A Classic Sustainable Backpack to Last a Lifetime

I founded Opus Mind with one simple mission: to empower consumers with sustainable options that ensure the health of our beautiful planet. – Kathleen Kuo

Opus Mind delivers a classic sustainable backpack to last a lifetime. Classy beautiful leather that will be a part of our family for life. It is sleek, intrinsically handcrafted and simply put: a classic. When speaking to Kathleen Kuo I was so impressed in her attention to detail, every aspect of the way she is running this brand has been thought out.

Kathleen used to work at Chanel in her previous life and was so distraught as to how much was actually wasted in production. This inspired her down the path of sustainability. Opus Mind’s bags are handmade in Italy, and the leather used to make them is actually the scraps from a factory that makes gloves. How cool is this?

Recycled from scraps to make these exquisite pieces. I have to say I am already looking forward to owning the Saddle Crossbody when I am back in the city.

I truly cannot emphasise enough the quality of these bags. The detail in the craftsmanship is superb. These bags are functional and match any occasion. A day out in the city or a day at the beach, this bag looks good wherever you take it. The thought that the scraps that are used to make this bag would have ended up in landfills polluting our planet, instead you get to treasure it and pass it down to your kids, just like your grandfathers old classic briefcase!

Mine still looks brand new and I look forward to seeing how it ages. Send us pictures with you and your ¨Opus Mind¨ we would love to share them.

Sustainably yours,

Eco Couple

The 5 Best Online Stores for Sustainable, Ethical and Eco-friendly brands

Eco Couple uses affiliate links. We promote products we have tried ourselves and truly believe in. If you make a purchase using a link we may receive a commission. Such revenue helps keep this website running, and allows us to keep the content free for readers. This motivates us to stay on our mission of inspiring conscious consumerism.

Want to be a conscious consumer but not sure where to shop? Well then this may be the most valuable list for you to start living a more conscious and eco-friendly life. We have all recently learned more about the importance of taking care of mother earth while still getting our needs met for our daily necessities. We researched and found some beautifully curated online stores carrying sustainable goods. So browse around, enjoy…and tell us about the products you have tried and love.

We at Eco Couple truly believe that we ALL have to support each other . The more stores, brands and options we have for living a more eco-conscious lifestyle the closer we are coming to truly beneficially impacting our environment. We always try to remind you that every step you take, every dollar you spend supporting sustainable eco conscious brands gets us closer to a better future. These are some stores that are truly a one stop shop for some incredible brands and their initiatives.

Eartheasy

Sourced from Eartheasy

This website is designed mostly for the outdoor enthusiast, from gardening to camping, although there are some great cleaning products as well as non toxic pest control options. It is well worth a visit and has a really great selection of eco friendly products, from home to garden to lighting to dehydrators.

Categories: Outdoor, Lifestyle, Gardening

Our favourite: Raised Garden Beds

Also check our post for more info on ¨Gardening Tips¨

The Ultimate Green Store

This store has an especially wonderful selection of bedding as well as, honestly, a little bit of everything you may need for the home, the site is really easy to navigate. If you want a beautiful array of cookware or some eco friendly storage cubes. Browse through a wonderful selection and make your home just a touch more eco friendly one purchase at a time.

Categories: Men, Womens fashion, toys ,etc etc

Our favourite items: Eco Friendly Backpacks

Aequem

Sourced from http://www.aequem.com

For all things fashion this store has over 70 brands to choose from, and each and every brand has been hand selected for its values, the quality of their clothes and of course it’s beautiful appearance. Aequem recently did an interview with us, you can find it on their Journal page.

We truly love the selection and style of this store, from your every day necessities to some really far out haute couture pieces.

Our favourite items: Jumpsuits

They plant 10 trees for every purchase…. thanks Aequem…. we love what you do.

OUR COMMON PLACE

Here we have another truly inspiring store. It is kind of liberating to let these websites to do the research and you can just feel good about what you are buying. All the while knowing that the companies have been thoroughly investigated from production right through to the end consumer. This store has a really impressive shoe collection, as well as beautiful clothes and

Categories: Fashion, Beauty and Home

Our favourite items: Coats

Use ECOCOUPLE for 10% discount

sourced from our Common place

Earth Hero

sourced from Earth Hero

This store has a little bit of everything as well. From eco-friendly pet products to kids toys, to kitchen products and clothes for kids and sportswear for parents. Another worthy store to put in your favourites list.

¨Living a lifestyle you’re proud of, that supports a planet you’re proud for, should be simple.¨-Earth Hero

Categories: Clothing, Shop by Age, Zero Waste products and Accessories

Our favourite: The Toy Selection

Use ECOCOUPLE for 10% discount

Eco Couple’s Amazon Storefront

We personally have created a favourite eco friendly products list on our Storefront on amazon. It is comprised of a few categories we have gathered over the years. All the products we have personally tried ourselves and believe in. We hope you enjoy the selection. If you ever have a question feel free to reach out.

Hope this list is useful to you feel free to share this post with your eco conscious friends. We are always interested in hearing about the pages and shops that inspire you the most… please let us know in the comments. Thank you.

Sustainably yours,

Eco Couple

Best 5 looks with a Sustainable Capsule Wardrobe

We all love a good Spring Cleaning every now and then. I really love the concept of a sustainable ¨Capsule Wardrobe.¨ The term was coined by Susie Faux in the 1970’s A Capsule wardrobe consists of a collection of essential items that do not go out of style, that you can mix and match in many different ways. Saving you time, figuring out what to wear, and most importantly money. We are focusing on how to move towards the sustainable Capsule Wardrobe, for me this is a dream come true!

sustainable capsule wardrobe jeans and black reversible tshirt

I will be featuring pictures from Pic Style out of the UK in this article and also take a look at Vetta Capsule if you are interested in some great basics. I must say we have very much have fallen in love Pic Style….. so many ways to wear these amazing pieces. 8 pieces = more than 50 outfits… how cool is that! Here are a few!

In the meantime let’s talk about how to evolve your very own wardrobe into something more manageable and hopefully more ethically conscious. I once heard a fun tip to start misting out the closet….If you turn all your hangers the other way around….and in one year check on what you have not worn….that is a really nice way of moving on from some of your clothing items.

Always sharing these items with friends or donating them to a good cause. As they say ¨one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.¨ I am very lucky in that respect as I have several friends that know me well enough and call me to come take a look when they are cleaning out their wardrobe!

The minimalist approach can seem overwhelming when it comes to clothes, but you would be surprised if you actually wrote down what you wore every day you would notice that you often repeat the clothes you really love and neglect a far larger percentage of what you own. So why not start donating the things you do’t wear and simplify your wardrobe.

Some companies have made this easier by creating a Capsule Wardrobe and helping you with ideas of how to wear them…they are especially great when you can wear them inside out or back to front to create new looks. We had the opportunity to do a lovely photoshoot with a few of PicStyle pieces…. I made a point to take these pictures with my sister who is twenty years younger than me, to show how ageless and timeless these pieces truly are. I hope you like them!

I am thrilled to say that there are so many exciting brands that are gearing towards this kind of wardrobe and that is what we thrive on over here @ecocouple For some more fun pieces take a browse through one of our recent posts ¨Favourite Sustainable Brands 2020¨

We would love to hear about your capsule wardrobe!

Love,

Sanny

Ethical Fashionweek in Berlin

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It was the first Ethical fashion Show held at Funkhaus Berlin. We had to take a sneak peak at all the wonderfully innovative up and coming sustainable designers. The location was amazing. Funkhaus really emanates the true spirit of Berlin and its sustainable trends.

The first day we arrived Green Showroom we were really excited to go to Safia Minney’s book presentation “Slave to Fashion” 💕 Safia’s book reinforces the truth of what is happening in the production chain of fashion. And we highly recommend it if you are interested in learning more about the ethical fashion industry.

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Safia is currently the director for Po-Zu and founder of Tree People. I was lucky enough to check out the new Star Wars collection.

Photo with Safia and Po-Zu

We decided to head to the Mercedes fashion Week on wooden bicycles by Coco-Mat.

See video on twitter

Philomena Zanetti and I have a fun story, we met because I was desperately waiting for the Postal service to deliver a dress for an event. The morning of the event nothing arrived. I was introduced to Julia and within a few hours I was all ready to go to my event. I loved wearing her on several occassions. Here I am talking to Barbara Meier who not only is a friend but is now also an Abassador for fair trade textiles in Germany. So I hope we will possibly collaborate on something fun together in the future.

We also came across two really fun companies Globe Hope and Mimmeko, Globe Hope makes bags from parachutes and other recycled materials. This bag is made from recycled sails. We so love that!

We also met Lanius I am wearing a Lanius top and Philomena Zanetti trousers in the left pic. Lanius has a reall great basic collection of responsible clothing.

I really loved the super stylish outfit I came across from Sanikai Clothing. I decided to wear it for the Ethical Fashion Show and was spotted by friends on instagram. Apparently even a few guests went down to visit the designer after the show which makes me very happy.

I am especially excited to have found an ethical jeans designer  Mud Jeans

Here I am in a comfy look by Mud Jeans and  the super cool Star Wars sneaker by Po-Zu.

Needless to stay we have found a lot of exciting brands and will be keeping our eye out for upcoming trendy sustainable fashion we can share with you.

Hope this was helpful to the sustainable shopper.

Love,

@ecocouple

Conscious Traveler- Destination Tarifa

 

The greatest thing about Tarifa is its wilderness, it is surrounded by rolling hills and stretches of beaches beyond the eye can see. It is the idealic paradise for any wind related activity. Nature in raw form leaving you time and time again with your jaw slightly dropped as you stare out into the Mediterranean or Atlantic (depending what beach you’re r on).

As I have lived in LA for the last two decades (very spoiled) I seem to be on the constant search for organic and sustainable products while traveling. I believe it is absolutely imperative that we all stand together with where we spend our money.

In lieu of this I have found my favourite places to shop and be fashionable in the most amazing places in the world. This story starts in tarifa….

I came across a fabulous ultra chic and sexy sustainable line. I got to wear one of her fabulous outfits for the Cannes film festival this year. Maria Malo, her line is produced sustainably in Bali.

For a discount please enter code SANNYFRIENDS

She also has an organic bamboo yoga line that I absolutely love too.

Maria lives and breathes what she and her company stand for. On instagram @mariamaloline

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Another brand that I had the pleasure of coming across is @emebeme

They produce everything in Portugal and are also organic and consciously aware of every step of their production process.

My boyfriend and I had the opportunity to do a photo shoot with Marina, the founder and CEO of Emebeme.  Here are some of our favourites

…. you can also find us on Instagram @ecocouple

This is the store front…. I’m wearing the super cute t-shirt jumpsuit 🙂

If you drop into either of these stores while in Tarifa please say hello from me.

Happy sustainable shopping xoxo