DUTCH BRAND VANILIA LAUNCH IN THE UK.
Save the Environment SS19
Photography: Shannon Purdy Model: Samela Otovic , Sarah Wilkins Stylist: Isabella Andrews
With their shocking fashion lm featuring snippets of an exploding whale juxtaposed with fantasy woodland shots. Vanilia are waking us up to sustainable fashion. Zainab Shah-Jehan charts Vanilia’s UK launch.
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quintessentially Dutch brand breaks new grounds in the U.K with their whimsical, minimalchic ad campaign photographed by Shannon Purdy. Featuring an Alice in Wonderland style teacup, a natural-faced model and minimally styled in neutral hues, you can’t help but be catapulted into this fairy-tale dimension. Vanilia are not your typical highend fashion label. e brand recognises that sustainability and eco-friendly design is of utmost importance to today’s ‘ink Green’ consumer. According to Alice Goody, retail analyst at Mintel, “44% of younger millennials – the 17-26 age range – said they would like to see more eco-friendly fabrics used in clothes.” However, Mintel found 80% mainly looked for low prices. e fashion industry is a long way from perfect. Ethically made fashion is not something everyone can afford and it’s the sole reason the allure of fast fashion is still so prominent despite its detriment to the environment. However it’s not all doom and gloom, there is much hope left, it’s up to cool brands and the young generation to lead the change. ere are people buying less but buying better and Mintel think it’s true that 69% of women aged 25-44 are consuming with a conscience which is the primary message Vanilia want to deliver through their campaign. It’s about considering the long term effects that purchase can have on the environment rather than mindless consumerism for the sake of it.
As Vivienne Westwood succinctly states, “Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody’s buying far too many clothes.”
Of course, the conversation of sustainable fashion is not a new concept or a passing trend. It was the mantra of the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, many opted for multifunctional What is sustainable fashion garments and up-cycled wherever and how is ‘sustainably made’ possible. ere was no need to different to your throw away standard fashion “Buy less. Choose clothes, one garb, you may well. Make it last. dress may ask? One method have lasted is up-cycling, a Quality, not quantity. a lifetime. technique Vanilia Everybody’s buying As Elsa have capitalised far too many clothes.” Schiaparelli on. It involves once said, shredding up unwanted, out- ‘No woman can afford the luxury dated clothing and transforming of a cheap dress”, her words are the them into shiny new clothing all essence of quality over quantity. over again. Fashion designer and environmentalist, Reet Aus, said, Similarly to Vanilia, H&M, the ‘In three years, this mass-upcycling popular high-street fashion brand method (in comparison with the have been promoting sustainastandard method of clothing bility ever since their ‘Conscious’ production) saved 125,300 kWh line launch and their long-term of energy, 128,700,000 L of water, goal to ‘close the loop in fashion’. and prevented 130,955 pounds of eir 2016 campaign for World CO2. Instead of sending 18,188 Recycle Week appealed for a pounds of textiles to land lls”. change in attitudes to re-wearing If this method was mainstream, clothes and tried to make recyimagine the amount of resources cling a cooler topic for the young it could save. generation and reminded us, ‘ere are things we can all start Vanilia’s tag line ‘Buy less, Buy doing that together can make a better, Be Vanilia’ speaks to the big difference’. greedy millennial consumer and is a subtle backlash towards the fast fashion pandemic. It is totally radical for a brand to advertise their brand this way, encouraging less buying and to adopt sustainable shopping habits. Is this what sets Vanilia apart from the other brand promotions?
Photography: Shannon Purdy Model: Samela Otovic, Isabella Andrews Stylists: Sarah Wilkins, Zainab Shah-Jehan