Five Reasons You Should Shop At Independent Brands

I love independent fashion brands, one of my favourites being Darla. Run by my close friend Amy. Independent brands offer some unique differences that separates them from big high street names. So for today's post I'm talking about 5 reasons you should shop with Independent brands. 

1. You get a real personal shopping experience, you get to know the person behind the brand and they get to know you. I think this all comes down to most independent brands having a real niche with their products that most of their customers will love. 

2. Leading on from this you get to build a relationship with the owner, they are likely to be the one who writes the newsletters and publish posts on social media. So if you have question you are likely to get a response from the owner themselves. 

3. You will find a lot of independent brands ask their customers what they would like to see more of and what trends/designs you are loving at the moment. As their target audience is smaller than the big high street brands your ideas are more than likely to be taken on board when putting together new collections.   

4. Designs have more originality and individuality. The downfall of big high street brands is that so many products look similar across multiple stores, however independents tend to have a different offering. Meaning that you don't have to worry about turning up to an event wearing the same/similar outfit to everyone else. 

5. They can focus on being more environmentally friendly, because they are producing their products on a much smaller scale than high street stores. You will tend to find that most independents try to work with recycled material or if not they will just buy enough material for the amount of products being made. This reduces the amount of waste. Also brands can be a lot more transparence about the history and making behind the clothes. Information that big high street brands either won't or can't offer their customers. 

As I've said before Darla is one of my favourite brands and I've had the opportunity to work with Darla on a number of occasions over the years.  Including styling for their latest photoshoot (all of the images included in this post.) 

'Darla is a lifestyle and womenswear label. Combining timeless silhouettes with modern fabrics and thoughtful details, our brand was made for creative everyday styling

Darla offers a playful and free-spirited range of clothing taking inspiration from around the globe while also promoting ethical and sustainable practises throughout our making process.

Designed for muses, romantics and starry-eyed daydreamers; at Darla you can shop our namesake collection along with independent brands, accessories, vintage and reworked clothing.'

I love how all of the Darla items are so versatile and you can style them all year round. Most of the designs are made in house and Amy is always asking her customers what they would like to see next, meaning they can get involved in the brand. All pictures from this post are from Darla and you can check out the website here. 

Hope you enjoyed this post, I would love to know who your favourite independent brands are?

Thanks, 

Nicole 

xx