Our February Favourites: Local Designers and Makers
This month is all about love here at Bowerbird, and sharing some of our favourite local designers who are producing products we can’t get enough of! As you may have seen, we are starting brand new workshops this year, allowing the Bowerbird experts to teach you all the knowledge behind the business. You can read all about these on our blog post here. Creativity is a wonderful gift, and it’s twice as nice when you can share the love and learn from your surroundings. At Bowerbird, we have always maintained our passion for sustainable design and ethical production. It is fundamental to our practice, and it comes with years of dedication to the skill. This also comes from soaking in our surroundings and seeing wonderful ways in which other local makers are driving forward their business. Having said this, it makes sense that we turn our attention now to those designers, people whom we admire and appreciate. Bowerbird Collections has always been a Brisbane based company, with most of our products being assembled right here in our own Paddington store. This year we are even focusing on providing workshops to the community, sharing our years of knowledge as local designers. We believe in the importance of supporting Australian made products! It is fundamental to us to make a conscientious effort to source our materials ethically. As this is something we hold so dear, it makes us extra happy when we
Local Makers – Bespoke Bags and Sustainable Design With Kim from Oxlade & Heart
It’s no secret that we are a fan of local maker Oxlade & Heart and the wonderful work they’re creating! Founder Kim Regan is a close friend and inspirational local maker with who we have had the pleasure of collaborating on a number of pieces. However, Oxlade & Heart's range extends far beyond our collaborations and is a wonderful local brand focusing on bespoke items with a zero-waste initiative! How great is that? I wanted to know more about the brand, its humble beginnings, and what the future looks like. Kim Regan happily sat down for a chat about what Oxlade & Heart means to her. Hi there! Who is the creative behind Oxlade & Heart? I'm Kim Regan. I grew up in a creative family; my mother was a potter and my dad was always making or building something. So making was my norm. There was always an emphasis on creative freedom, if you had an idea you made it. At school, my first job was in a beautiful textile store. After school, I studied Interior Design in Brisbane and then traveled the world as a textiles wholesaler. In 2001 I was working in Chelsea Harbour in London within the interior design industry. Chelsea Harbour is the textile hub for textile suppliers from around the globe. The handbag inspiration came from all the beautiful textiles from around the globe. I feel so many of these beautiful textiles weren't able to be appreciated by
Get To Know Your Fabrics: What Does It Really Mean To Be Sustainable?
How to find sustainable fabrics! We‘re back with another helpful post to help you navigate the world of all sustainable fabrics. It can seem like everytime we go shopping, words like sustainably sourced, ethically made, slow fashion are thrown around. So how can we know what that really means? How do we easily spot the go-to sustainable fabrics? This week, we are going to learn together the classic staples, the difference between man made or synthetic, sustainable fabrics plus our favorite new initiatives that we have been hearing about! Did someone say Bananatex?! Happy reading! First Things First: Easy To Spot Fibres! In a recent blog post, we‘ve touched on how to shop sustainably. This includes various broad tips and tricks from the girls here at Bowerbird on how we like to approach our consumption with a switched-on mindset. If you haven‘t read it yet, you can find it here! It‘s a great place to start. We also have written about what we do as a company; you can find that here! Now that we all know our basics, and the basics of each fibres, we‘re going to delve a little deeper into the production of some of our favourite sustainable fabrics. This includes how we can understand the process to help us shop a little smarter! Cotton Cotton. This is a tricky one, but as it's a natural fibre, we are in full support. Cotton can require an immense amount of water to grow, and
How to Shop Sustainably. Simple Tips and Tricks from the Girls at Bowerbird!
It seems more and more that every time we enter a store or scroll through our instagram newsfeed we face the dilemma of how to shop sustainably. As the growing trend for green fashion rises, so does the opportunity for businesses to market to you based on these interests. But how do you really know the difference between a green lifestyle and just plain greenwashing? Here are some simple tips and tricks from us here to navigate the sustainable world and make your shopping habits twice as nice! First things first. What really IS a sustainable product? Plain and simple, a sustainable product provides benefits for the environment, society and the economy. It is a product that is transparent from start to finish. Sustainable products are made within fair working conditions. They are products which materials have been ethically sourced. A sustainable product is aware of its impact on the climate and takes steps to reduce said impact. What is Fast Fashion? To identify this, let’s first take a look at what is not sustainable. The fast-fashion model foundation is cheap manufacture to sell vast quantities of low-cost profits to make a profit. In order to encourage consumer consumption, the companies convince the customer that they need the latest product. That their life will be improved by acquiring the latest product. That in order to be trendy/happy, the perpetual buying of low value, fast-moving products is a necessary commitment. Nobody is Perfect Though! However, we know that we are not perfect
Sustainable Brands and Bowerbird: What we are doing to make a difference!
Sustainable brands are currently a popular talking point, and rightly so (thank you Greta Thunberg!) Yet it seems to me like all businesses are happy to jump on the bandwagon, even if their qualifications are lacking. The question is: are we at Bowerbird Collections sustainable? And how can you as a consumer identify what sets apart a business as a sustainable brand? The key to answering this question is transparency. To help your process here are all of the ways that we are currently doing our best at Bowerbird to provide a truly sustainable brand. What do sustainable brands look like? To identify this, let's first take a look at what is not sustainable. The fast fashion model foundation is cheap manufacture to sell vast quantities of low cost profits to make a profit. In order to encourage consumer consumption, the companies convince the customer that they need the latest product. That their life will be improved by acquiring the latest product. That in order to be trendy/happy, the perpetual buying of low value, fast-moving products is a necessary commitment. At Bowerbird, we believe that sustainability means integrity, quality, true cost, and a dedication to natural components and fibres. We sell what we make for the true cost. The products we supply are not based on trends that leave you questioning why you spent money. They are an investment, built to last and built to inspire in your home without an expiration date. Check out this ceramic Ancient Greek jug