Buy Curious: Where We’re Shopping This September
Words: Katy Cutbirth
September is that slightly confusing month caught somewhere between summer and fall. We’re not quite finished with the heat but also starting to think about packing away the short-shorts and digging out the winter coats. So, for this in-between moment, rather than shop for the weather I thought I’d highlight a few of my favourite small and sustainable brands. I’ve picked brands working with recycled, vintage and deadstock materials, making pieces by hand, keeping production small or made to order, and generally putting a bit more thought into how and where their products are made and sourced.
And before you worry, these aren’t your average eco brands. They’re making genuinely good clothes and accessories - the fact that they’re doing it with a little more consideration is an added bonus.
Rose Murdoch
An East London designer making seriously good RTW and accessories. Her dresses are easy and wearable, while the skirts have just the right amount of sex appeal. She’s recently started making these hair pieces, too, which are particularly sweet.
Rose is also a nice example of what independent fashion can look like when production is kept small and considered. She works with re-used clothing, vintage and deadstock fabrics, often making one-off pieces, working to order or producing in very limited quantities. The result of shopping this way creates a wardrobe that feels personal, rather than churned out en masse.
Dress (Rose Murdoch, £85) Skirt (Rose Murdoch, £110) Hair Piece (Rose Murdoch, £65)
Mila Simona
I recently got my hands on this set from Mila and have been wearing it ever since. The cut is particularly good, and the underwear has adjustable sides, like a bra strap, which makes a surprisingly big difference. It’s skimpy and sexy but actually comfortable - not always an easy combination to find.
Sustainability is something Mila has built into every part of the brand’s journey. The brand’s signature styles are made using regenerated mesh fabric, while the stockings’ packaging, boxes and labels are all 95% recyclable. Good underwear, with a little less environmental baggage.
Bra - (Mila Simona, £65) Underwear (Mila Simona, £35)
Phoebe Cutler
Based in Sydney, Australia, Phoebe is making really gorgeous jewellery using gold, silver, precious stones and so much more. I could highlight it all but the items that I really want to shout about are these incredibly charming animal pendants she’s made out of a wide array of materials including vintage beads, pearls, brass and silver and then they’re placed on a colourful rubber cord.
They work as necklaces or bag charms, and would make a particularly good present for anyone with an enduring animal obsession. This bird, for example, has a walnut body and an antique 1930s thimble for a hat. It’s difficult to argue with that.
Phoebe makes each piece with longevity in mind, designing them to be worn and eventually passed on as a future heirloom.
(Phoebe Cutler, from £211)
Supporting Material
One of my favourite places to look for rare books and ephemera in London. Anna’s website is well worth a browse, but it’s even better to see the stock in person at Two’s on Hackney Road.
Anna sent over a bit about some of the pieces she currently has in stock and I fear we’re going to be fighting over these.
Original Fashion Photographs, £10 each
Date: Late 1980s–early 1990s
Photographer: Unknown
Format: Original C-type prints and Polaroids
A collection of original fashion photographs documenting styling in preparation for photoshoots or catwalk looks, including some Moschino. Likely to be to taken in Italy.
ANGRY WOMEN: A night of totally pissed off bitches totally on the rag reading their lame poetry, £60
Date: February 20, 1992
Format: Underground Performance Poster
Venue: Submit Theatre (455 Tenth Street, San Francisco, California)
An original cut-and-paste style mini poster for an underground spoken word and performance art event held in San Francisco during the winter of 1992.
The countercultural event’s title draws inspiration from the seminal 1991 feminist punk anthology Angry Women, published by San Francisco's RE/Search Publications, which catalysed a regional wave of radical performance art. The flyer preserves an important historical intersection of the early 1990s poetry slam boom, punk feminism, and early cyberpunk subcultures.
The featured lineup serves as a directory of Bay Area fringe icons of the decade, including gothic punk author Danielle Willis, spoken word poet and novelist Bucky Sinister, activist and future Manic D Press founder Kathi Georges, and multimedia performance artist Simone Third Arm, who shortly thereafter signed to Trent Reznor's Nothing Records. Held at the transient, industrial Submit Theatre space.
Just Another Asshole No. 3, POA
Editor: Barbara Ess
Place: New York
Date: 1979
Format: A3, 47 pages
Just Another Asshole No. 3 is the third issue of an experimental publication that emerged from New York City’s Lower East Side in the late 1970s. Launched in 1978, the mixed-media journal was co-edited by Barbara Ess and Jane M. Sherry. This 1979 issue features a diverse array of black-and-white photocopy, collage and text-based works, with contributions from figures including Kim Gordon, Dan Graham, Jenny Holzer, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger and Lynne Tillman.
Just Another Asshole was known for its open, collaborative submission process, reflecting the vibrant and experimental spirit of the Lower East Side art scene at the time. The publication is an important artefact of the No Wave movement, capturing the raw and innovative energy of New York’s downtown art scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Hades
Hades is an independent knitwear label that seems to have been on the Instagram feeds of every it girl in London at some point. This is not your standard plain cashmere jumper: the pieces have a slightly tongue-in-cheek, punkish quality that makes classic knitwear feel a little less ladylike.
To mark its 10th anniversary, Hades is launching a ‘Best Of’ collection, bringing together some of its favourite pieces from the past decade. The campaign imagery was made in collaboration with Turner Prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing, which feels like a fitting way to celebrate a decade of doing knitwear slightly differently.
The brand also ticks a lot of the right boxes when it comes to how its clothes are made. Production is local, manufacturing is ethical, and Hades puts an emphasis on craft, responsible design and pieces made to last, using natural and deadstock fibres.
(Hades, £240 / £250) (Hades, £550)
Kye Intimates
Kye Intimates makes the kind of basics you want to wear every day, but with enough thought put into the details to make them feel like more than just basics. There are
the everyday bras and underwear which are, yes, fantastic but for me the real draws are the skirts and tops.
Every piece is designed and handmade in Los Angeles in close partnership with a local, female-owned factory, using carefully selected deadstock materials. The brand also has a nice approach to its samples: lightly worn pieces are donated to I Support The Girls, an organisation that collects and distributes bras and menstrual hygiene products to women experiencing homelessness, survivors of domestic violence and refugees affected by natural disasters.
(Kye Intimates, £70/ £80) (Kye Intimates, £92/ £45)
FARM Rio x Rip Curl
FARM Rio has teamed up with Rip Curl on a collection of swimsuits, dresses, bags and other beachwear. It feels like a pretty natural pairing for the two brands, and is actually the Brazilian label’s second collaboration with the Australian surfwear giant.
If I wasn’t so terribly unathletic, I’d consider picking up a surfboard purely so I could wear one of these rash-guard swimsuits, or, as they call them in the biz, ‘springsuits’. The prints have a very 2000s wannabe-Californian surf kid feel, in the best possible way.
Both brands are pretty open about their shared appreciation for the natural world. As Certified B Corps, they have a mutual commitment to reducing their impact on people and the planet through more considered design and innovation. FARM Rio also has its ‘1,000 Trees a Day, Every Day’ programme, through which it funds the planting of 1,000 trees in Brazil’s biomes each day. More than two million trees have been planted so far, which I’d say is pretty good going.
