Conscious Consuming
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Sustainable Fashion
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What Is Sustainable Fashion?
20.1.16 |
| Thrifted Outfit #2. Top $5 (Salvos) Pants $8 (eBay) Bag $10 (op shop) Heels $15 (Camberwell Market) Total = $38 |
If we think of clothes, accessories and bags in two stages - how it's made and how it's used - then it's easier to identify where we can make more sustainable choices.
(1) How is it made?
- Secondhand is fashion forward! No new materials or resources are consumed in making you look super fly...
- Look for recycled. Teeki is a US brand of yoga apparel made from recycled plastic bags. Rewined Candles are made of recycled wine bottles. For all things home and fashion, check out the online emporium Upcycle Studio
- Look for low impact materials. Bamboo is a promising renewable material for use in both building and wearing. It's naturally pest-resistant (no need for pesticides hoorah), grows incredibly fast and even helps rebuild eroded soil. There remain ethical issues about its production and farming, so it's best to look for organic bamboo.
- Buy local. Locally manufactured means less mileage needed for the product to reach you, with the bonus of supporting local business.
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| Black on black at the V&A |
(2) How will you wear it?
- Firstly, WILL you wear it? Is the piece easy for you to style? Will it mesh easily with your look and with the rest of your wardrobe? If it's a statement piece, are you comfortable making the statement?
- Will it last? Invest in quality staples. My staples include black jeans, yoga pants, casual shirts and loose tees. I don't mind spending more on these simple pieces.Take a pair of $200 jeans: you may wear them 150 days a year. $200/150=$1.33 per day. Now, take a $150 occasional dress - a bargain, right? You may wear it twice a year. $150/2=$75 a day. Maths.
- What's already in your wardrobe?I love black dresses. When I see one on sale, I often can't resist. As a result, I've accumulated quite a few black dresses of the same calibre. Do I wear them all? No. Do I forget about how many variations I have? Yes. And I end up wearing the same black dress over and over. It helps to regularly remind myself of what I already have, and therefore what I do and don't need. This task becomes increasing harder the more stuff we have.
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| Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has lots of beautiful things |
There is nothing inherently bad about Things. I love style, fashion, art and pretty things. It's the unquenchable urge to own these things that gets us, and our world, into trouble. I see this frustration most when people flick through high fashion magazines, at hearing their outrage at the price tag on luxury goods. If we didn't feel a niggling desire to own these exuberantly priced things, then we wouldn't feel outraged at its price.
What does Sustainable Fashion mean to you?
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