Category: Fashion

outfits, style, new products, fashion, clothing, women, tops, skirts, dresses

Sustainable vintage fashion : Circus Spring/ Summer 2024

Discover the best of Sustainable vintage fashion with our New Circus Spring/ Summer 2024 collection! Designed in Dublin and ethically made in our GOTS(Global Organic Textile standard) certified partner factory, Considered Clothing Company/ Good Earth India. This collection aims to bring the wearer back in time creating a sense of nostalgia whilst also being conscious of modern trends. The range contains retro statement prints , geometric and stripe on textured fabrics. Using a  soft colour pallete and simple silhouettes which makes them easy to wear and simply elegant. Circus uses many sustainable fabrics which you will see in this collection, such as : Organic cotton, BCI Cotton, Ecovero and Ecoliva. Being an Ethical and sustainable brand is important to us – every piece of clothing we create has a story and the people who make our clothes are a part of that story. That is why we collaborate closely and communicate daily with our partner factory, ensuring the quality and well being of our staff. Considered Clothing Company is a spacious, modern factory with comfortable conditions for all its employees. Our factory adheres strictly to a minimum working age and maximum working hours per week. The workspaces are well lit and air conditioned. There are policies in place to deal with workers safety, protecting the environment, and equal opportunity for all. Considered Clothing Company is GOTS certified to manufacture organic garments.

Shop sustainable vintage fashion now on Carousel’s website 

Our Goals for 2023

Our mission at Carousel is to create timeless and elegant clothing that not only makes women feel confident and beautiful, but also supports sustainability and ethical manufacturing practices.

As a vintage-inspired ladies clothing brand based in Dublin and manufactured in New Delhi, India, we are committed to using only the highest quality materials. These include Organic Cotton, BCI Cotton and EcoVero, which are grown and harvested in a way that is kind to the environment. We believe that it is our responsibility to protect the planet for future generations, and that starts with the materials we use to create the clothing for our Circus brand.

Sustainable & Ethical

We also believe in the importance of fair labour practices. That’s why we pay our employees a living wage, providing them with the means to support themselves and their families. Our workers are treated with respect and dignity, and we are proud to be able to contribute to the local economy in this way.

In addition to our commitment to sustainability and ethical manufacturing, we also take great pride in our designs. We create our own prints and dress patterns, ensuring that our clothing is unique and special. Our small team draw inspiration from the past, creating pieces that are both nostalgic and contemporary.

We believe that fashion should be more than just a trend, it should be an expression of who you are. Our clothing is designed to empower women and make them feel confident in their own skin. We want to create a community of women who appreciate the beauty of vintage-inspired fashion, and who also share our values of sustainability and ethical manufacturing.

Express Your Unique Style

In short, our mission is to create beautiful, high-quality clothing that is kind to the planet and its people, and that empowers women to express their unique style and personalities. We believe in the power of fashion to change the world for the better, and we are committed to doing our part to make that happen.

As we move forward, we pledge to continue to innovate and improve in all areas – from the materials we use, to our manufacturing processes, to our designs. We will remain transparent and accountable in our practices, always striving for excellence in all that we do.

Sustainable Fashion at ilovecarousel.com, inspired by vintage fashion of the past. A female model dances in the evening sun wearing an organic cotton cardigan, a blouse printed with bicycles and a burgundy corduroy skirt.

This year, we look forward to continue creating a sustainable and ethical fashion brand, which not only makes you look fabulous but also makes you feel good about your choices and the impact you are making. We hope you’ll join us on our journey to make fashion sustainable, unique and empowering at ilovecarousel.com!

The Carousel Team

Pre-Loved Condition Scale

Have you heard the good news? You can shop a range of Pre-Loved Circus and Carousel garments at ilovecarousel.com.

We’ve recently started asking people to get involved in our new recycling scheme! If you have a Circus or Carousel piece hanging at the back of your wardrobe, we’d love to find it a new home. You can find out more about getting involved here.

Here’s a handy scale to let you know what sort of condition the garments on sale are in:

Like New

Appears new, no signs of wear and no flaws.

Excellent

Previously worn but shows very little or no signs of wear & tear. Free from visible imperfections.

Good

Minor signs of wear and tear but is still perfectly wearable. Any noticeable flaws will be mentioned in the item description.

We are only accepting garments in ‘Good’ condition and any garments that can’t be sold will be donated to a local charity shop or brought to a local recycling centre.

Please read the next blog if you would like more information on sending us your pre-loved garments.

Thank you so much to everyone who has gotten involved so far! We’ve been delighted by the positive response to our new circular trial.

The Carousel Team

Recycling at Carousel

We’re very excited to introduce our brand new recycling scheme on a trial basis! Please continue reading to find out how it works.

How to Recycle Your Pre-Loved Garments with us:

  1. Send your pre-loved Circus or Carousel garment using Standard Post (or Registered Post if you wish). You can also drop the garment(s) to our warehouse if that’s handier for you! The items must be in a wearable and resaleable condition (washed and pressed – dry cleaning not necessary), and we ask that you package them as neatly as possible. Please drop us an email before sending your pre-loved garment(s) and include a note with your email address in the parcel so that we can add the credit to your account. The garment(s) must have been purchased by the person sending the items at ilovecarousel.com. As this is a trial, please only send a maximum of 2 garments at a time.
  2. If the items are in good condition and are able to be resold, we will then add €15 credit per dress or €10 credit per skirt/top/cardigan to your ilovecarousel.com account. You will need to set up an account if you don’t already have one. Our decision on whether the items are resaleable is final. If the items are not in a wearable/resaleable condition, you will not receive the €10/€15 credit and we will give them to a local charity shop or recycle the items at our local recycling centre.
  3. We will have a ‘Pre-Loved’ section at ilovecarousel.com where you will be able to purchase these second-hand garments. The items will be significantly reduced based on their condition.

As we are running this on a trial basis, the recycling scheme is only available to people located in Ireland.
You can send (or drop-off) your pre-loved Circus or Carousel garment(s) to:
Carousel Recycling,
Unit E11,
Calmount Business Park,
Ballymount,
Dublin 12,
D12 K7V2

Have Questions?

If you have any questions about the new recycling scheme or how it works, drop us an email to support@ilovecarousel.com. We’ve already started receiving some pre-loved garments and we hope to have them available to purchase at ilovecarousel.com very soon!

As a final note, we just wanted to thank all of our followers who joined in the conversation last week on the Cost of Living vs Sustainability. A lot of you spoke about the benefits of buying second-hand clothing and that’s how we came up with this idea! We hope this will be the beginning of something very exciting and we can’t wait for you all to follow along on the journey.

The Carousel Team

Cost of Living vs Sustainability

The cost of living has gone through the roof! Has this changed your priorities when shopping for clothes?

We’ve spent the last few years making sustainable changes for the good of our planet. But we’re struggling to shout above the noise of other fashion retailers, despite being more sustainable than our competitors. Has the rise in the cost of living affected your shopping habits? Is sustainability still a priority?

We all know that the cost of living is increasing and we’re all feeling an extra pressure. But has this affected your priorities when shopping? We’re concerned that people are prioritising price over the sustainability of the item.

It seems to us that the sustainable credentials of our clothing is an added bonus and not the motivation for purchasing from ilovecarousel.com. We’ve spent a huge amount of time and money over the last few years making our processes and materials more sustainable. But we’re struggling to be heard above the noise of other online fashion brands. Especially ones that aren’t as sustainable!

We’re feeling a bit disheartened at the moment and we’re looking to start a conversation. We’d love to hear your opinion on the matter of price vs sustainability. Which is more important to you? A dress that has been ethically made using sustainable fabrics? Or a dress that is 30% cheaper?

Let us know what you think via Instagram. We’re genuinely interested to hear if your shopping habits have changed so that we can make the right decisions for Carousel. 

Happy Customers at Carousel

We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who has taken the time to leave us a review. So we thought we’d put together a few of our favourites!

All of these reviews were left via our Trustpilot account – visit here. We’ve only just set it up and we already have a 4.7 out of 5 rating! So thank you so much. It makes such a difference to our small Irish company.

“Excellent customer service. Love the free returns through An Post. Great quality clothing.” – Cáit, Ireland

Our number one priority is our customers so it’s incredible to hear that we are successfully delivering excellent customer service!

“Fabulous dresses, lovely styles and fabrics and really good quality and fit. The customer service is excellent and very helpful and friendly. Highly recommended.” – Frances, Ireland

Quality and fit is so important! We spend many months developing each new style with our partner factory in India. So by the time it reaches ilovecarousel.com, we know you’re going to love it!

“Very pretty and affordable dress. Very pleased with this purchase.” – Brid, Ireland

“Recently treated myself to a new Circus dress from Carousel – and as always, I wasn’t disappointed! Beautiful style and fabric, felt perfect from the moment I wore it and it has attracted so many positive comments!” – Jeanie, UK

Our favourite thing to hear from you is that you’ve received compliments while wearing one of our designs! It means we’re doing our job properly and making sure that you look and feel amazing.

“As always a good buy. I love the design and the fabrics used.” – Mercedes, Spain

We’re delighted that our designs have now reached mainland Europe! We have happy customers in Spain, Germany, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and more.

Thank you so much again to everyone who has left us a review. Hearing your feedback makes such a difference to our small Irish company!

We’d love to see you in our designs

If you feel fabulous in one of our designs, why not send us a photo? It would absolutely make our day! It’s also an invaluable way of spreading the word about Carousel so that we can grow as an independent, sustainable and ethical fashion brand.

You can send your photos to support@ilovecarousel.com with the subject ‘Happy Customer’. We’ll always reply to ask if you are happy for us to share the photo on our social media.

Spring/Summer 2022 Collection

Spring/Summer 2022 Collection Launches at ilovecarousel.com

A sustainable collection of clothing, designed in Dublin and ethically made in our partner factory, Good Earth India.

The Circus Spring/Summer 2022 collection aims to invoke a sense of nostalgia in the wearer. The vintage colour palette brings a softness to the collection. And the retro-inspired prints inject a huge amount of personality into each piece. You’ll find beautiful vintage florals, colourful graphic prints, fun retro repeats and soft classic stripes in the Circus SS22 collection. 

This past year, we have spent time sourcing sustainable fabrics and registering with Lenzing™, Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). We are delighted to say that we now only use BCI or Organic cotton, Lenzing™ EcoVero™, deadstock or other sustainable fabrics in our collections. Currently we are also looking at introducing bamboo derived fabrics and Tencel.

We can say with full confidence that we know the manufacturing journey a Circus piece makes from beginning to end. We collaborate closely with our partner factory, Good Earth India. It’s a spacious, modern factory with comfortable conditions for all its employees. The factory adheres strictly to a minimum working age and maximum working hours per week. The workspaces are well lit and air conditioned. There are policies in place to deal with workers safety, protecting the environment, and sexual harassment in the workplace. Good Earth India has recently been GOTS certified to manufacture organic garments. 

A selection of our Spring/Summer 2022 collection is already available to buy at ilovecarousel.com:

Ava Painted Flower Dress –  €75.00 – Size UK 8-16
Jazz Daisy Print Dress – €79.00 – Size UK 8-16
Anna Antique Floral Top – €49.00 – Size UK 8-16
Jasmine Wave Print Skirt – €65.00 – Size UK 8-16
Livia Circle Print Dress – €79.00 – Size UK 8-16

Don’t forget, there’s free shipping to Ireland & the UK on orders over €50. And we’re very excited that we can now offer free returns to our Irish-based customers. Simply drop us an email letting us know your order number and the items you’d like to return, and we’ll generate a free return label for you.

Send your free returns requests and any questions you may have to support@ilovecarousel.com.

The Carousel Team xoxo

Design a Dress Competition

On 30th January 2022 we put out a call on social media for entries to a brand new competition. We asked our followers to send us an image of a dress that could inspire a brand new design for ilovecarousel.com. The image could have been from a movie, a tv show or something a fashion icon wore. We said we’d pick our favourites and hold a vote for the winner! The most exciting part, we’ll be creating a dress inspired by the winning image.

Thank you so much to everyone who sent in an idea! We received so many fabulous images and we wish we could make every single one of them. After much deliberation, we’ve chosen 5 dresses for the shortlist. Our decision was mainly influenced by the facilities we have available to us and whether or not we could do justice to the inspiration images.

See the five dresses that made the shortlist below:

Option 1 by Deirdre O’Brien – inspired by Audrey Hepburn’s classic style

This 1950s style dress is the first of our shortlist options. Deirdre O’Brien sent us three images that combine to create her dream dress! The bodice of Audrey Hepburn’s classic dress, a full skirt and a bow on the back to finish it off. We did up a sketch of how we envision Deirdre’s dream dress to look.

Option 2 by Sarah Pattison – inspired by Emma Stone’s dress in La La Land

The iconic yellow dress from the film La La Land is the second of our shortlist options. Sent in by Sarah Pattison, we fell in love with this idea immediately! The cut of the dress is so simple and elegant. And of course the colour is just fabulous.

Option 3 by Caiena Techart – inspired by Anya Taylor-Joy’s dress in The Queen’s Gambit

We loved watching The Queen’s Gambit when it first came out! Mainly because of Beth’s outfits. So we were delighted when Caiena Techart emailed us this pinafore as an entry for our competition. A cool and relaxed dress that can be worn with layers or on its own! 

Option 4 by Margaret McNally – inspired by Jackie Kennedy’s impeccable style

Margaret McNally sent us this image of the fabulous Jackie Kennedy. In Margaret’s words, ‘She had impeccable, elegant and timeless fashion sense. This dress has a simple design that has transcended the decades and would fit in beautifully today. A dress design that could carry you from day to night. A style that would compliment in any size.’ We couldn’t agree more and had to include this dress in our shortlist.

Option 5 by Susan Lynott – inspired by Audrey Hepburn’s dress in Funny Face

And last but definitely not least, this iconic dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face was sent in by Susan Lynott. We love its elegant shape but simplified it slightly for a more contemporary feel. The actual dress worn by Hepburn (designed by Givenchy) is on display in the Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge, Co. Kildare.

That’s all 5 dresses on the shortlist. Now it’s time to have your say! Go to our Facebook or Instagram to vote for your favourite dress. Choose carefully as the winning dress will inspire a brand new Carousel creation! Once the votes are in, we’ll get to work finalising the design and getting the dress made in our factory. It’ll then be available to buy at ilovecarousel.com.

Thank you again to everyone who sent in an idea! We received so many wonderful images and we wish we could make every single one of them. Good luck to our 5 finalists! We can’t wait to see which dress comes out on top.

Deadstock Fabric

‘Deadstock’ seems to be the new buzz word in the #sustainablefashion circle! But what does it actually mean? We can’t speak for every fashion brand. But when we say deadstock, we’re referring to fabric that already existed and if not used, it may have been sent to landfill.

A simple definition of ‘Deadstock’ Fabrics

We were eager to introduce deadstock fabric to ilovecarousel.com and we decided the best way to do this was to create a brand new ‘Carousel’ brand. This new line of clothing will be made from majority deadstock fabric. There’s a great range of deadstock fabrics available and it actually means we can offer a larger variety of colours and prints.

When we use deadstock fabric, we don’t have to worry about the minimums that usually come with designing and producing our own fabric. We can buy small amounts of lots of different fabrics which in turn, reduces our waste.

Carousel Floral Tea Dress – €59.00 – Made from responsibly and ethically sourced deadstock rayon

There’s a certain amount of exclusivity when using deadstock fabric. Once the fabric has been used and the garments have been sold, we most likely won’t be able to source the same fabric again. So we would encourage you not to wait too long if you fall in love with one of our ‘Carousel’ pieces in particular!

The greatest appeal for using deadstock fabric is that they don’t require any new resources to be made. You can’t get any more sustainable than using things that already exist. Plus we’re giving these fabrics a second life and potentially saving them from ending up in landfill.

Deadstock fabrics are a great option in terms of aesthetics and sustainability. A win-win for everyone we reckon!

If a dress is made from deadstock fabric, are you more likely to buy it? 🤔

Carousel Floral and Butterfly Ruffle Dress – €59.00 – Made from responsibly and ethically sourced deadstock cotton

You can check out our new Carousel range here

What is Slow Fashion?

What is ‘Slow Fashion’?

We use the words ‘Slow Fashion’ a lot when describing our brand and our ethos. But what does that actually mean? Read on to discover the top 5 things that we associate with ‘Slow Fashion’.

1. It’s the Opposite of Fast Fashion

Fast fashion is about making and selling as much clothes as possible, without much consideration to the planet. Whereas ‘Slow Fashion’ is about slowing this whole process down, and providing clothing that people actually need/want.

2. Quality over Quantity

Slowing down fashion is about buying a select few high quality pieces for your wardrobe. Garments that you really love and plan on wearing multiple times.

3. Clothing that People will Wear Over and Over and Over Again

And even then, hopefully be passed on to someone else. ‘Slow Fashion’ is about valuing our clothes and not seeing them as disposable.

4. Unique Designs that aren’t Trend-Based

Trends come and go, whereas ‘Slow Fashion’ is about designing beautiful clothing that people identify with. Classic pieces that you’ll be able to wear in 1, 5 or 10 years time.

5. Responsibly Sourced & Made

Last, but definitely not least, ‘Slow Fashion’ should also be responsible fashion. In order to protect our planet and the people in it, our clothing needs to be sustainably sourced and made.

What do you think of these points? Is there anything you would add to the meaning of ‘Slow Fashion’? Join the conversation on Instagram and Facebook.

We’re a small, independent Irish clothing brand and sustainable fashion is a huge part of our ethos. Fulfilling all of the above points is our main aim when creating each of our collections for ilovecarousel.com. Our Autumn/Winter 2021 collection is inspired by classic shapes of the past with a modern twist. Each piece has been made to the highest quality in our partner factory Good Earth India in New Delhi. You can read more about our ethos and story on our About Us page.