How lovely alternative fashion creates a kinder lifestyle

If you’re into alternative clothes it’s likely you’re also keen to create an alternative lifestyle. If you’d like your impact on the environment to be smaller, read on. If you’d value some insight and encouragement into fighting the climate crisis, here are some bright ideas.

In our world love means everything. We sell lovely clothes to lovely people, and we do our best to help make our customers’ life lovelier in other ways. Here’s some spring-like positivity for you, written with love.

The exciting power of citizen action – You can help deliver change!

The Jump, a new climate change movement, has been born from a piece of research at Leeds University in collaboration with the engineering business Arup and the C40 group of worldwide cities. Their research reveals how citizen action adds up to something much more powerful and worthwhile than you might have thought. And that means every one of us can do something important to help fight climate change.

The Jump has six suggestions that will help every one of us do more for the environment, the climate, and the future of the living beings we share the planet with. Here they are, and you can read the article in detail here:

1. Eat more plants, waste less food
2. Only buy a few items of clothing a year, make them good quality, and repair, repurpose, and recycle old clothes – try the Sojo app for clothing repairs, describes as ‘the Deliveroo of clothing repairs’
3. Reduce flights. The Jump recommends one short haul flight every 3 years and one long haul flight every 8 years
4. Ditch your car – if you can’t do that, cut right back on using it
5. Get your gadgets repaired instead of replacing them – the Restart Project aims to repair broken electronic equipment on a ‘what you can afford’ basis, and eventually intends to have an outlet on every high street in the country
6. Take action by changing the system – for example swapping to green energy, setting up a ‘green’ pension, and doing everything you can to retrofit your home so it uses less energy

The greenest European countries to visit

So where will you fly on your once-every-8-years long haul holiday, or your once-every-three-years short haul break? The following recommendations from Heliox, the green energy company, are made according to each country’s public transport network and green transport choices, electric vehicle numbers, EV charging infrastructure, sustainable mobility incentives, and goals around zero CO2 emissions.

Visit one of these seven countries to spend your money in places with the best environmental credentials, with number one being the greenest of all:

1. The Netherlands
2. Luxembourg
3. Sweden
4. Germany
5. Estonia
6. Belgium
7. France

The UK comes tenth thanks to poor access to public transport, a lack of green public transport choices, a tiny EV charging network, and a ‘lack of financial incentives’ to encourage zero-emissions vehicles. On the bright side, at least a staycation in the UK means you don’t need to fly!

All change for plastic waste

Plastic waste is one of the biggest scandals of our times. Now 175 countries have got together and decided enough is enough. Some are calling it ‘the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris accord’. The heads of state and others met in Nairobi to endorse a historic resolution at the UN Environment Assembly, the goal being to end plastic pollution via an international treaty set in place by 2024. In the words of the event’s president. ‘Plastic pollution has grown into an epidemic. With today’s resolution we are officially on track for a cure.’

How can you help? First, buy as few products packaged in single-use plastic as possible. Second, recycle the plastics you do use. Third, don’t buy anything made from plastic that can’t be recycled.

Alternative fashion to help keep your lifestyle green

Our wonderful alternative clothes give you all sorts of exciting opportunities to green up your wardrobe. Here are some of the best:

• Lengthen a skirt by adding extra fabric
• Shorten an old long skirt for a fresh new look
• Re-patch your Wicked Dragon patchwork clothes with gorgeous fabrics – charity shops are a brilliant source of low cost clothes to cut up for patching
• Make massive baggy shorts out of your old harem trousers, or a funky balloon skirt
• Transform your worn-out dungarees into trousers or shorts
• Re-line your old jacket or coat
• Over-dye clothing that has faded with wear
• Add extra embellishment, appliqué and embroidery to turn an old fave hippy dress into a spectacular party dress
• Cut an old sleeved top into a cool vest
• Use the sleeves of old jumpers as legwarmers
• Make the sleeves of old long-sleeved Ts into hand-warmers
• Cut up really old clothes into squares and make a stunning patchwork throw or bedspread

​Here’s wishing you a magical springfull of creativity and environmental friendliness! See you next time. In the meantime, choose your favourite items from us.

                                                                       

 our gorgeous shop and prepare for a kinder lifestyle.