Model Lily Cole’s Rubber Jewelry Line Makes Saving the Rainforest Look Chic
Back in 2012, stunning English model and actress Lily Cole served as ambassador for the Body Shop’s Beauty With Heart campaign to emphasize the brand’s fair-trade, cruelty-free values. More recently, she launched Impossible.com, a social network aimed at creating a “peer-to-peer gift economy.” And now, this do-gooder is continuing her altruism with a brand new line of Brazilian rainforest-sourced rubber jewelry for StylePick.com. Cole personally designed the line in an effort to help preserve rainforests by using wild rubber over plantation rubber.
“Right now there isn’t a market distinction between wild rubber and plantation rubber,” Cole told The Telegraph. “Essentially it costs more to produce wild rubber because it’s a much more manual, less industrialised process; local tappers have to go into the forest and tap the trees accordingly. In the short-term the land is more valuable for cattle farming, so currently there isn’t enough of a financial incentive to do wild rubber trading, to protect the forest from being deforested.”
Though sadly, every piece flew off the virtual shelves within the first 24 hours of launching, more rings, earrings, and necklaces are on their way. Prices range from £10 for earrings to £25 for necklaces and 100 percent of profits from every sale are donated to the WWF and Sky Rainforest Rescue. Affordable-chic jewelry for a great cause? Now that’s what we’d call a win-win.
Diana Denza is BettyConfidential’s contributing editor.