At The Good Wardrobe we aren’t really in to ‘what’s hot this week’ and you certainly won’t catch us writing anything that vaguely resembles ‘must-have of the month’. Fast-fashion just isn’t our bag. But, when we see something that ticks a great many of our long-life style boxes we are very keen to shout about it.

Marriott International has teamed up with social enterprise Sleeping Bags and luxury designers Lily and Lionel to produce this tote bag out of - you guessed it - ‘retired’ bed linen from their hotels. We think that this is a very clever way of giving a new lease of life to a textile otherwise destined for rags or landfill.

Sleeping Bags have made their mission to drastically reduce textile waste. They save end-of-life bed linen from luxury hotels and, using their design expertise, produce desirable tote bags, sleep wear and soft furnishings. As Founder & CEO Andy Marks indicates, there is a lot of ground to be covered:

“If laid end-to-end, bed linen condemned by the world’s leading hotel chains in one year would go around the world more than twice. Re-imagining Marriott’s wonderfully soft bed linen to create this tote bag is an enchanting way of making people re-think what waste is. The bag looks great, feels great and has a story to tell.”

We are all about the story – if a garment or product has a good tale to tell, our emotional connection to it is stronger. We therefore tend to treat it with more love, care and respect. Adding a further chapter to the already very interesting life lived by these upcycled poly-cotton totes, Marriott have committed to donating £10 of the £20 retail price to The Princes Trust. Even more encouraging, the hotel chain has further committed to waste reduction by introducing hairdryer bags, newspaper bags and laundry bags made from their retired bed linen into their hotels countrywide.

In creating the print for these bags, Lily and Lionel were inspired by the campaign’s message sleeping that little bit more soundly. This slogan highlights both the environmental aims of the project and the social impact of offering financial assistance to The Princes Trust and the disadvantaged young people they support. Alice Stone, Creative Director at Lily and Lionel explains:

“Lily and Lionel is truly grateful to have been asked to take part in this inspiring project. We are passionate supporters of environmental causes and love the concept of this project. A huge part of producing our scarves is sourcing the best fabrics, and the feel of the SleepingBags tote is lovely; we’ve added our own touch with an ethereal design that is very fitting for the story that this bag has to tell.”

With only 1000 of the Lily and Lionel print being produced, these bags are limited edition, and whilst we would never suggest you should snap one up right now, we imagine they won’t be around for long.

The Lily and Lionel tote bag is available to buy for £20 at www.shopmarriott.com/bedlinentote. Marriott will donate £10 from every bag sold to The Princes Trust. For information about the work of the youth charity and the ways in which it offers practical and financial support to disadvantaged young people visit: www.princes-trust.org.uk.