Welcome to The Sustainable Edit, Citizen Femme’s new monthly column showcasing the sustainable collectives on our radar.
From fashion brands to restaurants and more, see who’s making a positive change this February.
FASHION
A LINE
This ready-to-wear brand is designed and produced in Portugal for women looking for quality, classic pieces to be a part of their forever wardrobe. With sustainability at its core, A LINE is a conscious brand committed to making smart choices for the planet through longevity and circularity – using pioneering recycled materials, protecting ancient and endangered forests and measuring their impact with ground-breaking tools. Their Longevity Program – designed to avoid landfill waste – proposes to repair any damage on your A LINE clothes before you consider replacing them using in-house artisans, or those not suitable for repair are eligible for recycling and donation. Look to A LINE for everyday tailoring, smart outerwear, timeless knitwear and silky evening wear. Gemma Louise Deeks
BEAUTY
Chantecaille
Natural beauty brand Chantecaille are celebrating Spring – and continuing their environmental protection efforts – with the release of a limited-edition makeup range inspired by wildflowers. The eco-conscious company launches collections in support of the natural world every year, with elephant sanctuaries and turtle conservation being previous beneficiaries. This time its a Wild Meadows collection to aid the work of the Villa Abbatis Cultural Association, protecting the biodiversity of Romania’s Carpathian Mountains. The range contains three blushes and lipsticks, plus an eyeshadow quad, all designed to start conversations around biodiversity.. Even more reason to showcase the beautifully illustrated and flattering shades to your friends. Becki Murray
EAT
CRISPIN
Located in an architectural steel and zinc ‘origami-like’ building next to London’s iconic Spitalfields Market, this low-key eatery and wine bar is the epitome of great British grub. Head chef Lewis de Haas (previously Petersham Nurseries) has curated a sharing menu concept of modern European dishes using locally sourced ingredients, independent growers and small-scale farms and producers. The food is seriously tasty. If you’ve not already overdosed on fresh Dusty Knuckle bread, menu highlights for a plant-based eater include Jerusalem artichoke, mushrooms and tarragon and roasted squash, chickpeas and tomato. For fish lovers, the Hake, salsify, olives, tomato, chard and parsley will overload your taste buds. They have a sommelier too, using organic and bio-dynamic wines you can purchase straight from the restaurant’s bottle shop. Gemma Louise Deeks
STAY
RIGHTROOMS.CO
New site RightRooms.co lets people search for places to stay in detail to find a property that meets their needs, based on four key areas accessibility, sustainability, wellness and family-friendliness. Every hotel listing is stringently audited on 800 data points, so your hotel choice will accommodate your needs in far greater detail than other booking platforms. For example, eco-minded guests can narrow their search to find hotels that offer vegan toiletries, or where energy consumption is minimised through occupancy detection systems. Sheena Bhattessa
One Hundred Shorditch
WATCH
When Mother of Pearl creative director Amy Powney won the much-celebrated Vogue award for the Best Young Designer of the Year and Vogue Fashion Fund Award, she devoted her winnings to making a collection with a fully traceable supply chain. In must-watch film, Fashion Reimagined, director Becky Hutner chronicles Powney’s journey, documenting how that decision changed her whole career, as she endeavoured to limit waste, reduce footprint and trace the fabrics’ origin all the way back to the farms – a feat that proved to be not only difficult but apparently unprecedented. Haute couture designers place no barriers to their creativity as they launch new lines each season, but it seems that the lack of boundaries extends to waste. The absence of legislation controlling the output of clothes being made, the methods employed to make them and the source of the materials used, means that the fashion industry is causing a huge environmental strain that could become catastrophic. In this honest, fascinating and sometimes surreal documentary, get an inside-look at how fashion operates and why it’s so hard to reset the system. It is clear that this documentary is only a drop in the ocean. Sheena Bhattessa
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