In Conversation With Rêve En Vert Founder Cora Hilts
September 15, 2020
By Frances Lucraft
Interview by Lucy Noon and edited by Nicole Sourry
In this exclusive interview we chat with Cora Hilts, the founder of Rêve En Vert, an online store for sustainable and ethical fashion, beauty, home, and lifestyle items.
Read on for the inspiration and evolution of Rêve En Vert, how products are curated, and Cora’s vision for the company’s future.
We also learn Cora’s tips for prioritising both sustainability and style when shopping, advice for people interested in becoming more environmentally conscious, and some of the people and brands that inspire her.
Tell us about Rêve En Vert and who’s involved
Rêve En Vert is a highly curated platform for sustainable living. We bring together the best of ethical fashion, beauty, home and lifestyle items alongside proactive content and beautiful presentation in order to make sustainable consumerism easy for our community. We are a team of all women working in East London!
What inspired you to start Rêve En Vert and how has it evolved since your launch?
I came up with the idea for Rêve En Vert oddly whilst I sat in a class on renewable energy. My professor mentioned that after the oil and gas industry, fashion was the second most polluting industry on earth. I was completely shocked. I feel like now a lot of us are aware of this fact but six years ago, I just couldn’t believe that an industry that was meant to be so innovative and creative could be so far behind on environmental and humanitarian concerns – how could something so beautiful be so truly ugly? That’s when I had the idea for Rêve En Vert – a retail site that would curate only sustainable items that were made as aesthetically as they were ethically, which would allow for people to make significant change in the way they shop easily. We began as a sustainable fashion retailer but now have evolved to so much more for overall conscious living.
Rêve En Vert is leading the way in showing there need not be a compromise between style and sustainability – do you have any tips for our readers on how to shop with both as a priority?
I think when it comes to consumerism, we need to all purchase the items that we really need and in the most considered way possible. Also, we need to be engaged with who produces the things we buy – where we are putting our money is one of the most important things we can do in shaping the world we want to live in. I think we are seeing conscious consumerism rise so amazingly quickly in food; it’s now cool to eat organic, go meet our local farmers and really think about what we put in our bodies. Imagine how well we would all be doing if we paid that sort of attention to what we used for beauty and how we consumed fashion. For me, fast fashion is like eating at a fast food restaurant – the greasy french fries may taste good for a moment, but shortly afterwards you just feel awful.
What measures have you implemented within your brand to make it more sustainable?
We look at all aspects of business when it comes to sustainability – from shipping to packaging all the way through to the manufacturing of the products we curate and sell. I am always looking for the most innovative new designers out there! We use carbon neutral shipping, and donate to Trees for the Future to further offset carbon emissions that inevitably come with running a retail site. We also have banned single use plastic moving forward as it’s unbelievable the amount of plastic still used even within sustainable companies. We are trying to set the bar when it comes to ethical selling at Rêve En Vert.
Can you tell us a bit about how you curate the brands on Rêve En Vert?
Every brand that comes on to the site still passes by me. We use four basic pillars to define what makes a line sustainable to us at REV: organic, remade, local and fair. These are the principles I came up to define sustainability when I first started Rêve En Vert and I have felt strongly that these should remain at the core of how we look at the ethos of the designers and businesses we choose to work with. On our new website, we have come up with many more sustainable criteria that you can find on each item to describe their strongest assets as well.
Name two brands, businesses or people that inspire you. What do you love about them?
It’s a really long list of people who have inspired me – that’s been the real joy of running REV is meeting incredible people with passion and purpose. I would say that the Rêve En Vert podcast has really been a highlight of my career as I have always wanted to bring the conversations I am lucky enough to have behind the scenes. A conversation that always stands out to me was my recording with Skye Gyngell who is an Australian chef here in London – she runs the U.K.’s first single use plastic free restaurant, Spring, and is pushing to use only organic, regenerative and local ingredients in all her meals. She is doing so much for food and activism, whilst maintaining a beautiful, aspirational restaurant – this to me is the sweet spot.
A particular company that inspires me is Patagonia – I love their involvement in regenerative agriculture and the fact that their female CEO took on the Trump administration with environmental legislation. It’s an example of big business doing something positive with all that power and setting examples for others.
What motivates you to stay positive in light of the social and environmental crisis we are facing?
I really really hope that people have had the time to observe the fresh air and return to wildlife in so many parts of England where it was not before, and to realise that when we need to come together to act upon something that improves the world not just for human beings, but for nature as well, we are able to do so. My fear is that the climate crisis has been slightly pushed to the back burner in the current situation, but my hope is that human beings have now all realised what great change we are capable of when we put empathy and consideration of the greater good to the forefront.
Do you have any advice for people to help them become more environmentally conscious?
I think when it comes to consumerism, we need to all purchase the items that we really need and in the most considered way possible. Also, we need to be engaged with who produces the things we buy – where we are putting our money is one of the most important things we can do in shaping the world we want to live in. I think we are seeing conscious consumerism rise so amazingly quickly in food; it’s now cool to eat organic, go meet our local farmers and really think about what we put in our bodies. Imagine how well we would all be doing if we paid that sort of attention to what we used for beauty and how we consumed fashion. For me, fast fashion is like eating at a fast food restaurant – the greasy french fries may taste good for a moment, but shortly afterwards you just feel awful.
What is your vision for the company over the next few years and how would you like to see it evolve?
I am working on building out the lifestyle section of the site – I really want Rêve En Vert to be a holistic shopping space where anyone from any demographic can find product and editorial content that will pertain to them and their needs to live a most sustainable lifestyle. This of course doesn’t just mean fashion to look forward to seeing some more incredible items and stories on the platform!
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