Panic buy, but make it local.





Okay, this blog is going to be a little serious!

This week I want to talk to you about the importance of shopping local, shopping small and shopping online.

Now more than ever small businesses need us, they need us to support them any way we can. The big dog businesses are going to come out of this relatively okay, but small local businesses might not, it could take months maybe even years to come back from this! That's why it's so important for us to shop as locally as we can.

When I shop, I keep it as local as possible. Whether its clothes shopping, or just grabbing a coffee, I stay in my local town. When clothes shopping, I shop in my local charity shops or my favorite vintage shop Finders Keepers . Ruth, the vintage mastermind behind Bray's first vintage shop, is so knowledgeable about vintage clothes and is just an overall gem of a person! I go into her shop for some vintage goods, and stay for chats with Ruth about anything from what we're binging on Netflix to OTT wrestling shows (my guilty pleasure).  While the shop isn't open at the minute for obvious reasons, Ruth holds a "Power Hour" on her Instagram stories where she posts varies vintage goods and you can buy them directly from Instagram.



After stopping by the shops, I usually pop into Catalyst for an oat milk hot chocolate. Occasionally I'll sit in bang out a blog or do some research for the next one, while chowing down on their signature porridge ( the best I've ever had!). Not only can you get great coffee, Catalyst have a huge selection of sustainable products from bamboo tooth brushes, solid deodorants, handmade vegan soaps all from local Irish company's. Again, the lads from Catalyst, are some of the soundest lads I've met and always greet you with a smile.


Another cafe you'll often find me in is Copper and Straw, This is another cafe that prioritizes sustainability and the environment. It's warm, friendly and the seating at the front of the cafe is perfect for people watching ( not in a weird way).

Arcade Jewellers has been in Bray for as long as I can remember! I've bought many family members birthday / Christmas presents from there and we got my engagement ring there too! The arcade jewellers are family run who are so friendly and have been in business for almost 30 years!

While you are stuck in the house now, you can still help local businesses online.  Reuzi is an online shop where you can purchase sustainable products. Pat also has a physical shop in Foxrock. Reuzi has a wide range of sustainable products for your every need!

Another sustainable produce online shop is Green Outlook . Again, you can buy everything from skincare, homeware, sustainable toys for kids and even solid shampoo bars for the pooch or pony in your life.

Bean an tees is a clothing company run by two young women from Donegal, who are trying to inject the Irish language back into modern society with catchy slogans as gaeilge. 10 % of all t shirt sales goes to the Rape crisis network Ireland and the Dublin rape crisis network .  

By buying locally, you are directly helping a person earn a living, your helping them to keep food on the table for their family, rather than helping a CEO of a big company buy their third holiday home in Marbella. So when all this blows over and we return to our normal lives, make a conscious effort to shop smaller, shop local and shop ethically!

Yours sustainably,


                      Hayley x










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Slogan tees and why they're not cool.

Image
https://instagram.com/kai.pilger/ If you follow my Instagram... (@forgetmenotsfashion ) You'll know I'm a big fan of the tee and jeans combo, specifically band tees! Slogan tees however, are a different story. About two years ago, I couldn't walk into Penney's or any other high street shop on Grafton street and not pick up the latest t-shirt with a catchphrase from the latest movie or a saying that went viral because of a goddess-like creature from Love Island. I had to have them! Now, however, the more I research the fast fashion industry the more I realize how much damage those slogan tees are inflicting on the environment and humanity. Cotton is seen as a nice, clean fabric. How could it be harmful when it's so soft and grown naturally unlike synthetic fabrics? But you may be surprised to learn that, in fact, cotton isn't that great at all. It takes 2,700 litres of water to make one single cotton t-shirt, which is enough water for one pe...
Read more

Shark week.

Image
Periods.. The bane of female existence. The mood swings, the bloating, the endless hunger for junk food for five days out of the month, the constant ability to show up in the most inconvenient time! Periods are a part of our lives from a young age. I remember my first period, I was 11 years old on a day trip into Dublin with my aunt May and my uncle Slip (not his actual name obvs). The Luas was still pretty new so we decided to go out to Dublin and see it ( I live in Wicklow so going out to Dublin was a big deal okay...). I was wearing the the latest fashion for 11 year old's at the time, remember those cargo pants with all the random bits hanging off them? Yeah...baby blue ones. So we got off the Luas, wandered around the city centre and decided to go for some lunch in a nearby cafe, I went to the bathroom and that's when I saw the absolute bloodbath in my underwear... sorry, that's a little graphic haha! Anyway, thankfully I knew what was going on as I had already...
Read more

*insert inspirational quote here*

Image
Happy International Women's Day!! So this is a late one, I've been ill all week with the flu and though I tried, I just could not write! Then today I was at the  SustainableFashionDublin  's International woman's day event today were I met some seriously amazing women, there was spoken word artists, journalists, influencers and singers, all talking about how they are trying to be that little bit more sustainable. I felt so inspired by all these women, and with it being #IWD2020 I wanted to do a bit of a serious blog this week about how fast fashion is indeed a feminist issue. I won't name name's but all week certain brands have been trying to sell you t - shirts with catchy feminist slogans in the run up to today, these same brand's use factories that pay their workers ( 80% of whom are women) well below minimum wage, these women often have to work over time just to make ends meet. The women in these factories are seen as docile and unlikely to speak u...
Read more