Our Muse - Corrine Bailey Rae

Madia & Matilda's girl crush at the moment has to be the gorgeous Corrine Bailey Rae her style seems to be effortless and completely natural, we are loving her outfits which just enhance her brilliance. I mean look at her, the colours suite her skin tone perfectly, she keeps it classy showing just the right amount of flesh, the silhouettes and fit of her clothes suites her figure to a T. We feel that she would suite our brand's aesthetic effortlessly, her nonchalant attitude would suite our chic sophisticated look.

Sincerely Madia & Matilda

Culture - Cheltenham Food Festival

Madia & Matilda have been anticipating Cheltenham's food festival as one of the perks of living in the Cotswolds, for a long long time. Part of our reason for Madia & Matilda to be going along, apart from eating all the yummy food!  Is to check up on our lovely target market of Cheltenham, seeing what our local customers are interested in, looking for and wearing. to absorb yourself in local events we see this to be very important. To understand our customers and get to know them.

A festival for the submersion of the senses. white tents decked with decadence to sample as you please, floury puffs in the bakery tents dusted with icing sugar and coco powder still peppering the air. while just across the stall oily and thick with an array of cheeses stacked up in pillars, fresh to cut and serve.

                                             Sincerely Madia & Matilda

Style - 3 Styles You'll Love This Summer

These Frankie trousers are another gorgeous essential for spring and summer the detailed floral embellishment really makes these trousers stand out, these trousers look gorgeous paired with a lacy top like the one pictured below.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
 I adore this pleated midi skirt as it gives a fresh clean look to any outfit, this skirt would look great paired with a dainty spaghetti strap top and some brogues.                                                         

                                                                                                    Sincerely Madia & Matilda

3 Essential pieces from our S/S 16 collection

This floral t-shirt dress a piece that would look great in everyone’s wardrobe. Pair it with chunky rose gold jewellery as it is a key trend for S/S 2016, try this dress with chunky knit tights on those colder spring days.

                          







   






Blush coloured blouse - Elise Linen Top, with a laid back carefree look, this top gives an effortless style paired with our Natalie trousers and some lace up heels, I also think the Natalie trousers are another essential for spring summer, as they coordinate well with many pieces from this collection.



   

       

              

                                              Sincerely Madia & Matilda

                                                

Culture - Making Better Choices - Sustainable Fashion 5x 15 - Selfridges talk

Selfridges Bright New Things campaign, held an event for Sustainable Fashion - 5x15 talk and Selfridges on 18 February to inspire and intrigue the eco-conscious to the world of sustainable fashion. Hosted by Dilys Williams from the Centre for Sustainable Fashion 5 key industry figures. Daisy Schubert from Wardrobe Workshop attended and reported for Madia & Matilda.

Selfridges is the first department stores to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard for carbon, water and waste and is continuously supporting new sustainable & innovative designers or brands, so it comes as no surprise that Selfridges, should hold this event.

As the 5 key industry experts explore the subject of sustainable fashion; we look into the topics that they discuss. For sustainability a subject that is dear to our hearts, highlighted since the Rana plaza disaster; where a building collapsed killing 1,127 workers.

Dilys Williams – director of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, Dilys’ William Center Sustainable Fashion has helped embed sustainability into fashion education, business and research, as well as raise its political status. Host of the event, Dilly's talks us through the events aims. Bright new things enables young independent designer to have a platform to showcase their work. and to bring awareness to Sustainable Fashion.

David Hieatt – BNT founder of Hiut Denim Co. Driven by a desire to resurrect the denim manufacturing industry in his hometown of Cardigan, West Wales, David Hieatt’s Hiut Denim Co prides itself on taking a low-impact approach to fashion design. Britain’s biggest jeans factory, a town which was defined by what they produced, yet due to the struggles of fast fashion costing so little, the factory was closed down in 2001. However, David saw the beauty in the craftsmanship of a small town that was able to produce world class denim for 40 years and therefore resurrected a business, which stands on the principals of the purpose makes you strong, generating ideas that can keep craft and heritage alive. Each jeans has a history tag, to tell the story of the jeans, through today‘s modern technology, this makes the product feel more real to a customer.

David Hieatt answered a few of our questions,

The denim process can cause a lot of disruption to the environment can you tell us what you are doing in terms of innovation towards the dying process and wastage

The most wastage from denim production is water, this comes from washing denim, for that reason Hiut denim have a challenge called no wash club for 6 months, where you don’t wash your jeans. This leads to less pollution and denim is the most polluting of all clothing, although by using your denim jeans for 6 months without washing, the jeans become individual to you. Making Hiut jeans, the greenest jeans, because of this process. Hiut denim also gives free repairs of life, as they make a commitment to their denim production.

Lucy Siegle – journalist, for the Guardian on ethical and green living, Lucy has also written two books – Green Living in the Urban Jungle and To Die For – and champion’s environmental issues on TV and radio

Lucy Siegle talked about what we have become as consumers, that in the world today can be so demanding, expecting quality and quantity for the cheapest price, at this point, Lucy shows a very strong image of Veruca Salt, to convey the sense of  why ‘we feel like we have more rights! I want so I get’ culture, which has push the industry to its breaking point.  Every year an estimated £140 million worth (around 350,000 tonnes) of used clothing goes to landfill in the UK and in the US 193,000 tons thrown away annually

Manufacturing conditions, are poor in countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam & China, the quality of living is so apparent, yet as consumers we do not look at the narrative. Just of what we can get and how cheaply we can buy it. This quote by Ali Hewson, Edun; resonates with us ‘We carry the story of the people, who make our clothes around with us.’ So what does this hold for the future of Fashion, one thing is for sure, we cannot continue to sustain fashion in the way we have been. It is time of change and it starts with awareness, keeping in mind what the consumer wants as the new fashion culture.

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/transparency-fashion-industry-reality

Cameron Saul – founder of the Bottletop Foundation. Founded in 2002, the Bottletop Foundation brings to light the true craftsmanship from around the world and supports the highly skilled artisans and their families. 

The Bottletop Foundation was launched in 2002 by Cameron Saul and his father Roger (Founder of British luxury fashion brand Mulberry raising vital funds for Grass Roots education projects in Africa, teaching under privilege children new skills.

Each handbag is made from recycled bottle tops, consisting of upcycled aluminium ring pulls held together by crotchet, made in Brazil that was lined with Mulberry leather in Europe, Cameron discusses the process of making the bags with enamel paint and ring pulls from cans.

http://bottletop.org/

Cameron also talked about a subject which is an eye –opener, from an article which Lucy Siegle wrote about ranching on the Amazon Rainforest. Through further research, we found the topic astounding.

Forest conservation – In 2009 a report, from Greenpeace, Slaughtering the Amazon, linked cattle products used in top consumer brands to destruction of the Amazon Rainforest. Beef and leather buyers shortly thereafter announced they would no longer buy cattle products unless the industry improved the environmental performance of the cattle industry in the Amazon. This just goes to show what kinds of changes we can make.

 In turn the Greenpeace  report  highlighted an initiative in 2009 which in effect, virtually shut down the cattle industry in the Brazilian Amazon. Improving the traceability of beef and leather is significant because cattle ranching is, the largest driven cause of Amazon destruction: 80 percent of deforested land ends up as cattle pasture. Ranching is also Brazil’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

If you feel inspired by this talk and want to make a change, why not read up on the brands you like, before purchasing a product made from leather, ask the store if they know where that leather came from. Even though a leather products that say that they are  “Made in Italy” or “Made in China” can be sourced from cattle raised in newly deforested areas of the Amazon.

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/05/deforestation-free-leather-comes-closer-to-reality-in-the-brazilian-amazon/

Bottletop has been a pioneering project which support the local cross cultured communities,which significantly portrays how diverse sustainability is. After the show the audience was able to discuss topics further with the industry experts and look and some of the products, for instance the Bottletop bags.

Daisy was surprised to find sustainable and fashionable clothing at such accessible prices. Her previous perception was that fair trade/organic/local clothing or accessories would be financially unattainable for the ordinary high street shopper. The event showed her that eco-friendly pieces don't have to cost the world. In fact, there is often no major difference in the pricing - making it no longer a question of affordability but purely a question of awareness! If you knew that you could get an organic apple at the same price as a non-organic one, wouldn't you go for the better option?

Storm Keating & Diana Verde Nieto – Positive Luxury brand ambassador, producer, model and wife of Ronan Keating, Storm works with Diana from Positive Luxury changing the face of consumerism for the better and shaping the way luxury lifestyle brands work - championing new brands with a sustainable focus.

Storm & Diana Verde Nieto talked about the language of sustainability being so complex and how, it can means so many different things to different people.  Today’s customers have more choices than ever and customers choose to do business with companies that are honest, even transparent. Traditionally business practices are sometimes misleading. Positive Luxury’s aim is to work with brands that consumers can trust, across all their products and services. In order to help brands grow with their consumer’s trust, Therefore, Positive luxury awards a Butterfly Mark, because they believe that every business can play a part in change and protect the world.

Thus making us think about, working with our team members, partners, customers and communities we can continue to do more with les; take action to help protect our environment and trade sustainably and ethically. We continue to reduce our direct impact year on year and encourage our suppliers and customers to do the same.

Stacey Dooley – documentary presenter Stacey rose to TV fame in 2009 after appearing on a number of investigative documentaries exploring wide-ranging topics, which stems from injustice in the world. Those topicis include child labour issues in developing countries to sex trafficking. 

Stacey explains what happened when she was immersed in to Indian culture in Dacka, Bangladesh for the television program, Blood Sweat and T-shirts on BBC3. Stacey describe her introduction to the fashion industry, as being a consumer who does not know any better,  being at a young and impressionable age where it seemed cool to buy  throw away fashion. We found this really interesting to see through the eyes of someone who did not know about the garment industry in Bangladesh. Since the show Stacey has made it her mission to bring to light the conditions and shop ethically.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00b0xsh

"Daisy explains that after leaving the event, sustainable fashion feels more mainstream, it could be the new normal. It's much more accessible and affordable than ever before to do good with the clothes we wear!"

What we took away from the event

Luxury retail shopping does not have to cost the Earth, by adding a positive contribution and educating ourselves on the brand we buy from, we can buy better as consumers and can change fashion for the better. Thus the need to move towards a more sustainable future, a future which is more transparent. For the customer to be more aware of where or whom their product come from, its origins and lifecycle. We believe the Selfridges talk Sustainable Fashion - 5 x 15 achieved their mission; by demonstrating the impact that fashion has on the environment.

#wearawar #selfridges #brightyoungthings #madiamatilda #makingbetterchoices #fashionrevolution #whomadeyourclothes

http://www.selfridges.com/GB/en/content/bright-new-things-events/?cm_re=Homepage-_-Slide5-_-BrightNewThings2016

Sincerely Madia & Matilda

Thoughts on value

Have you ever wondered why there is often such a big price difference between your average high street garment and a seemingly similar product from a sustainable brand?

People often say sustainable/eco fashion is too expensive, but is it? Or is fast fashion the costly one?

It depends how you measure it. Yes you can purchase a top for £15- £20 from a big high street brand, wear it a couple of times, throw it away, and as a consumer it hasn’t cost you much. However, it’s easy to forget that garment was made by a human being and the amount of labour and energy that goes into it staggering. For example, to turn a piece of cotton into a garment, first it must be planted, harvested, taken to a factory to be processed and spun into yarn. Then it’s taken to another factory, woven into cloth, sent to a dye mill, dyed and finished. Then it is sold to a manufacturer who must create an original design and pattern, test for fit and performance, cut and make the garment, ship and then market it, all before reaching the customer. People are involved for its whole journey, people who deserve a fair price for their labour. But unfortunately, to produce a garment with all of those processes involved and still sell it for a price we are willing to pay; someone along the line is missing out. 

The sad truth is what we class, as a reasonable, average price, is in fact, artificially low. These cheap prices shouldn’t be the norm; they are wrong, not the more ‘expensive’ eco brands. They are the ones causing costly damage to the earth and to the workers. For fashion to be sustainable it’s not meant to be fast, throw away and cheap. We’ve been trained to buy quantity over quality. Somewhere along the way we’ve lost sight of what is best for us and the environment.

This is where sustainable fashion comes in, as it tries to change perceptions of what is expensive and go back to valuing the right things. 

Sustainable fashion tends to be more expensive due to a number of factors:

Time – As a small brand it takes time to create new and original designs from scratch, develop a pattern and manufacture in a smaller environment.

Fair trade- It is cheaper to employ people abroad to make clothes, where minimum wages are a lot less than here in the UK. For example, an employer in China only has to pay their garment worker 60p an hour, whereas in the UK the minimum wage is £6.70. When buying from a sustainable clothing company that manufactures their clothes in the UK, you know the workers have been paid a fair wage for their labour.

Economies of sale- It’s cheaper to produce mass quantities of clothing if you are a large company. Small scale companies have to pay more to produce smaller quantities.

Quality – Finally, when buying from a sustainable brand, the garments have longer life spans and are well made.

To find out more about our thoughts on value, check out our youtube 

Sincerely Madia & Matilda

e::  info@madiamatilda.co.uk       w::  www.madiamatilda.co.uk/

Shop Unique - Brand Feature - Keepwood

Madia & Matilda curated selection of brands, SHop UNique features brands who share our passion and ethos. We interviewed Keepwood natural eyewear

A bit more about the brand:

Keepwood Sustainable Eyewear started in 2013 with a desire to offer environmentally conscious products while supporting a very worthwhile cause. By offering high quality eyewear that is sustainable and natural, we can help replace the burden of waste that cheap plastic eyewear creates. For each pair of our eyewear sold, we fund "Trees for the Future" to plant 50 trees in one of their worldwide projects. We are based in Manitoba, Canada.

How is our eyewear made:

The wood and bamboo is machine-cut and then hand -sanded, finished, and assembled.

What they are made from? components? why did you chose this material: 

Most of our eyewear is made from bamboo and wood, and we also have some acetate eyeglass frames available. We chose bamboo as it is highly sustainable and renewable. It grows rapidly and under almost any condition, produces more oxygen than trees, and is durable, lightweight, and waterproof. Our woods are non-endangered and non-restricted. We love the acetate line because it is made from wood fibers and cotton, it's hypoallergenic, and very lightweight, strong, and flexible.

What inspires us: 
We are inspired by the projects of "Trees for the Future" and are so honoured to donate to them with proceeds of each of our sales. For every pair of eyewear we sell, they plant 50 trees. Their tree-planting has a direct impact on the earth and the lives of the people who need it most. The Forest Gardens they plant provide families in Africa with sustainable food sources, livestock feed, fuel wood, and up to a 500% increase in their annual income. 

What does making a quality product mean to you:

We are very stringent with our quality control and make sure that each piece meets British and North American standards. As mentioned, we are conscious of using sustainable and plant-based materials with the hope that by providing a quality product that will last over time, we can decrease the burden of waste that cheap plastic eyewear creates.

What occasion can you wear your eyewear:

Our eyewear can be worn everywhere! We strive to offer enough styles that everyone can find something that suits them. Of course our sunglasses are best worn on the beach, but since they all include polarized lenses they are great for sports and activities that require improved visibility- such as surfing, snowboarding, boating, and driving.

Favourite place to relax:

Our favorite place to relax is of course the beach, enjoying the sun. We are hoping to make it to Bali this winter and get some inspiration there for new styles we could offer in the future!

Sincerely Madia & Matilda

e::  info@madiamatilda.co.uk       w::  www.madiamatilda.co.uk/

Style - Gift Selection

December is here and where has the year gone. Coming into our 3^rd year at Madia & Matilda, things have definitely changed and developed, moving in to the New Year; Christmas festivities has got us feeling all nostalgic. With the present of new chapter, brings our thoughts to our gift guide, from our curated selection.  We want to share our favourite selection of gift ideas with you.

"Tis the season to be jolly", and what better way of celebrating with family and friends than with this flattering dress is just what every girl needs, wear it with a necklace and clutch bag

The Fahra & Sapphire dress is made from sustainable materials, made in Britain

Shop the look 

 Saphire - Gathered Strap Dress                                       Fahra - Velvet Dress

Keepwood have a great range of sunglasses for those who are seeking some winter sun. We’ve picked our must-have sunglasses for the winter.

Handcrafted Beach wood glasses

Keepwood -  Handcrafted Beach wood glasses, their mission is to handcraft glasses without environmental impact of traditional eyewear.  

Maja necklace 

These two necklaces are hand crafted, from our new curated brand – Mara – necklace a British Jewellery label hand crafted in  

Just because we love a charm bracelet, this perfect chic accessory is for a conscious style lover.

Daphne necklace - Maja necklace - Foxglove Bracelet

Foxglove Bracelet

Shop Unique and sustainable and handcrafted items here

Not sure what to get that special someone, our gift vouchers are a great way to tell them you care, especially for those fashion/ethical conscious, shopaholics

£25  -  £50  -  £75  -  £100

If you have any questions about our gift vouchers email, info@madiamatilda.co.uk

Wild Flower and Lavender

Candles to keep that feel good moment or to set the family festivities a light, feefee and lolly bee candles are made in Britain, with soy wax, a natural and organic candle

Check out the link above

If you have a dress that you just love, which could come out or one more dance, you can always book in with our alterations service. For further information take a look here

To shop any of the items in the gift guide, visit madiamatilda.co.uk. Now all there is left, is relaxing with some mulled wine and mince pies

Wishing you a very special Christmas

Sincerely Madia & Matilda

e::  info@madiamatilda.co.uk       w::  www.madiamatilda.co.uk/

Shop Unique - Brand Feature - Preux

Madia & Matilda curated selection of brands, SHop UNique features brands who share our passion and ethos. We interviewed Jil Saluck founder & designer of Preux

Madia & Matilda interviewed Jil Saluck on her luxury

  USA crafted bags. Find out more below.

Can you tell me a little more about the brand:
Preux handbags are designed by Jill Raymond Saluck using custom dyed and printed leathers, and are hand manufactured in NYC an Minnesota.  Without the need for excess embellishments or logos, the brand represents refined and personal style. The leather tones are up to the minute but go beyond the trends. The versatility of the collections offer a plethora of different pairing options, whether you are dressing for a night on the town or for a day at the office. Luxury leather combined with modern, minimalist structure makes Preux handbags a timeless addition to any 

wardrobe.


How you make your bags:

The leather is custom printed in Italy, then shipped to the U.S. where the bags are hand manufactured at a leather handbag factory from my samples.

What they are made from? components? why did you chose this material:

The bags are made from printed and foiled Italian leathers that I chose for their unique look and durability.  All hardware is hidden in the interior of each bag to give it a minimalist streamlined look.

What inspires you:

I'm inspired by interesting textures and subtle mixtures of color.  I like to start designing a handbag by exploring different patterns and textures, then choosing colors.

Where do you make the your bags:

My handbags are all made in one of two factories- one in Brooklyn, NY and one in Minneapolis, MN.  I work very closely with the artisans to ensure that each product meets my specifications, and if there is an issues we make changes until we get it right.

Where you would wear your bags too:

Preux handbags can be worn virtually anywhere.  There is a style for any outing imaginable; the Gala clutch for elegant or formal affairs, the Girls Nite shoulder pouch for casual evenings out, the Pavement Pounder crossbody for busy days of multitasking, and the Lunch Meeting tote for every day, or even as a beach or pool bag.

Favourite place to relax:

My favorite place to relax is the beach- I always bring my tote because it keeps my phone safe from sand and water!

In the future what styles do you plan to make next?

In the future I plan to add a backpack style to the mix.

Sincerely Madia & Matilda

e::  info@madiamatilda.co.uk       w::  www.madiamatilda.co.uk/