R.E.V by Rêve En Vert's #SustainableStylist Campaign

The United Nations Climate Change Conference is taking place in Paris next month, and intense discussions about cutting global CO2 emissions will be at the forefront of proceedings.  With many figures from all professions, including fashion, lending their voices to the cause in the lead up to the summit, my friends at Rêve En Vert asked me to help raise awareness with them in their #SustainableStylist campaign for #COP21.  Given that the effects of climate change do and will affect us all, and that preserving our planet is of course all our responsibility, I was thrilled to become involved.

Founded in 2013, Rêve En Vert focusses on sustainable luxury; fashion made from a place of consciousness, stocking designers who not only create stylish, long-lasting clothes and accessories, but who also respect our planet and their customer.  What's not to LOVE?! 

Founders Cora and Natasha, who I met earlier this summer in Utah, recently developed their own collection of entirely organic prima cotton basic tees, R.E.V by Rêve En Vert, made at an environmentally sound Peruvian factory just outside Lima. Every part of this range has been created with great care and respect for both planet and consumer (even the labels are printed on environmentally low impact fabric from natural dyes!) and I absolutely love my super soft Linda Tee (RRP. £48.00), the perfect accompaniment to my oh-so-predictable but oh-so-loved jeans evvvvveryday look!  A donation from the sales of any of these basics will go to support the work of Fashion Revolution in spreading awareness of the true cost of fashion. 

Photography:  Ella Sadika

Blogger's Fashion Sale for the Wild At Heart Foundation

I was so happy to be asked to donate some of my wardrobe, alongside fashion bloggers Julia Lindin and Silk and Suits, to raise funds with Edit Second Hand in support of the Wild At Heart Heart Foundation.

There are 600 million stray dogs worldwide and this project, set up this year by Nikki Tibbles, founder of London's most sought after florist and Nadine Kayser, raises donations to sponsor rescue and neutering programmes, awareness campaigns and education initiatives.  Bally, the gorgeous dog who I was photographed with outside Wild at Heart, Pimlico, was rescued off the streets as a pup in Romania and re-homed in London. She is just toooo cute and thanks to the foundation, has a happy life ahead of her.

The sale featuring pieces from my wardrobe will be on until December 5th HERE.  

See further details on how to donate to the Wild at Heart Foundation HERE. 

Paris, Je T'aime

Nous sommes Parisiens... xx

Penelope Chilvers for Tusk Trust

I have for a long time been a fan of Penelope Chilvers and with spending much of my year exploring Kenya's beautiful Samburu, I have lived in her fun and fashionable, yet safari friendly footwear.  I am therefore, in definite need of this safari-inspired rucksack in my life/on my back! In celebration of Tusk's 25th anniversary, Penelope is donating 20% of each of the canvas rucksack sales to helping the organisation raise awareness for wildlife and conservation across Africa. The adorable embroidered badges featured on the bag were designed by children from the Coaching 4 Conservation program in Botswana.  

Tusk Rucksack (RRP. £249.00)

Tom's #WithoutShoes Campaign

If you post a photo on Instagram of your bare feet by the end of today using the hashtag #WithoutShoes, and TOMS, the company known for starting a global movement through its One for One business model, will donate a pair of shoes to a child in need in your honour!  So start throwing off your socks with wild abandon and get snapping those tootsies people!! Take a pic = Give some shoes!!

Below are my feet next to a photo I took several years ago of a little girl in her dusty tutu in Tsavo, Kenya.

Musical Moment: #BandAid30's 'Feed The World'

Last weekend Sir Bob Geldolf once again rallied the pop and rock troops and re-recorded the charity single, ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas,’ thirty years after it was first released.  This time the musical stars, including Bono, Chris Martin, Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding and (*scream) One Direction, hope to raise enough money to tackle the horrendous Ebola crises currently ravaging West Africa and which has already claimed over 5000 lives.  The heart-breaking footage shown at the beginning of the music video is certainly enough to get us all donating... 

Buy the song. Stop the virus. #BandAid30 

And please text 'AID' to 70060 to give £5.00 towards the cause. 

My Ralph Lauren #PinkPonyPromise

I am really proud to have made a #PinkPonyPromise in support of The Polo Ralph Lauren Foundation's annual fight against cancer this October.  For Each Promise made on Instagram or Twitter this month,  Ralph Lauren will donate $10 to the #PinkPonyFund, and an additional $1 for each friend you tag.  The money raised, which will hopefully exceed their epic $1 Million target, will go towards helping provide cancer care and treatment to people who may not normally get it.

Cancer unfortunately affects each and every one of us.  I hope this initiative helps to raise as much money as possible… there’s still time for you to join in, so get making those promises! 

Beulah London's 'Bag For Love'

Lavina Brennan and Natasha Rufus Isaacs (left), the beautiful designers of the London-based ethical fashion label Beulah London, asked if I (amongst several other London ladies including, Millie Mackintosh, Donna Air, Cressida Bonas, Livia Firth, Princess Eugenie and Katherine Jenkins) to wear their ‘Bag For Love’ totes on Anti-Slavery Day this year.  

Available HERE (RRP. £30.00)

As well as being extremely useful, the canvas bags are made by Freeset, a charity in Kolkata, India, dedicated to helping trafficked women by providing them with a steady income, a bank account and a chance to build a new life free from abuse. With approximately 27 million people in slavery today (of which 80% are female and 50% are children) this was a fantastic way to help raise awareness and I was really happy to have taken part in the campaign. 

#TLCSplashMob: Ice Bucket Challenge for the Cove Guardians in Taiji

My friend, photographer/videographer/conservationist/dude, Jimmy Greenwood (Feral Film Productions) recently nominated me for the Ice Bucket Challenge.  Rather than chucking a bucket of water over my head (adding to the already over flowing Facebook walls of my friends), and inspired by Jimmy’s unconventional, and eco friendly, take on the challenge, I decided to rally the troops and make a SPLASH in London’s Serpentine for the love of dolphins, in support of Sea Shepherd’s Cove Guardians.

As you may know from my Instagram, I have attended several protests outside London’s Japanese Embassy in the last year (above), alarmed and disgusted by the brutal annual six month ‘cull’ of dolphins off the coast of the small fishing village of Taiji.

Annually, after a small selection of herded dolphins, porpoises and small whales are chosen for marine parks, thousands of others are brutally slaughtered and sold off for their meat.  Most citizens in Japan are unaware of these horrendous dolphin hunts, or the serious toxicity of dolphin meat, which contains extremely high levels of mercury and PCBs.

Now, more than ever, it is important to add your voice to the growing global outrage and international protest against the drive hunt, as well as the captivity and slaughter these innocent creatures.  The strongest weapon we have is our voice. Please write to your local Japanese Embassy or consulate and use your social media platforms to let it be known you oppose the slaughter in Taiji.

Thank you to my girls for agreeing, without hesitation, to one of my more crazy requests, to the Masketeers and the Artful Badger, to Summer Watson and to Jimmy, a man as passionate about this cause as me, for his excellent camera skills, encouragement and enthusiasm.

Donate to Sea Shepherd's Cove Guardians HERE.

Secret Cinema's 'Dead Poet's Society' Screening

Only a few days after Robin William’s sudden death, I attended a sell-out Secret Cinema screening of the 1989 coming-of-age film, ‘Dead Poet’s Society,’ at the Troxy in London. 

Suited and booted, my friends and I dressed in our very best (rather last minute, in my case!) Welton Academy uniforms, and watched live poetry recitals, lit candles in memory of the much-loved actor, swapped well-thumbed, old books and nostalgically tucked in to some ‘school dinner’ (alas, the crumble was juuuust as I remembered it…!) 

The Secret Cinema actors really enriched the film’s atmosphere, at times even running around in the dark with torches at the same time as the actors on screen.  The Secret Cinema actors also stood on desks underneath the screen (whist we in the audience stood on our chairs) during the film’s (especially) emotional and poignant last scene, where the students stand on their desks in solidarity for their incredible, unorthodox teacher, John Keating (below).  My spine tingled from hearing the copious bellows of, ‘O Captain, my Captain,’ from within the weepy crowd.  This was the perfect tribute.  

Several other screenings of the film were organised elsewhere in the UK, as well as in New York and Prague, and in Robin Williams’ memory, the £24,000 raised from these screening's profits and text donations, is going to mental health awareness charities.  Contributions can still easily be made by texting CINEMA to 70660 to give £3.00 to Mind.