Does this affect me?

As Covid-19 continues to spread, every area of our lives has been affected from our social lives to our work lives, as governments across the world clamp down on lockdown and introduce social distancing measures. An unprecedented time for consumers and businesses alike, with shops being forced to shut their doors many of us turn to online shopping for new ways to spend our money on non-essential items. It’s not surprising that ecommerce giant Amazon is thriving in lockdown, with sales hitting a staggering £8,800 a second.

Let me start off by saying that 'zero waste' will be a coniunous journey. In our consumerist culture nothing comes without some kind of waste attatched to it. Alas, that should not stop us from trying our hardest to minimise our impact on this poor little earth. Here is the beginning of my journey - about a year of being conscious of what I'm buying. Read for some useful tips, some interesting stories, and what I've learned.

What is Fast Fashion?

The movement towards choosing second-hand fashion over brand-new items is growing. 
According to CNBC ‘by 2028 the used-fashion market is set to skyrocket in value to $64 billion in the U.S, while fast-fashion will only reach $44 billion’. Evidently, we are all realising the challenges with fast fashion and now more than ever retailers, communities, companies and groups are taking significant action.

Due to the pandemic virus, many countries are struggling to keep supplies for health staff such as face masks and hand sanitizer. Luckily, the fashion industry has had the initiative to show its support and help their communities worldwide.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has spurred the biggest economic and humanitarian crises around the world. No matter how stable the economy is it's getting shaken with every passing hour. Effecting thousands of industries and sectors, the pandemic is leaving its drastic influences on the fashion industry which is of its discretionary nature is showing a gradual downward graph and a stressful future awaits.

Cool Girl Connection was founded by myself, Nicole Kay Clark and photographer/videographer, Ricardo De Jesus in June of 2017. After working as a model for over a decade, I felt that the industry truly needed a change. Upon meeting Ricardo while on a business trip to Puerto Rico and realizing that we shared the similar interest of initiating a creative shift, we joined together in San Diego, CA and Cool Girl Connection was born.

In the past 3 weeks, we’ve witnessed the slow growth of a heartbreaking virus that has taken the lives of almost 40,000 people around the globe (37,538 to be more specific). And many organizations have started to move to help and provide medical material to local or national hospitals and health staff.

In 1833 Antoine LeCoultre founded the Swiss luxury watchand clockmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre, with headquarters in Le Sentier, Switzerland.Since 2000 the company has been awholly owned subsidiary of Swiss luxury group Richemont.Jaeger- is seen asthe top- company of Richemont.Of which must be added hundreds of inventions, patents and more than a thousand movements, suchas the world's shortest road, one of the world's most advanced wristwatches, and a quasi-perpetual motion timepiece.The earliest traces of the LeCoultre family in Switzerland date back to the16th century, when Pierre LeCoultre, a French Huguenot, left the Lisy-sur-Ourcq to Genoa.France flees frompersecution from Muslims.In 1558 he received the status of "inhabitant," but resigned the nextyear to buy a plot of land in the Vallée de Joux.A small settlement grew over time, and in 1612, Pierre LeCoultre's son built a churchthere, marking the foundation of the village of Le Sentier where the material is now located.French Navy watchmaker Edmond Jaeger was born in Paris in 1903, andchallenged Swiss designers to create and refine the ultra-thin movements he had created.The design was approved by Antoine's mother, who was at LeCoultre & Cie. in charge of production, who gave birthto a number of ultra-thin pocket watches fitted with the LeCoultre Caliber 145, including the thinnest in the world in 1907.Because of the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act, watches were cast in cases made locally in North America before 1932to around 1985 and sold by Vacheron-LeCoultre, a Longines-Wittnauer corporation, with very different styles of cases under the name LeCoultre.After 1985 Jaeger-LeCoultrewas produced homogeneously worldwide.According to the factory records, the last device to be usedon an American LeCoultre watch was sent to Le Sentier in 1976.The misleading claim that American LeCoultre is not associated withSwiss Jaeger-LeCoultre has been made by several supporters and misinformed salesmen.The misconception derives from the 1950s, when the Longines-Wittnauer Corporation became the maker of LeCoultreclocks in North America, and later assumed responsibility for the production of Vacheron Constantin watches.Collectors have likened the deliveryto the method of watchmaking.According to Jaeger-LeCoultre fans Zaf Basha, the "Galaxy," an intriguing upmarket dialdiamond watch, is a US-market collaboration between Vacheron & Constantin and LeCoultre.Since the establishment of Jaeger-LeCoultre, the firm has manufactured more than1,242 different calibres, earned almost 400 patents, and created hundreds of inventions.In 1844, Antoine LeCoultre invented the Millionomètre, which was the first instrument in the worldto be able to calculate the micron, thereby facilitating the precise production of watch pieces.The invention was never patented because there wasno such device in Switzerland at the time.Nevertheless, the peculiar arrangement was kept a tightly guardedsecret held by the organisation for over 50 years.It was displayed on theParis International Exhibition of 1900.For the first time in the historyof LeCoultre & Cie watchmaking, in 1866.Small-series calibres continued to be produced and the chronograph andminute repeater problems were merged into a double calibre in 1891.In the mid-1890s, this later led to the development of broad complications, or watches consistingof at least three traditional horological complications, such as a perpetual clock, chronograph, and minute repeater.The Manufacture produced the first internationally complicated wristwatch, the Gyrotourbillon I, in 2004, featuring atwo-axis gravitating tourbillon with a perpetual calendar with double retrograde signs and a runtime equation.The Reverso grande complexité à triptyque was launched in 2006, the first watch in history to have three dials powered by asingle mechanism, and in 2009 the company created the 26-complicated Hybris Mechanica à Grande Sonnerie, one of the world's most complex wristwatches.In December 2018 an official report was issued by the World Wide Fund forNature that provided environmental ratings for 15 big watch manufacturers and jewellers in Switzerland.

Breguet is a luxury watchmaker, clockmaker, and jeweller founded in Paris in 1775 by Abraham-Louis Breguet therefore leading to a long and successful history of watchmaking and a legacy that lives on today. Since 1999, she has been a member of Swiss Swatch Team. Breguet, headquartered in L'Abbaye, Switzerland, is one of the oldest surviving watchmaking firms and founded by Abraham Breguet in 1801 with several watchmaking inventions, such as the Tourbillon. As well, Abraham Breguet designed and created the world's first self-winding watch in 1780, and the world's first bracelet watch in 1810. Breguet is a well regarded horologist. Over the years, Breguet's outstanding clients and owners include King George III, Queen Victoria, Napoleon Bonaparte, Ettore Bugatti, Sir Winston Churchill, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Gioachino Rossini, and Arthur Rubinstein. In fact, the Breguet & Fils, Paris No. 2667 pocket watch ranks among the world's most expensive watches ever auctioned, winning US$ 4.69 million on May 14, 2012 in Geneva. The Breguet Sympathique Clock No.128 & 5009, by contrast, also holds the distinction as the most expensive Breguet timepiece ever sold at an auction, earning USD 6.80 million on December 4, 2012 in New York. The Swiss horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet, who had been born to Huguenot's parents in Neuchâtel, founded Breguet in 1775. He watchmaked for ten years under Ferdinand Berthoud and Jean-Antoine Lépine, before starting up his own watchmaking company at 51 Quai de l'Horloge in Paris, Île de la Cité. The dowry that came to a wealthy French bourgeois ' daughter with his marriage provided the funding that allowed him to open his own workshop. Each of the company's mottoes is "Every woman has a queen." The slogan was based on Breguet's lady family, the Reine de Naples. The Breguet watches and their coin-edge cases are also readily evident, with guilloché dials and blue pomme hands. In addition to watches, Breguet also produces writing instruments, feminine hats, and cufflinks. The World Wide Fund for Nature released an official report in December 2018 outlining the conservation opportunities for 15 major watch makers and jewellers in Switzerland. From 1870 until 1970, Breguet was owned by the Brown family of England. But, ownership of quartz crashes had changed hands many times during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1976 Breguet's then-owner, Chaumet, sold his French plant and moved production to Vallée de Joux in Switzerland. In 1987, Investcorp purchased Breguet, which formed Groupe Horloger Breguet in 1991. The Breguet Group consists of four subsidiaries: Montres Breguet SA, Breguet SA, Valdar SA and Nouvelle Lemania SA. As a result, Breguet-branded watches are now being produced at the New Lemania plant in Switzerland. Montres Breguet SA, in effect, is the only company that sells the timepieces under the brand name "Breguet," and Breguet SA is the name of Breguet Group's distribution subsidiary in France. Admirer Marie Antoinette The Queen of France in 1783 commissioned Abraham-Louis Breguet's watch as a surprise to the Queen. The criteria was that the watch would be "as beautiful as possible, with perhaps the greatest set of available horological documents." No time-limit or financial constraints were placed on the commission. The end target was Great Suspense, at Breguet No.160. And the watch was completed only in 1827, 34 years after the Queen's death during the French Revolution, only 4 years after the death of Abraham-Louis Breguet (the watch eventually ended with his son Abraham Breguet). The watch has reportedly taken 44 years to make. The watch was housed in the Islamic Art Museum in Jerusalem, until it was stolen in 1983. The watch was eventually rescued in 2007, and was returned to the museum.