion Council’s announcement that London Fashion Week would be...
The Great Indoors
Long gone are uninviting dark Dickensian cluttered shops. Antiques have entered a new (eco) friendly state where they have never been more desirable. If you are excited to step back inside now that the number of hot days have outweighed ideas for al fresco...
Designing a happy wardrobe
I didn’t see myself squeezing into another capsule challenge so soon - having spent 6 of the coldest weeks in just 6 items of clothes for Labour Behind the Label at the start of the year - but this was too good to resist… 10 items, 10 days, easy right? Ah, but this...
Do you believe in magic? Interview with Anne-Sophie Planet, founder of Kimaya
If you’re looking for proof that magic exists then Kimaya's ethical elegance will suit you. After more than a decade working on fashion planet aka Paris, Anne-Sophie Planet swapped city life for southern India to realise her dreams as a designer. Following her...
Resolutions from Berlin Ethical Fashion Show
I packed learnings of balance in my suitcase back from Berlin (alongside this Resolution organic cotton tee by Cruba). I should have known it would be a knowledge excursion when I spotted my school history teacher on our flight over. Ms Hodson taught me everything I...
House Museums & The Hippie House in Córdoba
The upside to taking a train to Córdoba on a Monday and realising many of the monuments and markets are closed is you get to really enjoy the neighbourhoods. We still got to explore the western world’s most stunning example of Moorish art, the Mezquita and the Roman...
Seville travel diary – A week on the tiles
Nobody wants to feel like a tourist. Who us? No no, we’re trailblazers - so you can imagine our surprise when we discovered our destination of choice is Lonely Planet’s No.1 city to visit in 2018. If like me you have to work through some guilt before enjoying your...
Guilt Tripping
Having recently calculated that the renovation of my flat is 4x more sustainable than one planet living, I could be feeling smug, but with two flights in the pipeline next month I am less carbon footprint proud. Let me explain… One Planet Living is a framework...
Conscious Consumer
Encaustic tiles The Vintage Floor Tile Company Artelli Canasto bag from Rev En Vert Organic cotton shirt & organic denim skirt both War & Drobe [If you're in London get yourself down to War & Drobe at 31 Lamb's Conduit Street from 14th - 27th May...
Sustainability in the City
I know Sex in the City has been relegated to box-set territory but sometimes I refer to my flat as sustainability in the city, because like Carrie Bradshaw, I keep sweaters where my stove would have been. Reflecting on the moment I decided to turn my kitchen into my...
I want my time with you : 24 hours in Brussels
My husband and I suffered a bout of food poisoning this week, but off he went to his conference in Brussels and off I went to join him for the weekend. Since completing the Six Items Challenge for Labour Behind the Label I have been conscious to wear more of my...
Six Items Challenge : Little White Dress
It seems appropriate to end my Six Items Challenge for Labour Behind the Label in the little white dress I started in. I wore my white Reformation dress to celebrate our two year wedding anniversary and it got me thinking... I have too many clothes and although I am...
Plastic-free Reclaimed Woman
Abacá / Montezuma's also see Tidy Street general store to easily shop Abacá in the UK
Seeking Victorian house with sustainable luxury label VIMPELOVA
Having spent a few days working away in Brighton - the town where I grew up - talk turned to where I might ultimately set-up home if my husband and I decide we have out-grown our little garden flat barely made for two. Back home in London, I dropped-off my luggage to...
Six Items Challenge : Day 33 is Green Day
My Six Items Challenge made packing simple for a last minute work trip to Madrid. I got out the Gabriele Vintage green dress - a symbol of fresh starts and progress, as we think of the green light as go. This Maison Bengal bag I got from Tidy Street general store in...
I want an eco-hot relationship with my clothes – Interview with COSSAC
Today’s eco-warrior is less hemp, more hot. I don’t mean to do a disservice to the durable natural fibre, but hemp clothing is still building a new rep amongst fashion seekers that have discovered sexy and sustainable can coexist - as they do in the #ecohot label...
Mother’s Day Reclaimed Woman
Retrouvius / MMPillowStore
The Ned and TED Talks
The respectfully renovated Portland Stone building on Poultry Street, The Ned was the perfect setting to speak about how my reclaimed renovation resulted in me wearing the same six items of clothes for six weeks. There's been a bit of friendly competition in our...
Six Items Challenge : Made it to March
There may be snow on the ground, but spring starts in March and I'm thinking about a sari. I have that bought something new feeling - when you want to wear it straight away and never be parted - but my Six Items Challenge, which continues for most of the month means I...
Six Items Challenge : Day 15
I definitely didn't expect snow when I picked mainly dresses for the six items to see me through six weeks. ©Photograph courtesy of PHIPPS - a newly launched menswear brand founded on the principles of respect and curiosity for the natural world. They're exploring...
Six Items Challenge : Two weeks in
Two weeks into six weeks wearing the same six items of clothes, I am tongue twisting and definitely compensating with shoes. On a side note, these 1940s pigeon holes make perfect shoe storage (complete with drawn-on letters, this piece was reclaimed from the post...
Six Items Challenge : Day 11 and 12
On arrival in Brighton yesterday I was confronted by my ten year old self. Two girls dressed almost identically were leaving the train station - one had a mini pink backpack (like the one I had from Tammy Girl) and both were wearing skater sneakers. They linked arms...
Six Items Challenge : Day 10
Wearing a choker made of surplus sofa fabric on my sofa upholstered in surplus bus seat fabric, contemplating second life in my deadstock Persol specs from the 1980s. Choker from beautiful inside and out PETA-approved Vegan brand Noumenon Persol spectacles from Spex...
Six Items Challenge : Day 9
Charity shops are name-checked by anyone advocating for sustainable and ethical fashion, so I can't ignore the scandal that recently broke about Oxfam - a charity that I donate to and shop from regularly (where I bought this Longchamp bag). Of course Oxfam is not the...
Six Items Challenge : Day 7 and 8
I saw the Queen yesterday (the day I wore jeans). More on that later as I didn’t have the energy to write last night. This morning my friend made me chuckle with a link to an Inc. article - Why Successful People Wear the Same Thing Every Day You see by wearing the...
Six Items Challenge : Day 6
Wore my M-24 backpack made of used truck tarpaulin to the Designer Showrooms today. Fashion week has a growing number of sustainable brands and stands - one being The Sustainable Angle, a not for profit organisation dedicated to projects that promote sustainable...
Six Items Challenge : Day 5
I met a fashion journalist from Spain the other day and we joked that even if it means crossing the road, stopping to soak up every moment of sunshine is essential to make it through the grey months in London. Fashion week might be all about autumn winter collections,...
Six Items Challenge : Day 4
My days are all messed up. It's the second day of fashion week, but it is in fact the weekend, so Saturday feels like Tuesday, but it's also masquerading as Thursday - on this, the forth day of my challenge. Despite setting my alarm for 7am on a Saturday, I knew...
Six Items Challenge : Day 3
It may be day three of my challenge for Labour Behind the Label, but it really only got challenging today on the first day of London Fashion Week. For some reason it felt like my first day at school. Perhaps it's because when you're a kid you get away with wearing...
A Model Feminist – Interview with Paulina Porizkova
Straight talking feminist, and star in the #MeToo incarnation of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, model, actress and author, Paulina Porizkova will return to London for the first time in 35 years to walk at London Fashion Week for emerging ethical designer Jiri...
Six Items Challenge : Day 2
Six weeks wearing only six items of clothing - one of which is this white Reformation dress. I'm glad to say it survived day one of the challenge and Valentine's Day date night. Big napkins are a must for me now. Support and share my page here 📣 ©Photograph...
Six Items Challenge : Day 1
©IWM (D 14826) Lent hasn't fallen on Valentine's Day since 1945. Today shiny heart shaped gifts and ash crosses collide, as I start my Six Items Challenge. I pledged to only wear six items of clothing for the next six weeks in support of Labour Behind the Label, a...
Planet friendly period pants from Modibodi
At the risk of sharing TMI, I just got back from a romantic trip to Bruges which perfectly coincided with my period. I don’t normally write in acronyms, but having found a new solution to life’s unmentionables, I feel like my pre-teen self experiencing a period for...
My fashion fast to fight fast fashion
I have pledged to only wear six items of clothing for six weeks - starting just before London Fashion Week If it takes a collective to make a fashion, it takes collective action to end fashion abuse. The Six Items Challenge is a campaign created by Labour...
Recipe for a reclaimed kitchen – my kitchen after
I recently transformed my kitchen into a walk-in wardrobe and my living room into my kitchen, so I thought this was a recipe worth sharing. My kitchen before Tiny kitchens are the norm in flats in London and although at one stage I merely used mine to reheat or "cook”...
Bee-eautiful sustainable fashion that’s Gung Ho
British bee supporting cause aside, it’s just a brilliant statement sweatshirt. Gung Ho donates £5 to a charity that works with endangered bees with every purchase of this piece. The Gung Ho philosophy is undeniably designed to get people talking with its forward...
Oh Christmas Tree Reclaimed Woman
party season trousers Morv London rare card c.1910 from dealer Val Jackson-Harris at The Ephemera Society Winter Fair
Conscious Christmas Gifts
Fashion Revolution fanzine #001:Money Fashion Power pages of poetry, illustration, photography, graphic design and editorials that explore the hidden stories behind our clothes green rose earrings by Gung Ho from Ethical Collection nothing more, nothing less t-shirt...
Reclaimed interiors and renovating the Wabi-Sabi way
I recently discovered that my nickname at university was the swan. Okay so I have a long neck, but my friend suggested that it was more likely to do with my perfect hair. Rest assured, I also dislike the woman with the “perfect hair” my friend described, as...
PR 101: I am enough
Just like a business, we personally rely on our reputation so we should all know a bit about PR. The other week I saw movement maker and musician, Charlie Dark talk about his life through the theme of encouragement. The plus one of a friend, I had no idea what I...
Sustainable designer Laura Ironside on season-less dressing
Sometimes less is more. This is the approach of designer Laura Ironside, who set-up her label with the aim of creating seasonless garments, thoughtfully, through sensitive and sustainable manufacturing. For some, sustainable fashion is a contradiction in terms, and...
Conscious Consumer
Ilia mascara in Nightfall from Content Georgia midi dress Mara Hoffman Miami Circle earrings Lee Renée shopper Vivienne Westwood
Back to school with Midcentury East
Run, don’t walk through the gates of Goldfinger's Haggerston School when the Midcentury East show returns to the London Borough of Hackney on 15 October 2017 - for pieces like this psychedelic film poster from exhibitor Orson & Welles will be in high demand. It...
Reclaimed Kitchen Before and (almost) After
Transforming my kitchen into a walk-in wardrobe might sound crazy, but as you can see above, my windowless eighties kitchen was destined for new life. I reused bits from the old kitchen and moved it to the back of the living room to make the most of the biggest room...