17 aug Favourites from Rove and our tips for ordering outside Europe

We were so excited when we found out about this stylish brand Rove! We immediately loved their style and could imagine ourselves walking around in their dresses on dreamy destinations!
If you want to know more about our experiences and tips for ordering outside Europe just scroll down.

About the brand

Rove is a small brand from Byron Bay, Australia. Their designs are feminine and inspired by (and made for) traveling. The collection is produced in small quantities in Indonesia. Rove makes use of natural and sustainable fabrics like linen en tencel with a soft feel and from high quality. Carolin, the owner of the brand works personally with the production houses to ensure that garments are made under ethical circumstances.

Our experiences with ordering outside Europe

‘Because the line between,
Wrong and right,
Is the width of a thread,
From a spider’s web.
The piano keys are black and white,
But they sound like a million colours in your mind.’
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Katie Melua

This song popped in my head while we were ordering these lovely dresses from Rove. What if the dress is fairly made and from sustainable material but if it comes from the other side of the world (and isn’t sustainable at all in that way)?

Our goal with Fair Friday is to show that ethical clothing can be beautiful and stylish. With this in mind we were looking for pretty summer clothing. Although we found a lot of lovely items in Europe, it was hard to find the dresses that we really wanted. However, in the US and Australia they have a lot of brands that sell fair summer clothes where we are in love with. Take for example, The Reformation, Faithfull the Brand, and … Rove! But how ethical is ordering from Australia? As you saw Rove is ethical but the shipping industry has a great impact on the environment. PLUS you have to pay a lot and return is not really possible. On the other hand, we also find it important to support the economies of other countries, for example from India and Indonesia.

Aaaah, this can be very frustrating because what is the right choice? We think it’s difficult to say what is “the best choice”; it is not always so black and white. Most important for us is to make conscious choices and to reflect on them. So that means one time we buy outside Europe, sometimes just in the Netherlands and sometimes we choose not to buy anything at all!

Luckily for us, our items turned out really pretty and were the perfect size. However, this is not always the case and then it really sucks:( So it’s always a risk. But we have some tips (from our own experience) for you to minimize these problems!

Our five ‘outside-Europe-shipping’-tips:

1. Alternatives – Check whether you really can not find a fair alternative within Europe. To make your search more easy we’ve put together our favourite fair brands on our website. You can find this under ‘Fashion’, soon new brands will be added! You can also take a look at United Wardrobe sometimes they have secondhand items from US brands, for example from Reformation & Faithfull.
2. ‘Making a list and checking it twice…’ – Especially with this kind of orders you can make a wishlist. If an item lingers for a long time, and it is timeless, chances are that it will work out well.
3. Customs costs (douanekosten) – We thought it was better to combine our order .. don’t! It raises the Customs costs! Try to order low amounts, then you have the lowest additional costs. Check also whether the brand has worldwide free shipping; that can also make a difference.
4. Lower the risk; bikini vs dress – Take clothes that require little risk. As you can see there could be quite a few mistakes with our dresses. For example, bikinis are a bit more challenging. And check multiple photos, often you can find more ‘real’ pictures of items on the insta page of the brand. that way you can avoid ordering pink slippers and receiving red one’s (my sister’s experience🙈)
5. Sale time! – Sometimes you can also choose to wait until the sale starts. The fair brands that we like often cost quite a lot (Rove not really) and with the additional discount costs you save a lot. You can sign up for the newsletter so you know as one of the first when the sale starts.

& finally: let’s all support ethical clothing. The more we support, the more brands will establish in Europe! In that way we don’t have to order all the way from the US or Australia :). Below you’ll find a few of our favourite items of Rove’s current collection.

Take a look at a selection of our favourite items:

Vacances tie top & pants, €86

Masala jumpsuit terracotta linen, €88

 Tarifa pants striped, €61 & Palma top blue, €26 | Udaipur dress, €93