Sustainable Brand Focus: Noupelle

With sustainability as the focal point for the month of June 2022, we, at Her Circle, strived our best to keep things at our cover shoot as eco-friendly as possible. The brands that supported us on the fashion front played a huge role in not only keeping it sustainable thanks to their brand ideologies but also got our cover women looking and feeling stylish.

Witnessing the amount of leather waste generated as off-cuts from the production process at various leather design houses pushed Kamna Tripathi, founder and creative director of Noupelle, to create a line of upcycled-yet-stylish leather jewellery. "Using what already exists is the first step towards sustainability, this is where our inspiration for upcycling comes from. Reusing off-cuts gives us a chance to reimagine materials and create something beautiful with a purpose," she says. Traditional leather production processes leave behind reusable chunks of leather off-cuts which often end up being discarded in landfills. Tripathi saw this as an opportunity to not just create something unique but also to reduce landfill waste in her own small way.

Image Source: Instagram/noupellestudio

Noupelle’s line of accessories features leather in unexpected shapes—as earrings, chokers, rings, bracelets and more. While one does get a fair share of earthy neutrals with Noupelle’s jewellery, bright blues, greens and subtle metallic aren’t something the brand shies away from either. The best part, apart from the upcycling of leather waste, is also how the lack of metal used for Noupelle’s pieces makes them super lightweight and easily wearable. The use of the occasional beads, resin and sequins adds a subtle bling to the pieces as well. The brand’s collaborative line with Beej was made using off-cuts of vegan, biomaterials such as cork and Pinatex (made using pineapple fibres).

Image Source: Instagram/noupellestudio