"The gondola is a vehicle of beautiful locomotion, the smaller craft of the canals move with a staccato daintiness, and often you see the upper works of a liner in stately passage behind the chimneys."
Jan Morris, Venice - The Greatest Book Ever Written About La Serenissima - Buy the book from Faber here.
Eternal Venice, La Serenissima, is the perfect location to introduce you to this Friday's organic slow fashion star. A dream of a dress that captured this writer's heart on a winter's night. A dress to cocoon in and be worn with confidence, joy and celebration like a caress - N Peal's form-fitting, sublimely alluring vertical ribbed organic cashmere maxi dress from the Mongolian goat-herders to the Burlington Arcade, a quintessentially British hot spot for one of a kind heritage forever slow fashion. Reader this is the dress for messing around in boats in Venice... a dress that speaks of passion, alchemy and transformation from the land of Genghis Khan to you...
N Peal is the fashion cognoscenti's cashmere house. Founded in 1936, it is loved by film stars old and new. Sophia Loren consoled herself with N Peal cashmere after her jewels were stolen and the house dressed Daniel Craig as 007, the super spy for Spectre, Skyfall and No Time to Die and you can dress like the sartorial spy or a Bond girl in perennial staples that are as practical as they are timeless and indispensable from Bond's iconic army sweater to a trusty cable neck and gossamer fine coverup for the woman who captures his heart.
James Bond Fashion Collection.
N Peal's organic ribbed cashmere maxi dress is a svelte knitwear masterpiece. The dress is fashioned in organic GOTS Mongolian cashmere and features a gentle high neck, long sleeves and an elegant, elongated structure which clings in all the right places and keeps its shape. It's the ideal cashmere dress to pair with a charismatic scarf, tied in a bow or an opulent piece of jewellery and a contrast cropped cardigan. It's the perfect travel companion too. This chameleon cashmere dress is fully traceable from the company's 428 kilometres co-operative, where the goats roam on organic land, free of pesticides and artificial fertilisers preserving an ancient, subsistence and nomadic way of life, along with its ecosystem.
Now that is a dress worthy of flaunting and talking about until the goats come home and I am! I bought the dress in the N Peal sale. There are some more wonderful cashmere dresses and coordinates in the sale here. Look out for the new Spring/Summer 24 collection too, which features intricate, urbane jacquard dresses, which would also be at home in Venice's refined cafes, galleries and chic hangouts.
Now back to the dress! Reader, the dress is a slow fashion work of art and so effortless to throw on, sublimely soft and cocooning to wear with a beautiful antique Celine belt and my marvellous food-for-thought scarf by Gung Ho Design, which tells the story of pesticides in non-organic food. I have been writing about organic food and fashion for two decades and it is truly exciting to me that it is now possible to buy a pesticide-free cashmere dress that has a story of hope woven into every organic cashmere fibre.
“Movie stars will come to us even during a bad day. Sophia Loren consoled herself in buying N. the Peal cashmere when her jewels were stolen. Travelling husbands know our shop – a gentleman always buys blue for his wife.”
— N.Peal
So, why should you make your fashion organic? It would be easier to say why in the heck not? The UK is now one of the most nature-depleted countries on earth. Read The State of Nature Report Here. The distribution of flowering plant species has decreased by 54% and pollinating insects by 18% as of 2023. Read my review of the documentary Into the Weeds here.
N Peal is a heritage British slow fashion house founded in 1936, and they are proud that 60% of their current collection is now fully organic and the company is working on the remaining forty per cent. Organic dyes produce a more intense, saturated colour and the fabric is softer and biodegradable when it reaches the end of its lifespan. The bottom line is that organic fashion supports nature. Pesticides destroy nature and they are damaging our health and all the systems that support life on earth. N Peal's organic collection is GOTS-certified and traceable from the field to your wardrobe. Organic land supports 50% more wildlife including bees.
To discover more about N Peal as a heritage slow organic fashion brand, visit the website or visit their lovely shop in the famous Burlington Arcade, just off Piccadilly, London. For more slow fashion houses that include organic fabrics, take a look at the legendary Patou, Hayley Menzies Brora and Maggie Marilyn.
Copyright Alison Jane Reid/The Luminaries Magazine February 2024 All Rights Reserved. No copying in any format whatsoever.
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