Styling an ethically made pink handloom scarf

In all my years of being a style enthusiast, I’ve acquired many scarves from thrift and vintage stores, but I never took the time to learn how to style them. Until I received this beautiful pink cheeky rose naturally dyed handloom scarf from Fabric of Humanity.

Fabric of Humanity is a social enterprise that works with skilled artisans in rural India that use hand-looming and natural dyes. Their scarves are woven, hypoallergenic and compostable. I love the fact that they are challenging the power systems that cripple the opportunities and human rights of people to live prosperous lives. They ensure artisans are supported, empowered and paid liveable wages. Not only is this the right way of running a business with makers in the global South, but it’s also a way to to boost local economies in poorer communities by paying workers enough to enable the possibility of climbing out of poverty and the opportunity to thrive. It gives possibilities for better access to education for workers and their children and also healthcare. These are some of the fundamental ways that influence socio-economic development in communities in the global South. Supporting social enterprises like Fabric of Humanity goes so much further for peoples’ lives than shopping with conventional fashion brands.

This is the scarf that inspired me to raise my style games where scarves are concerned. It’s so pretty that I wanted to restyle it in several ways, with a couple of pink outfits. I used a 1980s retro-vintage pink dress, preloved pink coat, preloved pink jumper and preloved pink clutch purse. Why? Because having many different ways of wearing an accessory like this scarf inspires you to use your clothes more frequently which means you get more wear out of each item. You end up realising you don’t need to buy more clothes for different events and occasions in your life. Just restyle, mix and match pieces in your closet and play dress up in your own wardrobe! Ultimately if the majority of all of the fashion-loving world does this, we’ll have far less textile waste going to landfill.

 ♥ Nina Gbor

Instagram: @eco.styles

Grace Kelly

I’ve talked abundantly about how my love for style came from watching the icons of the silver screen such as Audrey Hepburn. Today, on what would have been Grace Kelly’s 90th birthday, I’m paying homage to her as another style icon from Hollywood’s golden era who has had major influence on my love for 1950s style. Due to Grace Kelly’s elegant style, her talent, her charm and well, her ‘gracefulness’ amongst other things, history might forever continue to regard her as an inimitable, mythical creature.

Grace Kelly’s iconic outfit in the 1954 classic film, Rear Window was designed by Edith Head.

In case you don’t know about this legend, Grace Kelly was born on November 12th, 1929 in Philadelphia, USA. She had a short-lived, yet powerful Hollywood career that earned her A-list status in the 1950s with a legacy that loomed larger than life. Grace played her first major role as a supporting character in the 1952 classic film, High Noon with Gary Cooper. With several roles in Hitchcock films and alongside other silver screen greats like and James Stewart, Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra in films like Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955) and High Society (1956), it was her performance in The Country Girl (1954) that won her an Oscar in 1955 for Best Actress. Grace Kelly soon went from Hollywood Princess to becoming the Princess of Monaco as she traded film scripts for tiaras when she married Monaco’s Crown Prince Rainier in 1956. She passed away in 1982.  

Grace Kelly during her 1955 Academy Award win for Best Actress.

Even though style is very important to me, I’ve always believed that grace is really what makes the person. As we strive to perfect our outward, physical appearance, I believe it's our responsibility to work on ourselves internally, in order to evolve to the best version of ourselves. When I think of the word grace, I think of qualities like courteousness, integrity, goodwill and dignity. From my experience, the hallmark for eliciting positive outcomes in most circumstances comes from having grace. In her life, Grace Kelly appears to have lived up to her name by exuding much grace (and style) in nearly everything she did. And she did it splendidly with grace. And most things she did, she did them gracefully. It appears that grace made that woman.

Grace Kelly’s glamorous, classic style consisted of many ball gowns and formal pieces. So, I decided to pay tribute using a 1950s pink vintage chiffon ball gown I found in a vintage store, four years ago. Grace Kelly was the first thing that came to mind when I spotted this dress. It reminded me of her blue chiffon dress in the film To Catch a Thief. 

Grace Kelly’s blue ball gown in To Catch a Thief (1955).

STYLING

In staying true to Grace Kelly style, I simply wore the dress with pearls but ommitted the white gloves.

The Restyle 

As a sustainable stylist, I needed to find an alternative way to wear this dress for a different, more casual occasion. This is crucial to reducing textile waste to landfill, as it lets you re-use a garment that might otherwise rarely or never get used again. There are several things I could have done with it but I went the simple route of wearing a denim jacket over a ball gown. The juxtaposition of something so casual as denim with such a formal piece is a marriage that actually worked in this instance.

Styling tip

Try this basic technique of wearing something casual like denim over one of your more formal or dressy pieces to make it casual. You can also try wearing a t-shirt over it or a sleeved, button-down shirt, tied at the front.  The intention is to help you get more use out of your clothes so that you look stylish and love your clothes longer. It’s a phenomenal way to make your wardrobe sustainable.

Outfit sourced from:

Pink Vintage Ball Gown: April’s Caravan Vintage Boutique

Denim Jacket: Salvos Stores Op Shop

Nina Gbor’s photography by Brunela Fenalte.

♥ Nina Gbor

Instagram: @eco.styles