The greatest test so far for the fashion designer Orla Kiely's new refillable
water bottle, rather sweetly called the Wottle, was when her youngest son,
Hamish, took it into school. A few months on, he's still using it and
reporting its popularity among his friends.
If the Wottle can impress 11-year-old boys, winning the rest of us over should
be a pushover, especially since it follows in the path of success stories
such as Anya Hindmarch's “I'm Not a Plastic Bag”, another eco-invention that
combined ethics with style.
Made in the UK from recycled plastic, the 500ml bottle aims to appeal to the
fashion savvy, as well as the composting classes.
It is the result of collaboration between Brita, the UK's leading water filter
company, and Irish-born Kiely, best known for her signature green-stem
print, which features on the Wottle. In return for fashion kudos for Brita -
not exactly known as a trend-setting brand - Kiely has gained greenie
points, highly sought after in today's consumer market.
Her distinctive designs - which you may recognise from the bestselling
laminated shoulder bags or unusual wellies she began designing in 2003 -
have a Sixties feel. She uses bold swirls of colour, often in shades of lime
and orange that could be called retro but which she prefers to think of as
“uplifting” and “fresh”. In the past, she has credited her success to the
fact that her designs “make people happy”.
With pale Irish colouring, freckles and bright blue eyes, she looks more
understated, homely almost, than you would expect a fashion designer to be.
When we meet at her company's headquarters in Clapham, South London, she's
wearing sandals and jeans with a summer dress slung over her slim frame.
At 45, Kiely has been making her mark on the fashion industry for more than
two decades, building up a global following with shops in Toyko and the US,
but this is the first time she has allied herself with the green movement. I
wonder why now and whether her interest in the environment has affected
other parts of the business. “Brita came to me with the idea,” she admits,
explaining that the idea is to fill up your Wottle with filtered water
(although there is nothing to stop you using the tap). “Having two children
(her elder son, Robert, is 13), it appealed. Partly because using a plastic
mineral water bottle only once is absurd, and because there's nothing out
there like it.”
Until now, like many of us, Kiely has been refilling old bottles to give to
her children, as well as herself. “I was never confident about it because of
the cleaning aspect ... and I worried when I heard that certain plastics can
leach into the water,” she says. “Mineral water bottles are very clear that
they are one use only.”
For the Wottle, Kiely conducted research into the safest, most ethical
plastic, which turned out to be a variety called HDPE. A source was located
at a bottle plant in Suffolk, which had off-cuts that would otherwise have
been wasted. “We absolutely didn't want it to be made in China and shipped
or flown over,” Kiely says.
There's no question, the Wottle makes good environmental sense. I also like
that it's transparent so you can see how much water you have left; it's
dishwasher friendly and it doesn't have one of those fiddly nozzle tops. But
when I test-run the Wottle, mine starts to smell like a damp tent after a
week. I scrub it with boiling water even squeezing a washing up brush into
its wide mouth, but without a dishwasher it's not easy to keep squeaky
clean. In the end, the method that works is rinsing it every night and
leaving it to drain upside down.
Growing awareness about water
A fan of tap water for many years, Kiely has always filtered it, she says. “I
love now that you go into a restaurant and you're asked sparkling, still or
tap. Thinking has changed. We're much more aware about landfill. It used to
be that mineral water was considered better than tap. Now I think the
balance has shifted.”
Whether or not this message has reached the fashion world, where mini bottles
of Evian are as much staples as Marlboro lights and high cheekbones, I'm not
so sure, but Kiely refuses to run down the world she works in. “I do think
that fashion people care and that they will pick up on it as a trend. The
industry being what it is, if it's fashionable to drink tap water, they'll
get into it.”
Kiely doesn't promote her wares as ethical, but she is confident that her
business reflects an environmental and social conscience. “We tend to use
natural fabrics such as cotton, silk and wool, not many synthetics, and
natural vegetable tanned leathers,” she says.
Has she visited her factories in China, Italy and Spain? “Yes, and I'm
satisfied with what I've seen. We've only got a handful of factories that
we've worked with for years, so they've become friends. I'm a strong
believer in doing as much as you can.”
It follows that Kiely is a keen recycler. Living ten minutes from the office
also makes it easy for her to live without using her car, but the green
issue she feels most strongly about is packaging. “I refuse to buy anything
that is overpackaged - it's that simple,” she says.
Kiely is accidentally green in another area of her life. Her fear of flying
doubles up as an environmental positive. She flies to Ireland twice a year
to see her family, but in terms of transport, she'd rather take the train to
France. Clouds, she tells me, sheepishly, are the problem. “I don't like to
fly in clouds; in fact I don't like to fly full stop.”
She claims that it was moving to London to continue post-graduate studies at
the Royal College of Art that inspired her. But a childhood outside Dublin,
minutes from the beach, must have helped. Her parents weren't artistic - her
father was an accountant while her mother studied sciences but gave up work
to have a family. Her grandmother on her mother's side was the creative
influence. “She wasn't exactly an artist, but she dabbled, as a granny
does,” Kiely says. “She was a great cook, very practical and
self-sufficient, with hens and pigs.”
Family plays an important role in her life Kiely's artistic ability is
complemented by her husband's finance skills. Dermott, an Irishman she met
in Dublin, is managing director of the company. He didn't invest, but played
an important part in setting it up and finding the necessary funding, she
tells me.
When I ask if it's difficult working with her husband, she replies with a firm
“no”, shortly followed by, “well, sometimes”. Kiely says they are fortunate
because they have well-defined roles. “It does seem to work ... we go out
for lunch all the time, then at home, we only talk shop a bit, as there are
other things going on like cooking and kids.” Family is important to Kiely.
She talks passionately about her children, over and above her business.
But as we're wrapping up, there's a change of atmosphere when she asks if I
can send her a copy of the interview before we publish it. I explain that,
as a rule, The Times doesn't do this. She's insistent, explaining that she's
been misquoted in the past. We come to an arrangement in which I promise to
send her the quotes. The chill wind doesn't last for long but it gives me a
taste of Orla Kiely the businesswoman, as opposed to the charming Irish lady
that I've been chatting to, reminding me that you don't build up a global
fashion brand without having a firm touch when necessary. Kiely's designs
may be playful and innocent, but I suspect that the force behind them is
anything but.
The Wottle will be available at John Lewis, price £7.99, from September 20
or can be bought online at www.brita.co.uk/wottle
Anna Shepard's book How Green Are My Wellies? is out now (Eden Project
Books, £14.99)
The bottle bank
Tap(400ml; £6). This is the number one Wottle rival. Made from Tritan
plastic, the bottle can be re-used without the build up of harmful
chemicals. All products are sustainably sourced and carbon neutral, and 70
per cent of profits go to helping water projects in the developing world.
Unlike the Wottle, the plastic is not recycled. www.wewanttap.com
Camelbak Omega Reservoir (2 litre; £18.99) Despite being unappetisingly
called a “hydration bladder”, the lightweight Camelbak water pouch is ideal
for walkers, cyclists and anyone on the move. It includes a bite valve for
hands-free drinking and uses antibacterial technology that ensures water
stays. www.gear-zone.co.uk
Filtered Water Bottle (800ml; £7.95) For purified water on the go, this
refillable bottle has an inbuilt filter system that removes 90 per cent of
chlorine and 95 per cent of lead while retaining natural minerals.
www.naturalcollection.co.uk
Mudpuppy (500ml; £8.25) Named after a small creature that lives in
muddy water, it is designed to keep tap water safe and pure. Made of
part-recycled stainless steel it guards against leached chemicals, tastes
and odours and is easy to clean. The bottles come with sports caps as
standard but flat, outdoors and “teat” designs are also available.
www.onegreenbottle.com
CAROLINE HENSHAW
Either tap water is safe or it isn't. I get any old bottle and fill it from the tap.Still bearing up.What nonsense the whole subject is!
Bern, Winnipeg, Canada
Because "there's nothing out there like it.” ? Cyclists have been using refillable plastic bottles for decades. You can find a dozen models in every colour and size in any cycling shop. But now this is new?
Artemisia, Paris, France
It is a mistake to see tap water as a "competitor" to bottled water. I produce bottled water - Iskilde - and tap water - from high quality sources - is the quality standard against which we measure our product. Unfortunately good taps are rare these days.
Our competitor is sweetened softdrinks.
Jan Bender, skanderborg, Denmark
So she wants eight pounts for a clear plastic bottle witha wide-neck ? Just mad !!
HDPE is high-density polyethylene, a very common plastic.
The fear of plastics leaching into the water is also nonsense as all food grade plastic have to meet very high standards
Re-use your normal bottle.
Da, London,