Doing our bit

The news this week is, "eat less meat, drive fewer miles and buy fewer clothes" all in the challenge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At Katie Kerr, we are supportive of all of these aspirations but, obviously one is more relevant to us!

We have always had a green attitude to trading from the Katie Kerr shop. We only ever use paper bags and paper tissue for packaging, cardboard boxes and our new eco bags for posting online orders.

What we sell, where it is made and who makes it have also always been priorities. We stopped selling leather handbags several years ago when we discovered dangerous tanning methods. We wrote to all of our suppliers to request they use a sustainable product for packaging rather than plastic bags, with moderate success. Several of our brands use only natural fabrics, Thought! and Cut Loose being leaders in the green clothing effort. Many brands use organic cotton and linen, sustainable crops and the most environmentally friendly fabric, Tencel.

These are all areas of utmost importance for Katie Kerr and, as a very small independent business, we feel we are making strides in reducing our carbon footprint.

However, it isn't all about what we are doing, our customers are well informed and are making decisions with our planet in mind. We recognise and are happy to see the move away from buying many garments to buying only a few. Buying well made clothes which require minimal washing and which last several seasons. Also, buying from brands who design pieces that nod to fashion but have a style of timelessness and longevity. Many of our lovely customers visit us in the stunning jackets or dresses purchased years ago and still looking fabulous.

Our message is, buy as sustain-ably as you can, buy what you love, wear it every day if you love it, wash it as infrequently as you can and, most importantly, love what you wear!