peppermint magazine

Did you know that Father Christmas used to wear a green suit? Tis true. And we tend to think around here that the spirit of the silly season could do with a slightly greener hue, and so we’re opening up our sustainable stockings and sharing our favourite finds with you! We will be posting a huge swag of gorgeous giveaways on our Facebook page over the next 7 days, so if you think you deserve to be on Santa’s ‘nice’ list*, then share the links with your friends for a chance to win. There’ll be no lumps of coal thank you very much (non-renewable resource didn’t you know, Saint Nick), just lots of wish-list-worthy treats, including homewares, skincare, fashion and loads more. Be sure to check back regularly to see what’s up for grabs!

*Peppermint will require confirmation from Santa that winners are not on the naughty list.

Please note that you must have an Australian postal address to enter.

Nicole Golland, former chef and mother of three, found she was sending envelope after envelope to school filled with notes and money and wanted a more sustainable solution. So what’s an enterprising mum to do? Start her own business of course, making reusable envelopes from organic cotton produced through a fair trade organisation in India. After sending her children to school with the new product, the requests for more starting flooding in, and Lopees Envelopes took off. Read the rest of this entry »

Guest post by Tullia Jack
New Zealand Fashion Week is always exciting. There’s something about the way our antipodean cousins approach fashion that is so unique and surprising we can’t help but admire. The same is true for the way they are tackling sustainable fashion. While I was at NZFW last week I had the chance to catch up with three designers whose approach I admire most. Read the rest of this entry »

Melburnians with a soft spot for style will know that Melbourne Spring Fashion Week is upon us. But with so many events in the schedule, how’s a girl to choose? Well for a start, tonight there is a free millinery workshop for green fashionistas by renowned milliner Melissa Jackson from Kangan Batman College, or you could catch the Lost and Found show from MaterialByProduct. Mark Thursday September 8th as a green letter day in your diary too, as colourful label Neisha is hosting Old Skin, New Skin where she demonstrates how to rework ‘waste’ fabric offcuts and pre-loved items into beautiful, no waste outfits. Best of all, you can buy the completed one-of-a-kind creations on the night. Also, from 6pm-9pm the same evening, the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre is hosting Green Is The New Black, a special cocktail evening and runway show featuring sweet sustainable style along with designs from the Wurundjeri Women’s Bunjil Creations Women’s Business Jewellery Collection. The centre will also host an exhibition of green fashion and run millinery and jewellery workshops during the week so you can whip up something to wear for the evening. You can also learn to how to shop at Salvos from a professional stylist, swap your wardrobe at The Clothing Exchange Spring Frock Swap, and check out local designers at one of the many markets happening around town. For these and many more exciting events to fulfill your sustainable desires, check out the events guide here.

Putting sustainable fashion firmly on the Melbourne map this weekend is the three day seminar [Eco]logical Evolution, kicking starting off today at the trade fashion event, Fashion Exposed. Presented by the Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia (TFIA) in partnership with Sustainable Fashion Australia, the event will bring together local industry thinkers, graduates and designers. The seminar series will showcase successful and compelling case studies for current sustainable business models in the textile, clothing and footwear sector, with emphasis on holistic business, sustainability and transparency. Joining the packed line-up is Melbourne Fashion icon Karen Webster who will discuss `The New Luxury’ and the growth of a new kind of high-end fashion market, Co-founder of 3Fish Natalie Dillon will co-present `Life Cycle Thinking and Green Supply Chain’, along with talks and workshops from Leyla Acaroglu from Eco Innovators, Kate Luckins from The Clothing Exchange, Ethical Clothing Australia and lots more. For more info and tickets head along to Fashion Exposed and for an interview with the lovely Nerida Lennon (model, sustainable fashion advocate and recent winner of the British Council’s Big Green Idea award) about the event check out here. Viva la green evolution…

Sweet, stylish and sustainable, that’s what this little Kite Boy is… Handmade in New Zealand from bamboo ply and cotton twine, the whimsical range of natural wall decorations from Spoonful Design in Auckland will put a smile on any child’s dial (and of course the young at heart). Found over at Endemic World, the difficult part is choosing between a kite, puppy, balloon or yoyo…

In the midst of a very windy Mercedes Brisbane Fashion Festival, we’re glad to see there’s at least one sustainable fashion event on the cards. Tomorrow night the State Library in South Brisbane will play host to the special Fashion After Hours panel Industry and Autonomy: What is Sustainable Fashion?, asking the question: Can the term ‘sustainable fashion’ really exist? We certainly believe so, and our own Deputy Editor Tess Curran will be there to tell you why. She’ll be joined by Samantha Hardman from Bento, Joshua Jones from Jean Brown and clever ladies Paula Dunlop and Alice Payne from The Stitchery and QUT, with the whole event followed by a pop-up evening market from The Best Little Vintage Van in Vegas. The panel begins at 8.30pm and is free to all. Hope to see you there! {Dress above by Bento}

It’s Expo time! Starting tomorrow the fabulous Organic Expo will be on for 3 days – so get your green skates on and get on down! Still need a reason? Well how about this one… you just might snag yourself a goodie bag from yours truly. Grab a subscription at the special price of $40 from the Expo and you’ll receive an Envirosax reusable bag, with a full size Sukin natural facial moisturiser, HEAD Organics haircare sample, AND a Peppermint back issue. Woo hooo! PLUS – sign up for our mailing list to win some other exciting goodies – an organic bag from Apple & Bee, a natural makeup kit from Ere Perez, an Envirosax Aqua water bottle and shopping bag set, and loads more. See you there!!!

*Goodie bag is for first 100 subscribers, so don’t dilly dally!

Feel like spending the day at Home? We do too – and we think it’s something we’ll all enjoy. After several postponements, Home will be making its official debut this Sunday, June 18th, at Brisbane’s Kangaroo Point, The Home Festival is all about refreshing community spirit and creative energy with its free grassroots program of live music, markets, DJs, fashion, food and drink, children’s activities, performances and workshops. Just a taste of what to expect: a sculpture garden composed of upcycled artworks, cubby house building with recycled materials, bicycle maintenance workshops, dancing, hula hooping, screenprinting and dollhouse dioramas made from found objects. If it’s fair to assume there’s not quite as much going on within your own four walls this weekend, then pop down Home for a visit – hey, team Peppermint will even be there too!

Exciting news on the fashion front! Our lovely cover girl from Issue 3, Rhiannon Leifheit of Liebemarlene Vintage, has been quietly collaborating with photographer Jamie Hopper to launch the new online women’s boutique Silent Sundays. A perfect mixture of handpicked vintage items and carefully curated and hard-to-find dresses from international designers (including Australian label Secret Squirrel – their first US stockist), the preloved lovelies are tracked down in the South and chosen to fit the theme of the season. The store’s dreamy styles are modelled by Tayla Collins Lowe, who has starred in a Jill Sander campaign, and have been photographed by Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia. We suspect the silence on Sundays may be broken by the tap-tapping of an online shopping spree…