Autumn 2010

Ethical Fashion Handbags, Jewellery or Clothes - Choose:

Plum Ethical Girls Say...

"I've been looking for something like this for ages, thanks and good luck!" Sophie P., Stow-on-the-Wold. "Just wanted to say 'thank you' to you for my lovely top, all your help, and attention to detail." Helena, Amsterdam. "I love my new bag! Thank you so much for sending so quickly." Charlotte T., London. "Beautiful jewellery!" Nia J., Borth. "I am so so excited about the website and what you're doing!" Jess A., Nr. Hereford.

Want to Help?

A number of people have said they really want to support what we're trying to do. If you'd like to help, this press release might be useful - use it on your blog, on Facebook, a forum, anywhere you like - and thank you!

PRESS RELEASE July 1st, 2010: [for immediate release]

"Plum Ethical are really proud and excited to announce the addition of gorgeous, soft ethical and recycled clothing and beautiful, elegant jewellery to their newly updated collection of leather-free, eco friendly bags.

"Our eco bags are all leather-free and produced by crest-of-the-wave ethical bag designers including dA-LaTA, Neumatica, PlanetSilverChilli, and MooFree.  Our clothing range is made exclusively from organic cotton or super-soft bamboo.  Our jewellery is spectacular and you will never believe some of the wonderfully odd things that have been used to make it."

Dear Visitor,

Here are the handbags, jewellery and clothes that we've chosen for Autumn 2010. We think they look elegant and relaxed, and they certainly make a difference to the artists who make them, all around the world.

We've got two bits of news :

Firstly, we've managed to complete our first ethical clothes and accessories collection for women. Still, if you have a favourite ethical clothing company (or run one!), please let us know by email and we'll look into including it too. We all need to stick together to promote ethical wear!  Our new stock includes clothes by Frank&Faith, and jewellery by Achkiy.

Secondly, we're happy to announce that we're working with our sister company, Cecily Plum to highlight ethical clothes for mums-to-be and new mums. WHY? because that's a market that really needs an ethical option. Nevertheless, CP is struggling to find ethical baby changing bags. While they're careful what they sell, we would love to hear from anyone who knows of a high-quality collection of fashionable eco, recycled or fair-trade baby changing bags.

As always, if you can't see what you want here, feel free to email us.

Have fun!

Warm regards,

Plum.

What Does 'Ethical' Mean?

The word 'ethical' is hard to define. Take three people, all of whom want to shop for ethical goods, and you'll likely get three totally different definitions. For one, it's all about fair-trade and ensuring everyone gets paid properly, and works without exploitation, under safe conditions. For another the most important thing it that no animals have been harmed in the making of the item. For the third, it's vital that the thing sustainably preserves the earth's resources.

It seems to us that there is a commonality here: the need to avoid exploitation, whether of our blue-green planet, its animals, or our fellow humans. Plum Ethical exists to gather together beautiful, special designer handbags, jewellery and clothes that satisfy all three of these things. None of our items are made from any animal products; at least 65% of our items are recycled or upcycled; all are at least are sourced from firms that look after their workforce, and in 70% of all cases the items are fully fair-trade and supporting local communities and/or disadvantaged people. The things here are special because they're gorgeous, but they're also ethical in these ways.

If you think we could do better, please tell us -- but do be prepared to tell us exactly how. It's very easy to criticise anything that is sold under the ethical banner because everything in this world is shades of grey. No one is ethically white, we can just head towards the white, and if you can help us then we really want to know about it, and we'll do something about it.

Feel free to contact us if you have and special concerns that you'd like to discuss with us before buying, we'd love to hear from you.