The ‘green pound’
Would you pay £95 for a water bottle?
You’ve heard of the pink pound and the grey pound (shorthand for the spending power of the gay community and the older consumer). Now, in our ecologically enlightened times, comes a new demographic: those who spend green pounds, to surround themselves with sustainable goods.
Indeed, being invested in the environment no longer means you must take style lessons from Prince Charles, who a few years ago appeared on Countryfile wearing a Barbour jacket that had more patches than original fabric. Instead, make like Livia Firth, co-founder of consultancy agency Eco-age, who this week sported sustainable fashion brand Varana at the Venice Biennale.
She is one of thousands listening to the demand for sustainable, yet chic, shopping options – see the UK launch next month of Reformation, a beloved US brand that uses renewable materials.
Looking after the planet is now not
just a glamorous hobby, but one that can also set you back serious money, if you want top-of-the-line eco chic.
What to wear
In the past, dressing sustainably would have meant hand-me-downs and shopping in charity shops. It was a thrifty affair. But now luxury brands have caught up, having realised that green dressing is a firm favourite of the A-list. Emma Watson even started an Instagram account, @the_press_tour, to showcase her sustainable fashion finds, with dresses made of discarded fabric and gowns of organic silk.
The Duchess of Sussex has been seen in many eco-friendly brands, including a delicate recycled silver bangle made by Bar (£240), which she wore on a trip to Birkenhead. Bar founder Sophie Mckay – whose pieces have also been seen on actress Jenna Coleman and singer Jessie Ware – says that celebrities increasingly seek out environmentally friendly pieces.
“We find that stylists are now specifically sourcing sustainably,” she says. “There was this perception in the past that eco-friendly jewellery was made out of hemp and feathers and sold on Etsy, but now it’s fashionable and desirable.”
Green products are even seen as the “luxury” option: when Stella Mccartney collaborated with Adidas to make trainers from recycled polyester, they were sold at more than three times the price of ordinary ones. The same thing has happened with her collection of Taylor Swift merchandise: ordinarily, concert T-shirts go for around £20 a pop. But a tour jacket with Mccartney’s stamp of approval costs £1,350.
The most sustainable option by far is cutting down on shopping, a tricky thing for clothing companies to make money from – unless you rent out clothes instead of selling them. Emma Gillespie, founder of Belles and Babes, which specialises in maternity and baby clothing, concedes that it can be cheaper to buy babygros than subscribe to her £480-a-year service, which lends baby clothes by post to customers. But she is focused on a luxury-end customer, she says: “If you’re happy to go out and buy supermarket clothes, you can do it cheaply, but that’s not my target market. I’m providing really high-end clothing like Baby Mori, which is 100 per cent organic bamboo and cotton. If you want cheap, it’s not me that you’re looking for.”
Get the right water bottle
Ever since Stella Mccartney suggested in an interview with Grazia magazine that the reusable water bottle was “a cool accessory – almost cooler than a designer handbag”, it has become the perfect accessory to be seen with.
Certainly, some are as beautiful as jewellery: Glacce sells bottles embedded with crystals for £82, which have been endorsed by Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop; apparently, they “harnesses confidence, strength and unleashes infinite possibilities” and, most importantly, show that you are so committed to saving the planet that you are willing to spend almost a hundred quid to avoid single-use plastic.
To ramp up your eco-chic further still, accessorise the bottle with a matching reusable metal straw (with a crystal attached) for £56. Or go for a self-cleaning water bottle from Larq – yours for £95.
Reusable bottles are so on-trend that even traditional disposable plastic brands are getting on the bandwagon. Evian produced a limited number of £45 refillable bottles with the help of fashion designer Virgil Abloh that sold out long ago. But trend-setters are still so desperate to buy one that they can be found on ebay for £134.
How to travel
Teenage environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg arrived in New York this week, after spending two weeks on a solar-powered boat with no shower or loo. For a smoother ride (one with flushable facilities, at least), she could have travelled on an eco-luxury yacht, such as the ones chartered by Y.CO. The Monaco-based company has seen an increase in uber-wealthy customers looking to reduce their environmental footprint.
“Clients definitely place a higher value on the ocean than normal people, because they see it all the time,” says Y.CO manager Donna Green. “So many owners are absolutely militant about plastic – you’re very aware of how much rubbish you create because it’s stored on the boat.”
Green says that some boats save energy by using engine heat to warm up on-deck pools, or by automatically shutting the blinds when someone leaves a room to keep it cool.
One of their boats, the £680,000-a-week Nautilus, uses a special positioning system so it doesn’t need to drop anchor, which can devastate coral reefs and wildlife on the sea bed. Their £363,000-a-week Okto ship has decks made of eco-friendly plastic, which – usefully for the glam set – are also “high-heel friendly”.
Green insists that clients are happy to fork out for environmentally friendly features. “There’s definitely a move to responsible yachting,” she says.”
If you prefer terra firma, you could go for a Tesla, the electric car brand beloved of celebrities. Founder Elon Musk has made the e-vehicle cool: its Model S, which retails for around £80,000, is driven by Steven Spielberg, Ben Affleck, Cameron Diaz and Morgan Freeman.
How to eat greener
London has no shortage of places to eat while keeping your morals intact. Pharmacy, a smart vegan restaurant in Notting Hill, has been a favourite of Instagram influencers since it opened in 2016. It grows biodynamic vegetables in Kent, which are delivered to the kitchen in an electric van. It is now getting the green dollar, after opening a branch in New York.
You might think that banishing all animal products from the menu, which are incredibly resourceintensive, would also reduce the cost. You would be disappointed. LA’S Beyond Meat makes “meat facsimile” products and is backed by glitzy investors, including actress Jessica Chastain.
Its Beyond Burger, which has been billed as the world’s first plantbased burger that “looks, cooks, and satisfies like beef ”, is 50 per cent more expensive than the meatiest option at the Honest Burger chain. Almost makes you hanker after those pre-packed slices of cauliflower that Marks & Spencer tried selling as “steaks” at eye-watering prices, to cash in on the vegetarian craze, doesn’t it?