I've signed up for a summer clothing challenge - Fast Fashion Fast organised by Verena Erin from My Green Closet. It basically means no high street shopping for three months - June, July, and August.

When I signed up on June 8th, I'd already purchased a new skirt from ASOS, and I'm going to ignore that fact that just a few hours later I popped to Asda to buy some hosiery - needs must. So I might extend this challenge into September.

Why do I want to do it? Well, I love my charity shopping but if I have a specific item I need (want!) I tend to have a quick look in my local charity shops and then head straight to the high street if I can't find anything. And whilst I'm there I often buy other things too (example, my April clothing purchases).

Also, I can often be found scrolling though my ASOS app when bored and making random purchases. Although my latest ASOS purchase is fabulous, I don't have a lot to wear it with so I'll probably (almost certainly) end up buying more clothes.

I really enjoy second hand shopping, so it'll be fun to see if I can make it through the summer without stepping foot in H&M.

Having signed up to the challenge I'll get emails every few weeks with extra challenges, activities, and encouragement. Blogging about it will make me accountable. Let's see if I can do this...

And a quick thanks goes to Charlotte for not only bringing my attention to this challenge, but for also making me think about where my money goes with her Spending Diaries.

Image Source

I adore my Dream In Green boots from Spartoo, but was curious as to what made them 'green'. The website stated that they were environmentally friendly due to 'vegetal tanning'. I wasn't sure what that meant exactly - queue Google, no results. No results - how can that be? I contacted Spartoo via their Facebook page, and it turns out that it was a typo. It should've read 'vegetable tanning', I should've guessed really...

Anyway, Dream in Green are - to quote Spartoo - 'profoundly eco-friendly'. They use natural and recycled materials and keep down the air miles by manufacturing everything in Europe.


I won these boots when I took part in the Style Is ethical fashion competition in early 2013 and so it seemed fitting to wear them for an entry - £100 of shoes up for grabs? Yes please.

If you fancy entering the details can be found here, the competition runs until the end of April.

Here is my entry - You'll have to use your imagination to put the photos together, after my tripod took a tumble not long ago and broke (along with my camera) it's been hard to take any outfit shots! I'm having to make do with placing my, new and fabulous, camera on bits of furniture in lieu of a tripod.

Thinking about it, the last time I broke my camera was just before one of these competitions - Ceri, have you jinxed me?


My outfit is almost entirely ethical (I draw the line at second hand under garments), in addition to my boots, I'm wearing a pre loved maxi dress from ebay, and a brooch found on ASOS Marketplace. I've had this for ages but haven't worn it until now, it seems the perfect embellishment for this dress.


So, there's my entry, will you be joining in?

Good luck!

A while ago I wrote about Measure Up, I was so pleased to find an easy reference guide to high street brands and their ethical practices that I had to share it.
Then today this tweet caught my eye, I clicked through to the Refinery 29 article and found that Zara, who on the Measure Up website seemed one of the better brands are deemed less so in the Refinery 29 article. Whilst they do use ethical fabrics and care for the environment, it's reported that their treatment of workers is pretty poor.

This is what it said;
'Despite this, there has been some controversy over how Zara treats its employees. According to the Daily Mail, factory workers, some of them children, “were made to work up to 16-hour days without breaks and were prevented from leaving the factories without permission.” And in Buenos Aires, claims were made that workers clocked in at 7 a.m. and didn’t leave the factory until 11 p.m. routinely from Monday to Saturday. No breaks.' Source 

There are a number of brands listed, but I picked out Zara as a brand I would potentially buy. It makes me wonder how often the details on Measure Up were updated - maybe I'm referencing out of date info? *sighs*

I shop on the high street and I find it so frustrating that I can't find reliable information. 'Green' brands don't offer the variety and you can only rely on pre loved fashion so much.

I don't want to wear clothes made by children working 16 hour shifts.

It's strange that when you start thinking about ethical brands, they start to pop up all over the place. For example, an email from Pelcor dropped into my inbox a little while ago.

Pelcor use cork. Yep, cork - a material that I wouldn't have thought of as being suitable for fashion accessories. However, cork skin is waterproof, lightweight, hypoallergenic and environmentally friendly - it's biodegradable and recyclable.

Pelcor source the cork from forests of Portuguese cork oak trees. The trees are nurtured for nine years before the thick layer of bark is harvested. This doesn't harm the tree, it continues to grow and forms another layer of cork, making it a renewable source. Cool huh?

I've picked out my favourite (purse friendly) pieces - iPhone Sleeve, iPad Sleeve and Coin Purse. They come in a variety of colours but I love the pop of the orange! I can imagine each piece being tactile and warm to touch and very, very smooth. I'm very, very tempted to dent my bank balance in their e-shop*.

What do you think? You like?

This is not a sponsored post, I just found it interesting.

* Between writing this and publishing it I gave in to temptation and ordered the iPad sleeve - I'll share my thoughts with you when it arrives.

Love

I've often thought that it would be wonderful to have a quick reference guide to the ethical practices of high street brands.

A tweet by @OxfamFashion lead me to this article, that ultimately lead me here - to measureup.org.uk. The site is exactly what I'd been waiting for - a quick reference guide to high street stores using a traffic light rating system. You can check out stores, rate them against each other see how they measure up.

Unsurprisingly People Tree got green lights across the board for everything from paying a living wage to unannounced factory checks. George at Asda and Zara also did pretty well.

Happy shopping!
Love

At the beginning of the year I decided that I needed to discover more ethical fashion brands. I shop second hand a lot of the time but I felt my knowledge of ethical fashion brands was somewhat lacking.

So, when I saw Ceri (a lady that could certainly teach me a great deal about ethical fashion brands) had entered the Johari Style Challenge, and I'd discovered more about them, I was keen to get involved.

Please excuse the copy and paste but here is what Johari is all about...

'Johari is an ethical fashion brand, our philosophy is simple; we passionately believe that fashion should be ethical, stylish and beautiful. Johari, which means ‘something precious’ in Swahili, makes stylish beautiful clothing and accessories. Every item is handmade in Kenya by Social Enterprise Johari Designs. 100% of the profit made by Johari and Johari Designs helps to fund the Johari Foundation’s Miale Programmes that supports children and young adults towards a better future by helping with education, vocational, social and basic needs. Buying Johari products helps to empower vulnerable young adults to build a living for themselves and their families.'

To participate all I needed to do was choose an item from their online shop, which they then sent to me, for a week, so I could style it and pop it on this here blog.


Outfit 1
With snow on the ground I decided to layer up for a daytime outfit. The dress sits nicely over skinny jeans and looks great with a long sleeve t-shirt underneath and a scarf to finish. Of course, you could easily swap the jeans for thick tights for a slightly different look, but I have to admit I was wearing tights for warmth underneath anyway!

Outfit 2
For something smarter, I added a bright cardigan, black opaques and wedges. I considered a belt but I didn't want to obscure the gorgeous Masaai face print on the front.

Outfit 3
As an evening option I opted for red hoisery, metallic sandals and a structured jacket. I think this is my favourite outfit of the three as the print gives an unusual twist to the LBD, making for an altogether more interesting outfit.

The dress arrived beautifully wrapped in tissue and a bow, inside a handmade and recycled bag.



I'm a big fan of what Johari have set out to do and the clothing range, whilst limited, is lovely. I also really like the range of accessories, in particular the Tabaka Necklace, which I think would look great with the Neema dress.


Which is your favourite piece from the collection?

Love

Over the festive period I had no Internet at home, the connection is sketchy at best so I tend to edit my photos and publish my posts at work, during my lunch break. So, when I saw that Ceri's Ethical Outfit Competition for Fashion Bloggers, being run to celebrate the launch of Style Is, had a closing date of 31st December I knew there was very little chance of me entering. That was until I saw a tweet announcing the extension of the competition until January 4th. Hurrah!

So, I'm pleased to be able to share this outfit with you. 

This outfit has four ethical elements - the dress, top, scarf and bag. The dress was a charity shop purchase made on my first blogger meet up. It's the first time I've worn it, I love the shape and the pockets - I love anything with a pocket - it's super flattering and so easy to wear. I can't wait for warmer weather so I can chuck it on with sandals and sunnies.


The top is from a clothes swap, the scarf a charity shop and the bag is Monsoon via eBay.

I bought more pre loved fashion over the course of 2012 than any other year. I think this has everything to do with my involvement in the blogging community, my style has evolved, I've been given cause to consider my choices and have been inspired by the charity shop finds of so many of you and this has fuelled my determination to buy second hand.

Have you entered the competition? Do you rock pre-loved fashion?

Love

Having mentioned a clothes swap in my last post I've been asked for tips on how to organise one, I'm no expert but I'm more than happy to share my experiences.

The basic idea of a swap is to ask people to bring along good quality clothes to swap. If someone brings 5 items, they can take five items away with them but if they want to take more then five items they pay a set amount for each extra item.

The first clothes swap I went to was held by a friend of mine, it was at her house so it was for friends only. She sent out on invite via Facebook, set up some clothes rails in her dining room and waited for people to arrive. She asked for a £2.00 admission fee, which went to her chosen charity, and also made cakes to sell. She set the extra item price at £2.00.

The two clothes swaps that I have organised have been open to anyone. I'm lucky enough to have a venue with plenty of parking that I can use for free, access to a number of clothes rails and a network that helps me advertise and spread the word, not to mention plenty of willing helpers on the day.

I run these for a local charity so I'm able to put details on it's website, I create a public event on it's facebook page and tweet from it's twitter account. I also make posters and ask everyone I know to put them up at their place of work, in local shops, in their cars. A friend works at the local paper and for the most recent swap we had a mention in the local news.

I ask for £3.00 admission and stipulate a maximum of ten items per person to avoid people turning up with any old tat. A lady makes and donates the most delicious cakes for us to sell and we have the facilities to provide tea and coffee too. A seating area so that people can sit, have a cuppa, a piece of cake and a natter really helps the atmosphere of the swap and encourages people to linger. I set up a makeshift fitting room so people can try things on, often this gets people chatting and complimenting each other.

I found that two hours is long enough, most people will turn up at the beginning and hang around to see what people bring. I ask that people bring items on hangers but very few do, so having extra hangers is essential. If things are clean, ironed and hung nicely people are more likely to want them. I have included shoes and accessories but to be honest no one has ever taken any shoes, bags and scarves seem to do well but jewellery doesn't.

I was lucky enough to have all of the left over items from my friend's clothes swap to use as 'stock' for my first swap, I think it really helps to have some items ready and waiting for when the first swappers arrive.

So, there you have it, I think I've covered everything. I hope this helps!

Love

You may have heard me say before that I don't have much luck in charity shops. Last year, despite numerous visits to loads of shops I only found one item - a long thick woolly cardigan. But this year I've had more success, in the last month alone I found these three lovely pieces.

The t-shirt turned out to be a child's size and the tunic is three sizes larger than I normally wear, it just goes to show that size really is just a number and it's worth having a sneaky peek at everything, you never know what you might find...

Love

After seeing Sophie's entry I decided join Florrie's floral festivities to help her celebrate three year blogiversary.

This was a bit of a challenge for me as I don't have many prints in my wardrobe but having recently decided to inject some colour and pattern, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to show off my most recent floral find.

As a result of some eBay trawling I am now the proud owner of this pre-loved Topshop dress. I had to alter the neckline as it didn't sit quite right and with that done, I'm smitten!


I then went on a hunt to find other floral items for my outfit. I have to admit that I was surprised to find as many as I did. The whole process felt wonderfully reminiscent of playing dress-up as a child.


I added two necklaces - both daisies - one a bridesmaid gift from my sister-in-law, the second a Christmas present from my Dad, a leather cuff covered in daisies and three bracelets with flower charms, a brooch (found on etsy, made from recycled materials) and finally some sandals that I had to dust off - I had totally forgotten about them!

See all the paticipants of Florrie's Floral Festivities here.
Love

Those of you who read the first of my May Challenge posts, you would have seen a glimpse of my bargain Coast dress, purchased back in October, for a ball I attended in mid May.

It was on eBay and when I saw it the bidding was due to end. I knew it was too much of a bargain to ignore. I waited until the last few seconds, made my bid and won. I love it when that happens!

The dress is second hand and so is the clutch bag, so I decided that this outfit should be my entry into Ceri's Ethical Outfit Competition. I was so pleased to find this dress, as a piece that won't get worn very often I was glad that I could find something second hand, rather than buy new, from both an ethical and a financial point of view.


The whole outfit was a bit of a bargain actually.
Coast dress (worn once) £20.00, eBay
Shoes £29.99, Zara
Oasis bag £15.00, (used once) eBay
Pilgrim ring £15.00 in the sale, Debenhams
The necklace and earrings I've had for ages, even my nail varnish - Dangerous Affair, Ciaté - was free on the front of a magazine.

That's a total of just £79.99 - £40 less than the original price of the dress alone. I love you eBay.

I'm pondering what to do with this dress now. I'd love to think that I will wear it time and time again as I'd hate something so pretty to just hang in the back of my wardrobe. A dress like this should be worn, but I doubt that I'll be presented with many occasions to wear it, however, I'm a little reluctant to part with it...

What is your best eBay win? Are you entering Ceri's competition?

Okay, so I didn't enter the competition as I dropped my camera and broke the lens two days before the competition closed. No camera, no outfit shots.

The competition rules were simple - "All you have to do is create an outfit which contains at least ethical piece, that could be something from your favourite ethical fashion brand, vintage or charity shop or something you have upcycled. If you can fit more than one ethical or sustainable piece into an outfit, even better".

This dress had only been seen here once before and this was the last time it was worn. I struggled to style it as it didn't really fit my wardrobe. So, I decided to dye it in a 'shape up or ship out' sort of way.

This is what it looked like before. I love the shape, the collar, the material. And it has pockets. Pockets!!



And this is how it looks after it's date with Mr Dylon.



I used a black dye, you can still see the pattern but I think it's an easier shade to work with. I added a flower brooch, made from recycled materials, that I found on esty.

I've decided that this is a dress that requires little styling, just a few well chosen accessories.

What do you think? Is it an improvement?

Do you ever come across a blog post that crystallises something that you'd been pondering?

This happened when I read Alex's recent post.

I had intended to enter Ceri's ethical fashion competition (I broke my camera and missed the deadline) and had been trying to define what ethical fashion means to me. Reading Alex's post made me think 'Yes! Exactly!'. From there the whole thing started to drop into place.

For me, ethical fashion is about more than just buying ethical brands, it's about buying less and choosing well, altering or making clothes and buying second hand where possible, but most importantly making the most of what I already have.

Now, I have to hold my hands up to buying things in the past that I've only worn a few times - cheap, fashion items that fulfilled a momentary need and poorly considered items that just didn't 'fit' my wardrobe. But, with my wardrobe challenges, I'm trying to address this. I want to make the most of every piece of clothing that hangs in my wardrobe, I want to know how to style each piece in numerous ways and make it, as Alex says, 'earn it's keep'.

For me early 2011 was about deciding what stayed in my wardrobe and what didn't (Wearing It All). Later on in the year I went shopping to fill a few gaps and put each piece through its paces with the Shopping My Wardrobe challenge.

So far, 2012 has been about buying less and choosing well. I have to admit that (and this will sound contradictory) I purchased numerous items in March but this is part of a larger plan - I have a list of what I think I need to complete my wardrobe and a few pieces to update it, to see me through to Autumn. So, I expect my clothing purchases to significantly diminish over the coming months.

I have yet to find my thrifting mojo so I have turned to eBay and ASOS Marketplace instead but I have relied on the high street for most purchases. What I find frustrating about the high street is not being able to find an independent report on who does well, who exceeds expectations and who fails miserably in regards to ethical matters. I guess I'm being lazy, I want a quick reference guide handed to me on a plate. If anyone knows of one...

I have to be honest and say that ethical fashion brands have yet to grab me, a lot of what I have seen is either 'not me' or out of my price range, if you'd like to introduce me to some ethical fashion brands then please do. I'll happily have my opinion changed on this particular subject.

As I said the first time I entered Ceri's ethical fashion competition - 'my ethical fashion credentials are a work in progress'.

What does ethical fashion mean to you?

Here is my, rather windswept, entry into the Style Eyes Ethical Fashion Blog Outfit Competition. The prizes are awesome!

The rules are simple…
 'All you have to do is create an outfit which contains at least ethical piece, that could be something from your favourite ethical fashion brand, vintage or charity shop. It could also be something that you have upcycled yourself… Before the end of 28th November'. And then you have to tweet about your entry.

Why do I always leave everything until the last minute?!

Ordinarily I don't have much luck in charity shops. This summer I found the most amazing River Island dress in Age Concern. I excitedly snapped it up, only to discover that it didn't fit… so back to the charity shop it went! I do buy clothes new from the high street but I am making an effort to buy less and make smarter decisions. I guess you can say my ethical fashion credentials are a work in progress.




The addition of this skirt to my wardrobe was a direct result of my burgeoning eBay obsession.   I paid £5.50 (which included postage) for this second hand tulip skirt, originally from Topshop. I always knew I'd dress it down so my go-to looks-fab-with-everthing jumper was selected and teamed with a long sleeve t shirt for a bit of colour at the cuffs. Navy nails completed it.



As you can see I had company - a friendly black cat who turned up on our doorstep in mid October and has refused to leave. No owners have come forward and there is no room for her at our local Cat Protection so we're taking care of her.