It’s becoming increasingly difficult to make a purchase, particularly a fashion one, without considering its impact. I find myself scanning websites for information about a brand’s materials and processes, which can lead to some happy (and unhappy) discoveries.
One of the happier conclusions I’ve drawn is that consciously-produced products don’t need to be prohibitively expensive. There’s a host of exciting, emerging and established brands prioritising the need to protect our planet.
From London jewellery label Completedworks to Ghanaian bag brand AAKS, here are six conscious and affordable accessories brands to shop now.
Best for serotonin-boosting bags: Hvisk
I take real pleasure in stumbling across a brand that’s doing something a little bit different. And Copenhagen-based bag brand Hvisk is doing just that.
Bold colour combinations (tomato and teal anyone?) lend themselves to playfully unique designs (my favourite are the pleasingly squishy pouches complete with ruched handles), to create bag styles that stand out. 97% of HVSK’s bag offering is made either entirely or mostly from recycled materials (such as post-consumer polyester and polyurethane), and you can see the breakdown of materials used for each bag style online, so you know exactly what you’re purchasing.
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Best for sculptural jewellery: Completedworks
Completedworks founder Anna Jewsbury’s didn’t take a generic route into jewellery design. The London-based creative director studied Maths and Philosophy at Oxford University, before launching her beautiful brand (which not only sells jewellery but breath-taking ceramics too).
It’s not difficult to understand the allure of Completedworks (Emma Watson and Naomi Harris are both fans) or why Jewsbury’s designs have been auctioned at a contemporary designer sale at Christie’s New York. There is nothing ordinary about these pieces; sculptural and romantic while also impossibly cool. Better still, Completedworks’ gold pieces are made from a mixture of recycled and Fairtrade gold, while a significant portion of the silver used is recycled or reclaimed.
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Best for the beach and beyond: AAKS
Ghana-based brand AAKS is the brainchild of Akosua Afriyie-Kumi, who having relocated to the UK aged 19 to study fashion, found herself back in Ghana eight years later, launching a bag brand steeped in the culture of her upbringing. Afriyie-Kumi is passionate about slow and thoughtful production and about preserving traditional weaving techniques.
Each bag is created this way, using raffia (ecologically harvested by Ghanaian farmers), linen, cotton and leather, and takes 10 days to finish. The vibrant colours, intricate patterns and range of designs, each one as unique as the last, are testament to time and skill these bags require.
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Best for wear-everywhere trainers: Good News
Good news! London-based shoe brand Good News has the answer to your sustainable sneaker dilemma.
The chunky trainers are made using recycled rubber for the soles, organic cotton for the shoe itself and recycled eco-lite for the footbed, also donating any deadstock or faulty styles to homeless and refugee charities. If that doesn’t put a smile on your face, Good News’ joy-inducing designs likely will; patterns, colour and statement laces abound!
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Best for everyday jewellery: Otiumberg
Sister duo Rosanna and Christie Wollenberg launched Otiumberg in 2016 with the aim of creating pieces with a luxurious feel but without the exclusive price tags of fine jewellery.
Starting with a succinct line of huggies (still a cult favourite style of theirs), the brand grew from there, now offering everything from classic hoops to rainbow huggies, versatile chains and pearl anklets.
These pieces are made for layering and stacking, particularly the Bamboo rings, which come in multiple colours and look especially good worn en masse. The brand uses recycled 9kt solid gold, recycled gold vermeil and recycled sterling silver, also adhering to a seasonless production model, making use of pre-order and made-to-order features where possible, and always introducing new styles in tiny quantities to gauge the appetite for them. Bon appétit!
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Best for timeless design: Chylak
Polish bag brand Chylak owes its name to founder and creative director Zofia Chylak, who after training as an art historian, cut her teeth designing for Proenza Schouler in New York, before moving back to Warsaw to launch her own line of timelessly-chic bags and leather accessories that have garnered a cult following.
So much so, certain styles have amassed a 15,000-strong waiting list. Conscious production is a priority for the brand. The materials used are either biodegradable, recycled, consciously-produced or a combination of the three. The leather used is either a by-product of the meat industry, recycled from shoe manufacturing or a plant-based leather. Fabric bags use recycled plastic, while linings and dust bags are made from Lenzing EcoVero (a sustainable viscose made from wood pulp requiring forty times less water than cotton to produce and 50% fewer chemicals).
My favourite is the slouchy moiré style that’s handily large enough to slip a laptop into.
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