Tag Archives: socially conscious

Orange Harp: Finding Conscious Brands Just Got Easier

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately discovering the heart behind brands. I find myself going to the “about me” sections of their websites, looking for the heart, soul, and conscience behind the brand. More and more, I’m pleasantly surprised to find a mission to help others behind many emerging brands.

An app called Orange Harp is making it easier to find these brands under one roof. I’ll be honest and say that before finding these brands, my method of discovering was stalking hashtags like #ecofashion, #fashionphilanthropy, #sustainablefashion, and #ethicalfashion on Twitter and Instagram.

I stumbled upon the Orange Harp app and saw that their mission is to “connect people with makers that respect the planet and its people.” The team describes the app as “a curated marketplace for socially conscious products you would want to pass on to your future generations.” When you see the app, you’d think Instagram and Etsy got together and had a baby. All the products are aesthetically pleasing and you can discover new brands from skincare and jewelry to lingerie and shirts. The Orange Harp app does a great job of curating great brands and products for you. Instead of going and searching through hundreds of Instagram profiles and websites, I can scroll through all of them at once through the app. In one click, I can see the products from each brand and see a quick summary of their mission or unique selling point.

For example, here are a few of the brands you can find on Orange Harp:

orange harp
Click picture above  to see more brands

I have a great time discovering some new brands. Here are my top 3 favorite brand discoveries from Orange Harp:

#1. Tradlands

Tomboys, eat your heart out! This brand specializes in button-down shirts for women. I love a good Oxford shirt so looking through their lookbook was entirely too much fun for me.

I loved this statement from their website:

At Tradlands, our intention is to make the best clothing for our customer, the woman who drifts towards the men’s section and thinks, “I wish they made this for me.” We create menswear inspired staples for women with a relentless emphasis on fit, details, and quality…For the world traveler or the green thumb or girl-about-town, we empower our customers with products that are both classic and comfortable. We are committed to designing and constructing items you love today and value for years to come.

Brand: Tradlands
Brand: Tradlands

#2. Be Good

The sock enthusiast in me was so excited to see these cute socks on Orange Harp’s Instagram page. The brand’s fashion sense is what they call ‘The French Closet,’ the Gallic preference for selecting seasonal basics- timeless designs that never go out of style. I’m loving the drive to good basics that stand the test of time. From comfy-looking shirts to socks wrapped in recycled paper, Be Good makes being good through fashion look easy.

Check out Be Good’s stance:

“Our ambitious mission is to be the first closed-loop retailer. It has gone mostly overlooked that big retail is the second most pollutive industry on earth. Today, we produce about 10% of the chemical and water waste of a conventional manufacturer.  By examining our supply chain from seed to stitch, we believe we can expose holes in the industry and work to fix them. Like you, we’re passionately curious.”

#3. Bogobrush

I first saw the bamboo Bogobrush a year ago and thought it was the sexiest thing ever made for your teeth. The toothbrush was so popular that they ran out of their pilot design! I was so excited to see them as one of Orange Harps’s brands.

When I couldn’t get my hands on a Bogobrush I wait…and waited. While I waited I discovered other great bamboo toothbrushes (Option 1, 2). Now the wait is over and I can check out the new Bogobrush design. Unfortunately, the brand switched from bamboo to an eco-plastic for their toothbrushes but their buy-one-give-one model is still the same. I’ll be watching for the release of the new toothbrushes to see if they stand the test.

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The Orange Harp team certainly knows how to pick ’em! I’m always interested in the story behind brands and Orange Harp tells them very well. As an entrepreneur myself, I appreciate the platform Orange Harp is giving these small businesses. This app gives them an opportunity to showcase their products to their unique markets. Like the app, the brands attract people who buy from the heart. Their customers attach an added value to the fact that their purchases either contribute to sustainability or give back to the world somehow. I’m excited to see what other brands are going to pop up in Orange Harp’s app. This app does a great job of sniffing out socially conscious brands. For consumers like me looking to give back with our spending, e-shopping with Orange Harp might just be a match made in eco-Heaven. In addition to bring great brands under one app, Orange Harp also donates 1% from all sales to Not For Sale, a organization ending human trafficking.

You can check out the $free Orange Harp iPhone/iPad app and follow them on social media (facebook, pinterest, twitter and instagram) to see some product features and get sustainable fashion news.