Bowerbird Gift Ideas for the Sustainable Shopper!
Once again the season of gift-giving is upon us, and the Bowerbird Girls have brought together their favourite gift ideas for you! We know it can be a tricky time of the year. Amidst all the hustle and bustle of finishing up the year, we also think about ways we can show our loved ones we care. Suddenly, it's the final minute at the shops and you're scrambling to find something that might fit the person on your list. Why All The Talk About Gift-Giving? This year, you can say goodbye to the gifts that aren't necessary or those last-minute attempts. We have put together a few of our favourite gift ideas for the sustainable shopper. These gifts are a great way to show your loved ones you care, without causing a negative impact on the environment. BONUS! You can also support local makers. Often when we buy last-minute gifts that are in our budget, we don‘t pay too much attention to how the gift was made. This is completely natural and the hard-to-avoid trap of the gift-giving season! Whether it be fast fashion, unethically manufactured or unnecessary items, buying gifts ain‘t always easy! Every day feels like Christmas in the Bowerbird store! Is It Necessary? Firstly, we can ask ourselves: does this person in our life really need or expect a gift? Often in the mania of Christmas time, brands are telling us we need to buy, buy, buy! This can lead to unnecessary gifts
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
Our Go-To List of Ethical Wool Brands to Get Cosy at Home With
Winter is soon upon us! I don't know about you guys but even here in Brisbane we are feeling the chill and the need for some ethical wool! Couple that with the sudden need to stay inside and remake our routines. Well it looks like comfortable clothing is on the menu! And what can be cosier than some comforting wool to wrap around you. Even better though, is the option of comforting AND ethical wool. At Bowerbird we have a focus on sustainable practices, and consciously choose our materials to work with. We offer natural fibres for our clothing, vegan alternative handbags and leather pieces that utilise offcuts. We are not perfect. But we try to do our very best. To read more about what we do, check it out on our blog post about sustainability. Wool itself can be a controversial material. Couple that with companies greenwashing and you might find it incredibly difficult to navigate the brands. We believe in quality over quantity and support high quality garments with a slow-fashion mentality. After all, leather shoes you buy to last a lifetime are certainly more sustainable than 20 pairs of synthetic, trendy ones. But what does it mean to be ethical wool? Photo Credit: Jeff Whitlock, Pinterest What makes it ethical wool? I'm not going to beat around the bush here. Wool is a tricky one when produced large scale. But there are some incredibly sustainable and long lasting features of it