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12 of The Most Beautiful Beach Kaftans on Etsy

published on August 4, 2021 by Angela Hamilton
updated on November 2, 2021

Ever since I discovered this stunning made-to-order resortwear brand, embroidered dresses and boho beach maxis have been top of mind. Plus, I’m kind of a lazy dresser and I’m not fabulous with heat so a one-and-done outfit is really all I care to sport all summer. Many cultures throughout history have their own version of a kaftan (or caftan), which has evolved over time, but they are typically long, maxi-length garments such as robes or dresses. There are lots of variations on the kaftan, such as the pieces below inspired by Ukrainian, Indian, Mexican designs and more. Some of them are thick, intricate, and ornate like a gown, and others, which are better known here in the US, are light and beachy like a swimsuit cover-up.

Etsy is such a fantastic resource for discovering designers and learning about traditional techniques used today and in vintage garments (there are a few vintage caftans in the mix here too). I’m personally inspired by every culture’s iteration on the kaftan that I have seen, from traditional, Ukrainian tunics to the Mexican Huipil, all of which I learned so much more about thanks to these independent designers! We’ve also sprinkled more “modern” styles in the mix, like a pink tie dye maxi dress and a fun collab with House of Harlow 1960!

If you love boho dresses, you’ll love these beautiful beach kaftans…

DandEDiscovered x House of Harlow 1960 Caftan

Kaftan Buzz Pink Tie Dye Maxi Dress

Indian Block Print Indigo Kaftan by mommyrobeclothing (custom made in your preferred length!)

MaisonMarrakech Moroccan Kaftan

Vintage Mexican Embroidered Dress via MissHippy70

Custom White & Pink Mexican Embroidered Maxi Dress from newcropshop

1960 THE LILLY Lilly Pulitzer via The Aft Cabin

HuipilesMexicourban Huipil dresses and belts

SybilsCasualElegance Silk Caftan

Tencel kaftan in a Japanese floral print by thisiskaftan

Vintage 1970s Handwoven Mexican Amuzgo Huipil via 12GalaxiesVintage

Traditional Ukrainian maxi dress with balloon sleeves by TheNewDayOutfit

This last shop features more flowy, mumu-style caftans, but I also wanted to share some of their more traditional dresses as they are just stunning!

Do you wear kaftans in the summer? Tell me where you buy yours!

What The Ethical Consumer Looks for in a Sustainable Brand

published on August 2, 2021 by Angela Hamilton

It’s been a minute since we shared resources for shop owners, but as an ethical consumer and digital strategist for small businesses, it’s one of my favorite topics. Sustainable brands aren’t just competing with other conscious businesses, they’re competing with the myriad mass-produced copycat designs offered for pennies. Sigh.

But I love using my experience managing social media, writing copy, and designing websites to give brands I actually believe in a way to stand out from the crowd. (The dream!) On the other side, I’ve been on an ever evolving journey to align my actions to my values, beginning as a college thrifter who felt a little icky about fast fashion. And what’s better to share with sustainable brands than the authentic perspective of an ethical consumer?

photo by @charityvictoria

more than sustainability… but also, sustainability

Most of the sustainable brands I connect with tell me that while they are sustainable, they aren’t only sustainable. They’re not only for the ethical consumer; they’re so much more than that. As a consumer, I totally get it. There are tons of sustainably-produced products out there, but I buy (and blog about) only those that are in my opinion the best–the most stylish, inspiring, or functional. Many of us agree that sustainability should be a given, and therefore a company should offer us a product with value beyond that quality. That said, that does not mean that you shouldn’t vocalize your values. Trust me. Consumers have to wade through so much information when making a purchase. Add greenwashing into the mix and it’s frustrating as hell. GIVE them the information they want–let them know how you are sustainable and why–even if you think it should go without saying.

transparency over perfection

We can’t talk about ethical consumption without transparency, can we? If you are launching a sustainable brand, you need to get comfortable with transparency. We all know our fair share of brands doing transparency wrong. That’s made a lot of new, small brands wary of taking a misstep–even if they truly hold those values dearly. Here’s the thing. Like any business owner, you’re going to make mistakes. You might learn that you haven’t disclosed information properly, or enough, and have to update your website. You might source a material or hire a vendor that isn’t up to your or your community’s standards, and have to pull it from the shelves. But no matter what, staying honest and open to conversation is what the ethical consumer looks for…. far, far more than perfection. Do your research, connect with experts (maybe partner with an agency like Art of Citizenry who specializes in ethical brand storytelling and education), stay true to your values, and be there for your customers when they have questions.

an element of surprise

Okay, every consumer looks for this, but most of them let the surprise of low prices dictate their purchases. Seriously, all of the fast fashion in my closet is there because, gulp, a sale. Not because of the amazing quality, cool new material I never knew could be this comfortable, hand-embroidery representing a technique practiced for hundreds of years… you get the idea. And that leaves a lot of room for the sustainable brand to swoop in and impress us. If you relate to point number one, you see that you have so much more to offer than just being sustainable. Think of the things you love the very most–your WHY–and tell your story based on that.

I wrote and rewrote this post many times, because there are so many things the ethical consumer looks for in a sustainable brand, and there are so many ways to go about offering each. This is my own perspective on a journey to sustainable living, and making a career of it too–I’d love to hear your perspective as well.

Sustainable Children’s Clothing Brands That Don’t Break The Bank

published on July 30, 2021 by Angela Hamilton

Now that three (three!) of my best friends are welcoming their first babies this summer, I’m pretty much never not looking up handmade baby clothes on Etsy. Plus, over the years, I’ve come across tons of adorable sustainable children’s clothing brands, and yes, a lot of them are just as pricey as their adult counterparts. Which isn’t exactly something every new parent on a budget hopes for. While it’s important to acknowledge why sustainable clothing costs more than fast fashion (ie ensuring ethical production, fair wages, earth-friendly materials etc), that doesn’t mean everyone can afford it. Many parents I know take advantage of hand-me-downs and secondhand shops for baby and children’s clothing, and mix in the occasional “new” splurge. As a last note, I think the brands below make wonderful options for finding precious gifts for your closest friends!

affordable + sustainable children’s clothing brands

If you’re a small-biz supporting mama, you have probably heard of Darling Clementine, huh? Founder Lindsay Meyer-Harley curates their collection of sustainably and ethically produced clothing, accessories, and wares for little ones + the whole family, featuring coveted independent baby brands like Rylee and Cru and Bobo Choses. This shop also has the sweetest decor!

We’ve highlighted ethical brand ARQ in our guides to sustainable underwear, and as the perfect gift idea, but did you know they make children’s basics and darling mama-and-me sets? Baby bloomers are $15 and bodysuits $22. They’re made of organic cotton and come in delicious colors, and a few sweet prints.

Lola and Stella is an Etsy shop from Portland, OR producing the sweetest organic baby and toddler clothes. You won’t find their prints anywhere else!

Based in New Jersey, tiny apple offers a wide selection of affordable, French inspired sustainable children’s brands for babies, boys, and girls. (Side note: They feature a ton of brands so if you’re concerned about certain sustainability aspects, be sure to check out each individual vendor for further details!) This set above? I mean. Too cute.

I’ve followed Mien for a few years now, loving their womens jumpsuits and mama-mini sets. While Mien has shifted the focus more from children to womens, the pieces they do have on the site for littles are so darling and extremely well priced. It’s all heavily discounted at the moment, with pieces from $16-$35.

Surf-inspired small business Of One Sea makes recycled children’s swimsuit and sunwear, and adult (men + women) clothing too. They’re based in Oahu and just so cute!

Made in USA children’s clothing brand Plain Jane makes the softest modal basics for women and kids. They have a 2 for $60 offer on all children’s items.

Sustainable, artisan, and fair trade children’s clothing brand Misha & Puff has all the fun prints. Their basics come in at under $40, but they also offer higher end + occasion pieces like knit sweaters made with hand dyed yarn!

While Petit Vilains is on the pricier end of this list, they carry both beautiful basics and more occasion-style pieces for baby and children’s, all of which is made to grow with baby, to get as many wears out of them as possible. They also make everything in small batches in Vancouver, BC, with natural fibers and sustainable practices. Free shipping in the US and Canada is offered over $100 as well.

I love Apricot LA‘s hand-dyed linens, and their children’s goodies are just as sweet! Just look at these tie dye onesies. So bright and fun.

This is just a few of the cute sustainable children’s brands and baby clothes I’ve found in my gifting! I’m sure there are so, so many more wonderful brands to support so please leave their names in the comments so we can add them to the post.

10 CBD Brands To Know About

published on July 28, 2021 by Mindy Chung

Last month we came out with a blog debating the sustainability of the CBD industry. And as heavily hinted/promised, this month we have a list of 10 #ecoclubapproved CBD companies that emphasize sustainability within their business models! Each brand has its own set of priorities when it comes to sustainability (and as with all things small business, no single bran can do it *all*), but today we’re focusing on sustainable packaging, Black female owned brands, and those with an emphasis on local sourcing. Let’s get into it.

cbd brands with sustainable packaging

I’m going to be 100% with y’all—finding companies that were dedicated to and implementing sustainable packaging was unexpectedly difficult. Which is why I applaud these brands all the more for taking that extra step to reduce their impact on Mother Nature.

Floramye
First up is eco club directory member, Floramye. They were instrumental in the creation of my original blog on CBD, and base their brand mission on practicing sustainability with all their products. Floramye stresses the importance of ethical and sustainable packaging; utilizing recyclable Italian glass with wood lids, and excluding any paper products while minimizing the use of plastic.

Daughter of the Land
Founded in 2017, every aspect of member Daughter of the Land focuses on sustainability, from their organic and fair-trade food grade ingredients, to their biodegradable and fully recyclable packaging. All of Daughter of the Land’s CBD products are packaged in compostable, recyclable, or reusable containers.

Plant People
While Plant People does source its ingredients globally, they are exceptionally transparent about where each component comes from. They also avoid plastic and dyes in their packaging, using 100% recycled and 100% biodegradable cellulose tissue in their shipping cushioning.

Black female-owned cbd brands

There is something especially beautiful about the Black community reclaiming an industry they have been disproportionately victimized in. These bad-ass boss babes have all shown up in different ways, but are still creating equally important impacts for their community and the environment.

Frigg
Created by the former CMO of Papa & Barkley (another CBD company), Frigg is a female-founded company. The company stresses transparency in all aspects of its business; their site provides easy access to their product philosophy, sustainable practices, and ingredients used, with blurbs about each of their benefits.

Buena Botanicals
Family-owned and founded by twin sisters, Buena Botanicals products are organic, hand-harvested, eco-responsible, and ethically grown in full sun and organic soil at a cooperative out of Colorado.

Undefined Beauty
Sh(EO) Dorian Morris founded Undefined Beauty with the intention of democratizing wellness. Undefined Beauty is sustainably sourced, cruelty-free, and accessibly priced; an element that’s hard to come by with niche commodities like CBD.

locally sourced cbd

9 times out of 10, it’s easier for US businesses to cut costs by outsourcing production to overseas factories where workers are under paid and subject to unsafe conditions. That’s why these companies—with their dedication to eco-friendly and U.S. sourced hemp—are truly changing what it means to be a sustainability-minded business.

Charlotte’s Web
Anyone who knows anything about the medicinal properties of cannabis and cannabis by-products has probably heard of Charlotte’s Web. What originally started out as a family venture to help one special needs child, has developed into a full-blown business that now grows its hemp on certified organic U.S. family farms.

Hollingsworth Hemp
This Washington-based CBD company truly emphasizes its family-owned and operated beginnings. All Hollingsworth Hemp CBD hemp is grown on their family farm in small batches and “Grandma Dorothy Approved”.

Verma Farms
Inspired by the Hawaiian islands, Verma Farms products are organic and made with pesticide free, unadulterated American-grown hemp. (P.S. they have a pet CBD line for any of you with fur children!)

Dazey CBD
Dazey CBD may be the paradigm of what locally sourced CBD should look like. As they put it on their website, “happy cows may come from California, but happy hemp comes from Oregon.” Dazey grows their CBD hemp open-air, and has the drone footage to prove it.

Hopefully, this list has given you all a few ideas if you’ve been curious about CBD brands. There’s many reasons to try and seek out sustainable brands, but first and foremost is the unavoidable reality that CBD is a consumable good. If you’re opting for a holistic health product, you probably don’t want to skimp on quality.

Let us know down below what you look for when choosing a CBD brand!

What Is Greenwashing?

published on July 27, 2021 by Katie Ford-Thomas

Brands worldwide are taking significant steps to become more environmentally friendly, but there are still plenty using greenwashing techniques to boost sales. Here’s our guide to understanding what greenwashing is, why it happens—and how you can spot it in the future.

So, what is greenwashing? Greenwashing is a marketing ploy that companies use to appear that they are doing more for the environment than they are. Greenwashing purposely deceives and misleads customers into believing their products are eco-friendly. It makes companies seem environmentally aware, their products conscious, and choices ethical. But scratch a little deeper below the surface, and you’ll discover that their green claims are unfounded.

In some instances, businesses do have environmentally sound policies and practices. But greenwashing uses grandiose claims and gross exaggerations to give the impression brands are greener than they are. They may promote their fully recyclable packaging but fail to mention the toxic, single-use plastic product inside. Greenwashing directs funds to a marketing campaign rather than funding systematic change. It distracts from a company’s unethical and unsustainable practices.

Using natural images like greenery and leaves is a subliminal signal that a product is clean, earth-friendly, and derived from nature. Although packaging might not explicitly state that it’s eco, its packaging is intended to deceive. Using buzzwords such as ‘organic,’ ‘ethical,’ and ‘eco-friendly’ are also misleading as they create an image in the consumer’s mind but carry no legal weight; companies can self-declare they are ethical even when they aren’t.

Unfortunately, most major corporations are guilty of greenwashing. Break Free from Plastic produced a damning report in 2020, listing the worst brands for greenwashing, of which Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Nestle came out on top.

photo by Nefeli Kavvada.

some examples:

Marketed as pure, natural, untouched by man, Fiji Water was sued in 2011 for greenwashing. They willfully mislead customers into believing they were a carbon-negative company when their carbon footprint was huge: their water comes from a Fijian aquifer, their bottles from China, and their products shipped to 60 countries worldwide.
To appear like they were eliminating single-use plastics from their restaurants, McDonalds’ switched to paper-straws. However, the new ‘eco’ straws weren’t recyclable, while the cups were still made from plastic—an ineffective marketing ruse to distract from the detrimental impact of their single-use plastic pollution.

why is it so easy to fall for greenwashing claims?

As conscious consumers who want to make ethical purchases, it is hard to believe that brands don’t hold the same values in high regard. And yet, all too many put profit over the planet, jumping on the rise in demand for eco-friendly products.

A lot of these so-called ethical products come with a higher price tag. We equate the higher expense with responsible practices, sustainable sourcing, and a fair wage for workers. Consumers are happy to pay more for an ethical product. And here’s where greenwashing brands turn a profit: they charge conscious consumers a premium price to fund their unsustainable practices. Greenwashing also plays into our climate anxiety, convincing us to make purchases that we think are the answer to the environmental crisis but which go on to devastate and destroy our planet.

three ways to avoid greenwashing

Greenwashing is not always immediately apparent, but when you know the signs, you’ll be able to spot it in the future.

Don’t be fooled by green, ‘eco’ packaging. Make sure to check the ingredients list and research any ethical claims companies make.

Avoid ambiguous statements and buzzwords. Genuinely ethical brands are specific on details. (These can usually be found on their websites.) If in doubt, reach out to the companies and see what they say.

Look for industry-standard certifications such as Fair Trade, The Vegan Society, and Organic Content Standards.

Although greenwashing misleads conscious consumers and exploits the planet further—we don’t need to despair just yet! The fact that companies are greenwashing indicates the enormous global demand for sustainable, earth-friendly alternatives. Many companies are stepping up, making ethical changes, putting the planet and people at the heart of their work. Let’s hope that more brands answer the call.

What examples of greenwashing have you come across lately?

Sustainable Summer Beach Essentials

published on July 19, 2021 by Angela Hamilton
updated on May 11, 2023

Like any lifestyle blogger, I love a good seasonal fashion roundup, especially in summer when our wardrobes are full of color and pattern. But, this conscious consumer won’t be clicking any fast fashion links, no matter how cute that Pinterest collage is! So, we’ve decided to make our own summer beach essentials guide, this time with sustainable picks from our favorite swimsuits to big sunhats and vintage sunnies. Find the whole shebang linked below!

summer beach essentials

From left to right, top to bottom: Nancy Bird silk scarf in summertime floral, Baja slide sandal from Salt + Umber, Oversized tote in orange and yellow, Tinted mineral sunscreen, SOS Facial Spray from Tower 28, Lorna Murray hat, Kenyan Beach towel, Supermellow hydrating moisturizer by Kinship, Equal Hands sleek pleats dress, DETA coral swimsuit, Business & Pleasure beach umbrella, Salt & Umber vegan rope slides, Galamaar green one piece, Botanically dyed scrunchie, Upcycled statement earrings, Parafina sunglasses, Handwoven sun hat, Vintage 60s pink sunglasses, Yellow Mexican palm fan, Orange bikini top, Hand woven raffia bag

I’m usually all about the pastels, but summer brings out the primary color lover in me. Share your summer finds below!

*feature image by @laurajung