Ethical and Sustainable Fashion
by Carrie Colbert
Today, in honor of Earth Day coming up this weekend, we’d like to chat with you about a different sort of fashion topic: ethical, sustainable fashion.
I’m going to start by perhaps ruffling a few feathers with a bold, provocative declaration… I am so sick and tired of seeing bloggers constantly promoting and linking “dupes”! (In case you don’t know what others mean when they talk about “dupes”, they’re referring to duplicates of designer goods – aka knockoffs.)
There are two main reasons I say that:
1 – Copying is never a good thing.
There is way too much of that going on in the fashion world right now.
2 – Cheaper is not always better!
Have you ever thought about why that t-shirt from Forever 21 only costs $8? There are reasons – and they are not good ones!
Now before you jump in to tell me that not everyone can afford high-end, designer fashion, let me preempt that argument with two points. First, there are reasonably-priced, ethically made, originally creative options. Keep reading for more info on that. Second, consider buying less quantity and more quality. In today’s “see it now, buy it now” mentality, we sometimes buy in to the marketing notion that we need it all! But what if you did more with less?
Anyway, before I continue ranting on this subject, please allow me to introduce our guest contributor today, Jessica Greenberg of Sustainable Rainbow, where she chronicles her discoveries and loads of information on ethical, fair-trade and sustainable fashion industry. Jessica is a passionate authority on this subject, so we brought her in to share her expert perspective on this subject.
So proud of all of you who are championing this cause! I worked retail in women’s wear for two stores in the 90’s and watched how women shopped. One was a small chain company store and was on the pricier side, but the clothing was stylish and well made. Too often, we were “shopped” by one of the big brand/chain store companies and later saw items similar to ours made cheaply and sold cheaply. It was not a good business practice and eventually drove our company and others like it out of business. The other was an store independently owned by a woman who believed in sustainable and unique clothing way back then. Everything sold was made of natural fabric, mostly from smaller brands, and made to last. The women who shopped in the chain store had to have the very latest of our designs and constantly came in buying more. The women who shopped at the independently own store chose more carefully and asked more questions about the brand, the fabric, etc. It is hard to watch today’s women consume more mass produced clothing (mostly from countries where they pay the workers next to nothing) and care less, and yet, there are many who are more and more tuned in to shopping carefully and sustainably. You are using your voices to increase that number by raising the consciousness of younger shoppers and spreading the word. I wish more and more manufacturers, large and small, would make clothing that is washable and get dry cleaning solvents out of our air and water.
Thank you so much for saying that, Cheryl! Appreciate the support.