Buy now. Wear now. Feel good always.
Gone are the days when sustainable clothing consisted of hippy hemp separates. Nowadays, there is a plethora of ways to add chic, wearable pieces to your everyday wardrobe that also happen to give back in a major way. Consider your socially responsible self informed.
Anything But Basic
Since launching in 2015, Toronto-based retailer KOTN, which makes unbelievably soft basics using organic cotton from Egypt, has never put their pieces on sale. And they really don’t need to. Offering reasonably priced tees, tanks, pants and sweatshirts in a range of colours, the brand itself is evergreen. But this month, KOTN is hosting its first-ever sale, online and in their brick-and-mortar location on Queen Street West in Toronto. With its men’s and women’s staples up for grabs, the brand is putting every dollar you save into the pot for their school-building project in the Nile Delta. So that $75 cropped sweatshirt you’ve been eyeing? Well, it’s now $45, and KOTN will donate that $30 that you saved toward building a third school for the children of their cotton-farming partners. Win-win-win!
KOTN Cropped Sweatshirt, $45 at kotn.ca.
Shoe Got Me
Just in time for Earth Month, sustainable shoe brand Allbirds made its debut into the local market. On March 30, the San Francisco-based label launched its Canadian website, as well as two Pop-In@Nordstrom shops in Toronto and Vancouver. Eco-fashion fans will know of the brand for its use of sustainable New Zealand wool, and for the fact that their sneakers have been called “the comfiest shoes on earth.”
Allbirds Women’s Wool Runners Limited Edition Canada Maple, $135 at allbirds.ca.
Conscious Collaboration
This month, Call It Spring has partnered with Me To We to sell three limited-edition accessories to help raise money for the socially responsible charity, providing Kenyans in need in with financial literacy training, clean drinking water, and school supplies. One hundred percent of the proceeds from sales of the collection will go directly to the WE Charity, and Call It Spring has agreed to match sales with a donation of up to $50,000.
Call It Spring + Digital Ambassadors +Me to We Education Bracelet Set, $10 at callitspring.com.
Smart Engagement
In March, Hudson’s Bay launched their latest Discover This pop-up shop, chock-full of sustainable design and beauty finds. With brands like Kent (lingerie and loungewear), NAADAM (men’s and women’s cashmere), Coola (all natural SPF and more), Soapply (hand-crafted soaps) and Uma Oils (luxe organic oils), to name a few, this temporary shop’s limited run ends mid-April, so make sure you get there (aka Hudson’s Bay Yorkdale, Queen Street and Sherway Gardens in Toronto, Chinook Centre in Calgary or the Downtown Vancouver location) before it’s too late.
Uma Oils Discovery Kit, $60, thebay.com.
Change for Good
Quebec-headquartered department store Simons, which has expanded into Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia in recent years, is getting down with the colonies — the bee colonies, that is! The retailer has just announced that their Old Quebec, Carrefour Laval and Square One locations will house honeybee hives starting in June, to help those areas increase their bee population. In anticipation of the hives’ arrival (which will produce honey that will land in stores in the fall), Simons’ in-house label Twik is featuring new bee-inspired separates, and $8 from each sale will go towards the urban beehive project in conjunction with Alvéole, a hive-building company. The Bee the Change collection is available online and in stores now.
