5 Unique, Stylish, Affordable and Sustainable Jewellery
When done right, jewellery acts as a tiny piece of art that can help express and elevate the wearer. But jewellery can often either be boring or way out of budget. At Vestiaire Collective, we want to help you find beautiful pieces that you love and can actually afford. Our globally popular app isn’t just here to help you buy and sell great fashion at a wallet-friendly price. It’s a way to take part in the larger fight against climate change. If you are ready to take the next step in building a responsible jewellery collection, check out this guide for some of the chicest and most conscious jewellery designers out there today.
Mejuri
Mejuri is a Canadian-based fine jewellery brand that is turning traditional jewellery shopping on its head. With an over 80% female workforce, this is women’s jewellery by and for women. Instead of waiting around for others to buy jewellery for the women in their life, Mejuri creates accessible and affordable pieces to buy for oneself. Today, 75% of Mejuri’s customers are women buying for themselves since traditional relationships and gender roles are changing so rapidly in society. Buying jewellery for yourself also puts the power in your hands to choose a responsible way to shop, like shopping for pre-loved Mejuri on Vestiaire Collective.
Mejuri is fine jewellery designed to be worn every day. By collecting quality staple pieces like these that are evergreen and timeless, you reduce the drive of mindless consumption which is detrimental to the environment. Mejuri’s understated, minimalist pieces will be ones you reach for every day, for every occasion. Less is more when it comes to being a Fashion Activist.
Since its inception, Mejuri has made a strong commitment to ensuring the traceability of its materials, allowing them to manage its social and environmental impact and create long-standing partnerships with suppliers that maintain responsible ethics.
Mejuri is unique by being direct-to-consumer and having product drops every Monday instead of seasonal or annual releases. Because of Mejuri’s strong Instagram following, these releases sell out quickly, and their drops have a waitlist of over 100,000 people. These pieces are handmade in limited quantities, so the best way to get your hands on a sustainably purchased Mejuri is to shop second-hand on Vestiaire.
Catbird
Catbird hails from the hip Williamsburg neighbourhood in NYC, and its jewellery line reflects all the freshness and exuberance of its surroundings. The simple and delicate jewellery is well-made and versatile enough to wear twenty-four hours a day. Though the brand is still small, it has a cult of big-name followers like Meghan Markle, Taylor Swift, and Emma Watson. Catbird is also said to be responsible for the super-hot trend of wearing multiple rings on each finger, thanks to the easily stackable minimalistic design.
The woman-owned business is led by a clear set of values that include environmental stewardship. Catbird is a member of No Dirty Gold, an international organisation aimed at reforming the destructive gold industry. The gold that Catbird uses comes from suppliers who are committed to minimising environmental damage. The company chooses to use just a few carefully selected stones in its designs to ensure that they can be ethically sourced. Catbird follows the Kimberley Process for conflict-free diamonds but goes above and beyond by using only diamonds recycled from vintage and deadstock pieces for its brilliant-cut designs.
We also encourage any conscious shoppers to choose recycled over new when buying jewellery. Extending the lifespan of precious metals and gemstones means that nothing new will be taken from the earth, ultimately minimising the carbon footprint of your jewellery. We make it easy for shoppers to find pre-loved jewellery on our app, offering thousands of new listings every week. By shopping on Vestiaire, you can feel even better about the environmental impact of your Catbird piece.
Wald Berlin
Berlin is known for being a creative epicentre, so it should come as no surprise that one of the most exciting contemporary jewellery brands originates there. Wald Berlin is jewellery designed to empower women. The company employs a fairtrade collective of mothers and grandmothers returning from unemployment after years of child-raising. Wald Berlin’s social consciousness is significant, but its number one priority is the environment. It aims to close the loop for a more sustainable fashion future by using recycled silver and gold. Transparency is a fundamental way for a company to maintain its values, and Wald Berlin understands its supply chain from the very beginning stages.
If your Instagram feed seems full of charming seashell necklaces and ‘90s inspired pearl chokers, it’s because influencers like Chiara Ferragni and Camille Charriere can’t get enough of Wald Berlin. This brand seems to know what people want before they even realise it. It’s why high-profile stars like Marion Cotillard and Gigi Hadid have been seen sporting Wald Berlin’s signature seashells. Despite the distinctly beachy vibe, these pieces are all-season picks. After all, who doesn’t want a hint of Bali in the midst of a long urban winter?
Wald Berlin has created such whimsical and nature-inspired pieces that we are sure you will be eager to wear them. You can do your part to minimise the carbon footprint of your jewellery by shopping the Vestiaire app. Just like how Wald Berlin has been influencing jewellery and fashion on social media, you too can influence your friends and family to adopt an earth-conscious mindset by proudly displaying your thoughtfully purchased pre-loved pieces.
Monica Vinader
Monica Vinader is the name you need to know if you are a jewellery-lover who cares about the planet. This brand has succeeded in crafting the most elegant pieces while maintaining an impressive list of sustainability initiatives. Strategies include removing all single-use plastics from production, offsetting carbon emissions, and using 100% recycled silver and gold vermeil. Monica Vinader was honoured with the Butterfly Mark, a certification of sustainability efforts that only 150 companies so far hold.
Another key part of what makes jewellery sustainable is its quality. Jewellery built to last won’t be thrown into a landfill and replaced with a new energy-intensive piece. Monica Vinader has quality control checks at every stage of production and is so confident that it even offers a 5-year warranty and lifetime repairs. You can feel assured when buying a second-hand Monica Vinader that you will enjoy years of satisfaction and beauty. Protecting the climate requires all of us to participate. You can start by buying a pre-loved Monica Vinader on Vestiaire, which shows a thoughtful and regenerative approach to fashion.
We aren’t sure if it’s because of the environmental integrity of the company or its stunning sculptural designs that have us enraptured. Still, Monica Vinader has amassed a large following, including Hailey Bieber, Kate Middleton, and Bella Hadid. It proves that sustainability doesn’t mean sacrificing the beauty we love! You too can wear this inspirational brand's fluid, organic jewellery in an earth-positive way when you shop second-hand on Vestiaire Collective. When you’re ready to resell and give your piece a new life, we will be here to help you with that, as well.
Alighieri
Jewellery often tells a story, and English brand Alighieri tells a very special one. Each piece is inspired by Dante’s famous collection of 100 poems. The poetry draws from themes of heaven, hell, and everything in between, creating moody and unique jewellery that elicits a strong emotional reaction. The modern designs often resemble ancient talismans for a timeless look.
Rosh Mahtani began the line when she couldn’t afford the jewellery she wanted to wear. It was a big leap to start her own business, and she created the gold lion medallion to remind herself to be brave. It is now her bestselling piece, and her company has enjoyed 500% annual growth.
In 2020, Mahtani won the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British design, which commemorates brands that excel in their craft and show care for people and the planet. She is the first jewellery maker to win this award and a worthy recipient since she created a local supply chain so small that you can walk to each office. The brand uses recycled bronze, and the local manufacturing keeps its carbon footprint down. Alighieri makes pieces that you can wear forever. But what if your tastes change? No worries. The company offers a restoration service in case you ever want to update or alter the piece. That personal touch is what has helped Alighieri stand out amongst all the other small jewellery brands on the market.
One of the best things you can do to keep your carbon footprint down is to buy less but better. Aim to have as many wears per piece as possible. With Alighieri, that won’t be a problem. With this stylish jewellery, you might just never want to take it off. Buy your Alighieri jewellery in the most responsible way possible- with a second-hand purchase on Vestiaire Collective.
Fast fashion and mass production are wreaking havoc on the climate. We simply can’t participate in this kind of consumerism anymore if there is any future for the planet. Hopefully, this guide has helped introduce you to some of the innovators in the jewellery world. They challenge the status quo by crafting meaningful and mindful bracelets, necklaces, and even luxury engagement rings while using sustainable practices. It takes effort to be a conscious consumer, but it’s totally possible to have amazing jewellery that doesn’t deprive the earth. We recommend that jewellery and fashion lovers do their research to discover brands whose values align with your own. You can hold yourself and jewellery companies accountable by choosing to shop ethical brands responsibly at Vestiaire Collective. We make it super easy to buy the jewellery you love in an environmentally friendly way on our simple-to-use app.
No matter how committed a brand is to climate change, second-hand will always net a smaller carbon footprint than new. New pieces demand so many of the earth’s resources throughout the entire process- from mining the materials to the energy required to process it to the carbon emissions of transporting it to various workshops. With so many gorgeous and one-of-a-kind pre-loved pieces available on our app, you’ll never need to shop for new jewellery again. Doing so will make a meaningful impact on communities worldwide whose ecosystems are being thrown off balance by mining practices, an effect that will extend far into the future. Welcome to the new way of buying jewellery.