New look for www.arkadash.co.uk

Our new website has gone live today. Still needs a few tweaks but looking good! Hope you agree. Have a look at www.arkadash.co.uk

Ethical Christmassiness

So, you’re probably doing loads of Christmas shopping and wondering what to buy people and hoping you’re going to get some lovely goodies.

But there’s no need to go bonkers.  Make a list of people you want to buy gifts for, then try and think of practical things you can get for them, stuff that might be a treat, might be something they’d never buy for themselves, but that they will actually use.

It might sound boring, but I really love getting new socks.  And jewellery that I’d never have chosen myself but which I love to wear because someone else chose it for me.  And if I get things that are organic or fairly traded or recycled, that’s even better, because I get the joy of something fab and the people who made it, or grew it, or turned it into something new, get the joy of a bit more income.  Sounds pretty festive to me!

We’ve got lots of lovely Christms gifts on our website, that are ethical and practical.  Why not have a look, at www.arkadash.co.uk

Hemp in my handbag

My hand bag got nicked from Kendal calling this summer, with all my baby changing stuff in aswell – criminal! Especially as Seven my gorgeous little boy was dressed up as superman all weekend, enough to put off any baddy.

I needed a sturdy replacement for my wonderful organic cotton denim bag from Ideo.  So, we have started to stock some beautiful Sativa bags and wallets after loving them for a long time.  Check out the new range as of 20th nov 09. ..

http://www.arkadash.co.uk/index.php?cPath=145_153

I am not a particularly organised person but I’d like to think I am at least a few times a month, after a great big organising day! I need compartments and boxes and pockets and sections in order to get organised into, at least for a while. So I love my hemp bag so much I got a big shopper one  and a little handbag one.  Pockets + compartments + sections = organised???

Having your own shop is like being able to go on a  huge shopping spree, regularly. woohooo

Are we an ethical shop?

We like to think of ourselves as an ethical shop, but that’s for you to judge more than us.

The ethics we aim to uphold are about care for people and the environment – we try to choose products for our shop in Cholrton and for our website www.arkadash.co.uk, which are fairtrade, organic, recycled, sustainable and/or sweatshop-free.

In the shop we use renewable energy and eco cleaning products, we recycle everything we can and try to reuse packaging to send out web orders.  It means our parcels don’t look very pretty but we hope you don’t mind since you didn’t come to us to buy a parcel!

Over the next few weeks we’ll write about some of our products and choices and you can see what you think.  Even better, tell us what you think!

So arkadash is a clothes shop, yes?

So arkadash is a clothes shop, yes?  We sell clothes.  Organic ones.  Fairtrade cotton ones.  Hemp and bamboo ones.   And some other goodies.  Fairtrade jewellery and accessories.  Ethically sourced bags and recycled belts.  So how come someone could still walk into the shop and ask us if we sell VIDEOS?!  Made us laugh quite a lot…

The most amazing dress you’ll ever have…

Chan keeps raving about this new dress in the shop and now I’ve seen it for myself, I know what she means.  You can wear it as a dress or a skirt and straight or with flouncy ruffles.  It’s brilliant!  Chan’s wearing it in the hula-hooping photo on our “bout Chan” page of this blog.  It’s made with 55% eco-friendly hemp (and 45% cellulose-based rayon) and you can see it here on our website.

Baby bags!

There are some fantastic new baby clothes in the shop and we’ve put some of the best ones on the website.  Check out the baby bags!

October plans

October 2009 – Lots of new ideas jumping around – a revamp in the shop, a new look to the website, new product lines, a new direction for kitnkabu!  Oh, and this arkadash blog.

Who’s Charlie?

We sometimes get emails addressed to Charlie, or people phone up and ask to speak to Charlie.  Which is fine.  But just so you know, the groovily named Charlie Chorlton Arkadash is our Manchester shop, not actually a real person…  We did have a Leeds shop, too, Boris Arkadash, but Boris is in suspended animation at the moment…

Free bamboo socks!

We really like bamboo – it’s soft, sustainable and stink-proof (naturally anti-bacterial, if you want the technical term).  If you buy something from our yoga and sports range in October, we’ll give you a free pair of bamboo socks – we know you’ll love ‘em!