After being rescheduled three times thanks to covid, I finally got to Dublin last week.
It was as magical as I wanted it to be - I had the best meal of my life at The Winding Stair restaurant, I got to visit the sites where so many incredible historical moments actually took place and even though the original plan had been to stay longer, explore more and to do so in nicer weather, being there when everything was so beautifully decorated for the festive season felt in a way like it was actually, after all, the right first trip to have after two years of going nowhere for someone as Christmas obsessed as me.
Although plans had to change and there was loads that I didn't get to do, one thing that has never changed from the get go of my planning was that I was going to visit Chupi.
Chupi is an Irish brand, female owned by Chupi Sweetman.
I have been on a bit of a journey with the way I shop and consume over the past four years. During a bout of particularly bad depression, I self soothed through shopping. I was in a job I hated and I worked in the city centre - at my absolute worst I would order something online on the train journey in to work just to lift my spirits enough to actually be able to find the willpower to get off the train and turn up, then using my lunch break to go 'cheer myself up' by buying something else and undoubtedly going a wander around the shops on my way home, buying myself something else simply for getting through the day. The thing of course is, that none of the material things I was buying were ever going to actually sort of the root of my issues - but they gave enough of a temporary lift that I became like an addict, constantly chasing that shopping buzz, which starter to wear off more and more quickly.
After I got out of that job and out of that headspace, I was left with the results of the shopping habit I had always had having morphed into deluded self medication. I had clutter everywhere, I owned things I didn't even remember buying, having purchased them in a fog of desperation from just needing something to make me feel better and the guilt kicked in.
My depression had combined with an absolute hatred for my body that had meant I didn't want to think about clothes, didn't ever feel I had the strength to face dressing room mirrors or the self loathing and self blaming I knew would have come from taking home a dress only to find it didn't fit right or wasn't cut correctly for my shape. Thus, the results of my shopping were mainly beauty items. There was some sort of promise of joy that only a bold lipstick could capture.
In 2018, I went on a beauty no buy. Naively, I genuinely thought a year of not buying anything would be enough to let me use up loads of stuff and reduce my stash to something manageable. That didn't happen. Have you ever panned an eyeshadow? It takes time. Now think of owning over a thousand eyeshadows. Why I ever thought a year was going to solve all the problems I had created over the past few years, I don't know. 2019 became my beauty no buy year two. In 2020 I did a full no buy year - not only no new beauty products, but no new clothing, homewares, nothing.
That extreme, complete stoppage of consumption in all areas was what I needed. Three years after realising I had an issue I had to do something drastic about, I felt I was finally getting on top of the amount of stuff I owned and was starting to really understand within me that material goods could be meaningful, but could only hold meaning assigned to them by the possessor - that within themselves, they were meaningless. They could be beautiful, of course, and I could still - and do still - feel drawn to beautiful things that decorate and enrich my space or my body, but at their base form material things are just shaped materials.
But not all shaped materials are equal.
In 2021, I embarked on low buy - with a maximum quantity of items I was allowed to buy set in place at the beginning of the year as I slowly began to reintroduce shopping and consuming into my life.
The guilt of my past, impulsive shopping behaviours isn't entirely gone, even now, but, three years on, I've worked through it to some extent. I've started to allow myself to declutter things that I don't love, that don't serve a functional purpose or bring me any joy - I punished myself for the first two years by refusing to really allow myself to get onboard with the decluttering journey, subconciously telling myself I didn't deserve a space less full of clutter, that I deserved to have to live with the results of my actions.
Whilst, in a lot of ways, my low buy has been harder than a no buy - I find stopping and starting more difficult than just putting the breaks on and having a flat rule of 'no you can't buy anything' - it has allowed me to have a year where every purchase I've made has been considered. At the end of the year I think I have two purchases I regret making, in comparison to the at least 2000 of 2016. I've changed the way I shop and, whilst I haven't quite stumbled on the ultimate solution, I've taken steps to shaping the mould for how I want to consume for the rest of my life - in a meaningful, considered way.
So how does that relate to Chupi?
In her own words she says, "My boyfriend had just proposed and my grandmum left me a necklace and suddenly I owned a piece of the past and a piece of the future. Everyone has a piece, something from your mum or your grandmum that’s come down that is more precious than anything you own. I suddenly realised I wanted to do that, to create magic and heritage and pieces that you pass on to your daughter one day." (Full interview here.)
It hit all the right buttons for me - I no longer wanted to consume the way I used to (I'm prepared to bet I actually first wore a Chupi Sweetman design back in the heydays of Topshop without knowing it!) I wanted to curate my surroundings and my belongings to feel true to me, not to feel full of things bought in a bad headspace and for the wrong reasons - outside of any depression, we've all done that 'I'll buy it because it's half price' nonsense. If it isn't worth paying full price to you, you probably shouldn't be buying it at all. (Obvious exceptions for very expensive things that it wouldn't have been possible to pay full price for without damaging your financial health!)
We were singing from the same hymn sheet of buying less but buying better, the brand was female and Irish owned, which ticks boxes for me, but above and beyond those principals, Chupi as a brand are also taking sustainability really seriously.
I'll be completely honest here and say when I went on my journey of changing my consumer habits, it was because I had wreaked havoc with them. I was driven by a desire to try and kill that link I had cultivated between accumulating things and my emotions. I didn't want my self-worth to feel rooted in material goods any longer. It really wasn't charged by the environmental impact of my consuming. But, as for most of us, that environmental impact has become more and more of a concern for me over the past few years.
Yes, we need huge changes put in place with the big businesses who pump out the majority of the world's pollution and I do think there's an element of trying to distract us from that at play sometimes (Allegra Stratton, pre last week's resignation, telling us all not to rinse plates before putting them in the dishwasher, anyone?) But every time we spend our money, we vote for the companies we want to support and whilst my absolute main plan of attack is to reduce the amount I buy to start with, when a brand is as upfront about their sustainability goals and progress as Chupi is, it's just that extra comfort blanket I want to make sure I feel good about my purchase.
The jewellery industry in general is one with many, many issues regarding sustainability and ethics. Chupi directly says “It’s a really challenging industry to work in, and we are looking to disrupt it. We want to change not just how you buy your diamond ring, but how we make it, how we manage it, how we care for it. It’s not enough to say that the industry is broken. We’re working to fix it.”
In terms of working to fix it, they have a full page on their sustainability measures here - though their sustainability commitments are highlighted across the entire website and through their social media, this isn't a brand with one little page on their website to tick some boxes. The key points are that they use 100% recycled gold, over 80% of their classic diamonds are recycled but in addition to this, Chupi also have a huge push on lab grown diamonds. Their lab grown diamonds are fully traceable and carbon neutral and chemically are exactly the same as a mined diamond, with the same hardness rating of 10 on the Mohs scale. (You can read more about lab grown diamonds on the Chupi blog here.)
The gold and diamonds aside, their packaging - with the exception of the box your piece comes in, which is designed to last forever and to house and protect your Chupi piece when you're not wearing it - is fully recyclable. And, for someone as aesthetically driven as me, I am thrilled to say that that packaging is fully recyclable whilst still being absolutely beautiful. I am absolutely the person who picks a theme for each Christmas, who has a wrapping party and who gets almost as much joy out of the presentation of a gift as I do seeing someone's face when I know I've got them the right gift.
I am going to share the piece I got in Dublin with you in its own post, but I had talked about the planned buying of that piece so much that I was lucky enough to receive some Chupi gift coins ahead of my trip from some of my lovely friends (I imagine they might have been hoping to shut me up from talking about it, but I'm afraid now that I've physically stood in that gorgeous store and seen the pieces in real life, I'm just even more obsessed than I was prior!) and, quite frankly, they're works of art that deserved a post of their own.
Far from being your standard gift voucher to tuck inside a card, unboxing a Chupi gift coin is a wonderfully magical experience.
For a start, they come in spellbooks, tied with a bow and embossed with those immortal words 'Those who don't believe in magic will never find it,' in gold on the front and 'Made with magic... Chupi' on the spine.
You also get a ring sizer to assist you with making sure you order the correct size of ring, should you be planning to spend your gift coin on a ring - and those ring sizers are fully compostable too, it should be noted! Like I said, sustainability isn't a simple tick box effort at Chupi.
All of that is before you get to the gift coins themselves. Absolutely beautiful keepsakes that you get to keep even once the value of them is spent, they have the Irish harp on one side - mimicking traditional Irish currency - and one of mine has a swan on the other side, whilst the second has the Powerscourt Centre, where Chupi's store is located.
I think it really sums up the attention to detail that Chupi show to all areas of their business that this is the package you get to gift someone when you buy a Chupi gift coin. It offers a real touch of Chupi magic to what can sometimes be a slightly mundane gift to get and ensures that that magic threads through from the offset of your Chupi journey - from receiving the gift coin to picking and receiving your piece.
And if I'm going to be going forward buying a lot less than I used to, I really want every purchase to feel sprinkled with a touch of magic!
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