How will the UK plastic packaging tax impact beauty?
From April 1, any company manufacturing or importing packaging containing less than 30% recycled materials will be taxed £200 per tonne. For an industry that’s renowned for its insurmountable reliance on plastic, this may well pose some issues. Earlier this month, ‘the most important international deal since the Paris...
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What really happens when we throw our clothes away?
Chile’s Atacama Desert, one of the world’s largest ‘fashion graveyards’, is a stark reminder of where our clothing really ends up. We’re often told that our rubbish doesn’t just ‘disappear’. From an early age, I remember my mum scolding me for throwing litter on the floor, or wasting my food; ‘The...
Chic meets sustainable with SONNET155’s handbags
Made from post-industrial waste, these handbags offer a sophisticated and sustainable approach to traditional paper shopping bags. Move over, cloth tote bags. Fruit leather is in. Though cloth totes have taken the world by storm – they’re considered a staple for Gen-Z who has grown up abolishing single use plastic –...
A vision of vulvas: expanding knowledge and concepts of diversity
The body positive movement has exploded in the last decade. Now, it’s finally expanding to a much less talked about part of women's bodies - the vulva. The female anatomy has always been something of a spectacle. Early renaissance artists sculpted the dips and folds of women’s bellies, the curves...
6 sustainable fashion accounts to follow in 2022
Between Covid variants, a disquietingly sharp rise in the cost of living, and a carousel of Downing Street parties, 2022 may seem like the year of unwanted change. But it’s also an opportunity to implement positive new habits. Perhaps you intend to read more, learn a new language, or...
We need to talk about fashion’s current obsession with balaclavas
The face-obscuring wintertime fashion accessory is having a moment, but many argue that jumping on the trend requires having a specific level of privilege. It’s the end of January, and guess what? It’s still freezing outside. Enter, the balaclava – a sock for your head. Designed to slide over your skull...
Opinion – Fashion’s relationship with ‘difference’ is still a toxic one
A video of French brand Sézane exploiting an elderly Indigenous woman for their summer campaign has emerged as the fashion community fervidly mourn the late André Leon Talley. These distinct responses to Otherness prove that the industry’s approach to difference is still a strenuous affair. A video of an elderly Mexican woman dancing to music on an impromptu set for French fashion brand Sézane sparked widespread outrage on...
Plant-based fashion is finally having its moment
A major shift in clothing manufacture is underway, fronted by a surge in the number of brands experimenting with next-generation ‘livestock-free’ replacements for conventional animal-based materials. It’s common knowledge that fast fashion has long-dominated the style landscape, for the affordable and straightforward way in which it enables consumers to keep up with continually fluctuating trends. However, unlike the rapid nature of these fads – which come and go as quickly as...
Beauty brands are advocating for the redefinition of Black
MAC Cosmetics, e.l.f, and Morphe are just some of those involved with a campaign that’s seeking to shift perceptions about what it means to be Black. In 2020, the pressing question of ‘how can I help’ was one that dominated social media well into the following year. It came on the back of protests across the globe which not only called for an end to police brutality and justice for George...
Influencers may soon have to label digitally-altered images
To combat the rise of eating disorders and body confidence issues post-pandemic, a proposed bill in the UK is calling for commercial photos featuring retouched bodies to be labelled as such. Last February, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that social media influencers had to begin disclosing when using a beauty filter to endorse products, namely those exaggerating the results cosmetics or skincare being sold by brands were capable...
