In the Beginning – The Start of My Conscious Fashion Journey
The beginning of my conscious fashion journey can be separated into two chapters, the dream and the mental process. The dream kickstarted my discovery of ethical fashion and kept me motivated, but it was changing my consumer mindset that transformed me into who I am today.
The Dream
Where did it all start? It started as a crazy dream, as a vision board on my wall. I imagined myself as Camille, the sustainable fashion designer. There I stood in the middle of the board next to two models wearing my elaborate designs. It was a fairy tale, but I didn’t know that yet.
My naïveté was propelling me into an industry more complex, cut-throat and nasty than I could have imagined. I moved forward into the darkness, wide-eyed and making every mistake. Decisions were made based on gut feeling not cash flows. But within the uncertainty something beautiful and unexpected began to take shape. Yes, there were some cute clothes, but most importantly, I began cultivating a community and bringing people together.
From the moment I consciously chose sustainable fashion as my life’s purpose, there seemed to be a path emerging with opportunities piling up. I started a blog, chronicling my upcycling adventures. An Etsy store was created to sell the upcycled creations. I committed to buying only thrifted (mainly Kaimuki Goodwill) clothing for a year. Started volunteering, then organizing events for Hawaii Fashion Month. This all culminated in founding a conscious fashion organization with fellow sustainable fashion nerds.
I wasn’t designing the elaborate gowns that I saw on my vision board, but I was empowering others to grow their ethical fashion brands and reaching out to people in the community who hadn’t been exposed to conscious fashion. I came to realize that although design is important to the process, my ability to see the bigger picture, and inspire through story telling made me more impactful to the cause as a writer and organizer.
I look back fondly now, proud of myself for pushing through. It allowed me to find my place in the fight against fast fashion and gave me the direction I needed before throwing myself into the New York fashion world. Even though my early sustainable fashion days in Hawaii pale in comparison to what I have faced since moving to NYC, and what I’m sure I’ll face in my next chapter, it’s comforting to know that I’ll have the strength and self-accountability to keep going.
The Process
On a more personal level, the act of changing my consumer behavior proved to be the most crucial and challenging part of my journey. If you’re going to preach it, you better practice it. This forced me to examine what sustainable fashion meant for me and how I could fit it into my broke just-out-of-grad-school budget. For me, this meant thrifting and upcycling.
The first few months of committing to a sustainable fashion lifestyle was rough, it was hard to wrap my head around spending more money on quality products or buying thrifted goods that were bold fashion statements. I had panic attacks about how to buy clothes, and what sustainable fashion really meant. I lectured my friends whenever we went shopping that they shouldn’t buy clothes from the store we walked into, and would constantly be checking tags to see what garments were made of and where they were made. It was paralyzing.
Yet, as I went deeper into the world of thrifting and learned how to tweak pieces to make them my own, and I fell in love. By giving each garment a special touch and buying unique quirky pieces, my wardrobe was completely mine. Each piece of clothing had a story and I began to feel a deeper connection to what I put on my body.
Switching from a fast fashion to a conscious mindset is an ever evolving process, one that demands patience and curiosity. I’m still on my path and am far from perfect. Tools like this blog, surrounding myself with a supportive community and inspiration from designers and change-makers help me stay accountable. It’s been four years, and I’m still excited to learn more and find new ways to express myself through ethical fashion choices.
A Guide – Three Steps to Avoid Falling for Fashion Greenwashing
I walked through Times Square the other day and was faced with H&M’s massive billboard advertisement, touting it’s clothes as the sustainable choice and highlighting its recycling program. The first thing I saw was a video of heaps of clothing headed for recycling, and was intrigued. As I watched, the video shifted to models wearing cute clothes and H&M branding displayed loud and clear. I felt a pang of disappointment. I started to wonder, how many people walk by this and think “awesome, I can buy cheap cute clothes and save the planet too!”
It’s no secret that sustainability is affecting consumer habits, and companies are cashing in on this. The term greenwashing was coined in the 1980’s, but it’s been happening ever since we as a society, have been fighting to protect the planet. The fashion industry has become increasingly rampant with it, from companies like H&M, Zara and Uniqlo starting recycling programs, to misinterpretations of textiles as sustainable.
I’m generally skeptical when any brand makes lofty claims about their environmentally friendly mission. Our generation is generally weary of marketing messages and hate the feeling of “being marketed to”, but we still get caught in its trap. Brands are catering to our desire for a sustainable alternative to fast fashion, and have become really good at doing so.
Instead of taking these campaigns at face value, I like to dissect them and understand what value they’re really bringing. Through reading the fine print on the label and website and asking, “Is what they’re saying true? And if so, is it actually sustainable?”, you can cut through the greenwashing.
Look for the facts – is what they’re saying true?
These days looking for genuine sustainable fashion brands is like looking for facts in a sea of fake news. It can be overwhelming to get through the bullshit when there are so many companies attempting to capitalize off this trend.
If a brand is making bold claims about their clothes but offer little information to back it up, this should raise red flags. Also, if the facts are mysteriously missing from their site and all they offer is a general sustainability statement, not good. These are signs that the marketing campaign was meant to lure you in with it’s eco-conscious messaging and nothing more.
The boom in bamboo fabric as a sustainable alternative is a great example of greenwashing gone bad. It was early in the rise of sustainable fashion, and few consumers knew what to look for when considering sustainable sourcing. Although harvesting of bamboo can be more sustainable than other wood pulp based textiles, the process of making the textile was chemically intensive and harmful to the earth. Yet, bamboo’s association with zen buddhism helped to drive sales of this fabric as the sustainable choice in yoga studios, and activewear brands. The marketing worked.
It wasn’t until reports started coming out that bamboo fabric was not the miracle sustainable textile people were hoping for, that brands started to back off of their bamboo greenwashing.
Ask questions – what sort of impact are they making?
In some of the more convincing greenwashing campaigns everything might technically be true, but you have to dig a little deeper to understand if it’s a truly sustainable claim. For example, yes you can drop off your clothes to be recycled at H&M, but what happens to them? What kind of an impact does this make on our planet?
In the recent Copenhagen Fashion Summit, closing the loop was the main focus, and many fashion brands are following suit. This could be game changing, as a circular fashion system would solve one of the industry’s biggest environmental conundrums, waste. Yet, we are seeing recycling programs popping up at many unlikely brands such as H&M, Zara, and Uniqlo, are they really helping to solve the issue of waste in the garment industry?
Lucy Siegle summarizes the issue well in her article on The Guardian, “…if 1,000 tons is recycled, that roughly equates to the same amount of clothes a brand of this size pumps out into the world in 48 hours. Then there are voucher schemes, which often fuel more purchasing.”
It is clear that through this program they are fueling more waste than what they are able to take in, and encouraging consumers to buy more and more. All in all the program is just a way to make them and their consumers feel better.
Read the fine print – learn to navigate the labels, sustainability statements and certificates
One of the most basic ways to cross check and research a brand’s sustainability claims is by reading the clothing label, analyzing their sustainability mission on their website, and seeing what certificates they have.
A clothing label isn’t everything, but I like to start there. It nice to have the basics, the country of manufacture and content. Here you can see if the material is 100% recycled or if it’s mixed with others, or you can confirm that the clothes really are made in America.
Next, I do I quick once over of the site, do they have a commitment to sustainability? And if they do, what does it say? Many corporations have a very generic sustainability mission on their site, since it’s pretty standard at this point, and if that’s all they have they probably don’t really care. Brands that are fully committed to the cause will include the details on their site, they have nothing to hide.
Lastly, do they have certificates or standards that they adhere to? Are they Fair Trade or GOTS certified? Are they a part of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition? It’s important to note that although these are a good marker for bigger brands, I wouldn’t hold smaller companies to the same standard. It can be pretty expensive and time consuming to get these certificates, and for innovative start-ups and independent designers that just might not be in the cards.
Keep in mind, not all certificates are created equal. Some are more respected than others based on what their standards are and how they enforce them. There are some certificates that brands may pay a lot of money for so that they appear more sustainable to their consumers, but at the end of the day, doesn’t impact their product very much. I think it’s helpful to know of three to four quality standards and certificate that you stand behind and support brands that are committed to those standards.
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Now you can go forth and feel confident that you can side-step the alluring greenwashing campaigns. It takes a little bit of extra effort, but it will be worth it. Ultimately we need to see a cultural shift where people think about their clothing purchases and understand the human and environmental implications of their choices. If we can achieve this, eventually corporations will realize this is what people want and shift their ways, or at least I hope so. No matter how dire the situation gets, I’m a steadfast optimist.
Conscious Running – From Mind to Shoes
Today’s post is an exercise in how I approach a clothing buying decision. I’m highlighting an area that is tough to shop sustainably, running gear. I have some go to brands, but it’s an area where there is constant innovation and I’m always looking to discover new products.
But first, a quick ode to running. I was never much of a runner when I was younger, I hated it in high school. I tried running a bit in college, but never more than a couple miles and it always felt like a chore. I didn’t fall in love with running until grad school, when I was living in Japan for a year. I made a commitment to myself to run every day for the rest of the year, this was at the beginning of December. Then January rolled around and I just kept running.
I used the time to clear my mind, listening to the sound of my breath; feeling the air fill my body and then letting go. Suddenly running wasn’t something forced and painful, it was something I could use to be with myself and let my anxiety melt away.
When I started my conscious fashion lifestyle, running gear was top on my list of items to research. I’m breaking it down by shoes and clothes, since my thought process was different for each.
Shoes
It’s been a hard fact for me to swallow the fact that no matter what I do, I have to buy new running shoes regularly otherwise I’m putting my body at risk of injury. There is nothing that I can do to make the shoe last longer after I’ve run 300+ miles on them. (If you have any ideas on how to do this, please share!)
Since I’m training for the NYC marathon, that means I have to buy new shoes every 3 to 4 months. Because of that, finding a shoe that is recyclable and low impact is important to me. You might be shocked to hear this, but I wear Nike. Nike Flyknits. I chose these due to the FlyKnit design that knits the top of the shoe with zero waste. Then, when I’m done, I just take them into a Nike store or send them in to be recycled.
There are other brands with innovative technologies as well. Adidas, for example, has created a shoe out of recycled water bottles. Newtown Running is the first running shoe B Corp brand. There are also other alternatives to Nike for shoe recycling, such as Soles 4 Souls and Shoes for Planet Earth.
Clothes
When I first started running, I would just scrounge up old T-shirts and gym shorts for my runs, I didn’t really care what I looked like. As I spent more time running and realized how a cute running outfit could motivate me to push myself harder, I started looking into sustainable (and somewhat affordable) running clothes. Generally speaking there are two types of sustainable running gear, recycled polyester/plastic or natural organic cottons/merino wool.
There’s a lot of interesting innovation and creative new brands in the world of recycled polyester/plastic. One of my favorite new pair of leggings is from Girlfriend Collective, which makes their products out of recycled water bottles in an SA8000 certified factory in Vietnam. For more of a boho chic vibe, Teeki is another great recycled water bottle legging brand, but they’re not quite as practical for running. You can also sort products on Nike by those using recycled polyester. Threads 4 Thought is another great brand using recycled polyester, and their clothes perform well for running. Once you start looking, you’ll realize that these products are popping up all over.
On the flip side there is the all natural way of merino wool and cotton products. Wool is literally a miracle fiber, it is moisture wicking and unlike polyester will not lock in bad odor. It also miraculously has the ability to keep you both warm and cool. Icebreaker has some amazing merino wool running gear that is ethically sourced in New Zealand. Cool new it activewear brand, Outdoor Voices, also has a merino wool collection, among others.
Of course you could do what I do what I first started running and wear second hand t-shirts and old running shorts. But, when you run as much as I do, it’s important to have gear that will make you feel empowered to perform your best.
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Once you discover which materials fit into your conscious fashion world, it’s easier to move forward from there. I like the idea of having an activewear brand that collects materials to recycle or will take back their products to recycled for you, in effect closing the product lifecycle loop. Patagonia is committed to making all their products renewable, but it would be great to see this extend beyond sustainable fashion’s poster child.
I’m always open to hearing about new brands and ideas if you’d like to share. Leave a comment or send a note!
The Complexities of Transparent Material Sourcing
Many people ask me “what is sustainable fashion?” and I’m always at a loss for a quick and easy answer. I usually end up responding with something like, “being conscious of your choices, knowing where your clothes come from.” But honestly, it needs a full explanation, especially for those who are new to the apparel industry and the garment manufacturing process.
The fashion industry has struggled with how to tackle the issue of transparency in its multi-layered supply chain, mainly due to the fact that very few fashion brands are vertically integrated. Generally speaking, the people that grow/produce the fibers, process the fibers, weave the textile, dye the fabric, cut the fabric, sew the clothing, and ship the product are all different. At each step along the way the material and labor could be coming from any number of places, much of which is kept under wraps. This makes it very difficult to track if the materials are produced sustainably or ethically.
Many brands work with factory agents that then coordinate production with their factories abroad, you might not know exactly which factory your goods are being made. Mills could get their resources from several farms, some of which could be using slave labor. Factories abroad can get a backlog of work and sub-contract out your production to a facility that uses child labor. All of this is sadly all too common in garment manufacturing, and many brands choose to look the other way.
As a consumer, understanding the process of making textiles and how clothing is made is the first step in making sustainable choices in your wardrobe. With new innovations and technology, the materials going into garments is constantly growing. It spans from your traditional natural fibers like cotton, wool, linen etc., to wood pulp based fabrics, and recycled plastics. There are pros and cons to each type of material, and there is no one miracle sustainable textile. You can use the overview below as a general guide.
Natural fibers
Cotton – Wools – Linen – Silk – Hemp
There are those out there that vow to only wear “natural fibers” meaning those taken from the earth. It’s also important to pay attention to how the fibers were processed, this category usually contains fibers in their pure state, not overly processed. Of course organic cottons/wools are better, otherwise you may be exposing your skin to harmful chemicals.
Wood Pulp Based
Rayon – Cupro – Lyocell – Bamboo
Although no animals were harmed in making these fabrics, the process is highly chemically intensive. Not to mention some of these fabrics using wood pulp are sourced from endangered forests. Many people think of bamboo as a sustainable textile, but when processed in this way I would argue that it’s not, even though the cultivation of the crop is more environmentally friendly than others in this category.
Plastics/Synthetics
PVC – Polyester – Nylon – Recycled PET/Recycled Polyester
Traditional synthetic materials, PVC, Polyester, Nylon, have no benefits in terms of sustainability. But, now that these materials are in our eco-system, people are recycling them to make new garments. Many active wear brands that rely on these synthetic fibers are making recycled PET and recycled polyester more accessible, which is exciting.
Reclaimed Materials
Vintage Fabrics – Recycled Cotton – Repurposed Goods
I personally love this category. From unravelling old sweaters and using the yarn to using tuna skin from food waste to create leather, there are a lot of opportunities here. It’s all about looking as what others see as disposable and turning it into a usable product. This might be less common, but you’re getting something truly unique and special when you use materials with a past.
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It takes a lot of time and effort to examine a brand’s ethics and sourcing practices, but if you’re motivated to do so, sites like Project Just are helpful to get started. I’ll write a post just on research tools this month.
There are also some great online e-tailers that have your back, one of my favorites is Fashionkind, but there are new one’s popping up all the time and honestly it’s hard to keep up. It’s wonderful to see that people are looking for places to find sustainable fashion, which the growing demand hopefully we’ll start to see a shift in the industry.
Clothing Alchemy – Making Your Clothes Last
Oh the plight of feeling like we have nothing to wear even though our closets are full. It’s hard to restructure our mindset of old is bad, tired and boring. But by being mindful of our choices and with a bit of creativity, we can keep the life of our garments going strong. Through brainstorming creative styling ideas, breathing new life into our clothes or, if the garment is truly just had it, repurposing them into one-of-a-kind creations, you’ll have a closet that continuously excites.
Most importantly, extending the lifecycle of your clothes keeps the material from winding up in landfills and creating excess waste. You don’t have to partake in the “buy-buy-buy” consumer mindset that marketing campaigns and deep discount sales make so appealing when you have what you need and you have the tools to constantly recreate your wardrobe.
Rediscovering Old Pieces
I love polishing old treasures in my closet that I’ve either forgotten about or have gotten bored of. Mixing and matching and being bold enough to try something new is what fashion is all about. You can be more creative when you’re not buying fast fashion that falls apart after a couple washes, long lasting clothes grow with you. I hate to be cliché, but think Carrie Bradshaw, she was always taking a chance on innovative styling.
Something fun to try is taking a piece of clothing used for one thing and morphing it into something completely new. Take a shirt that you can style as a skirt or a skirt that you can style as a dress. Play around with it, the options are endless. Let me know what you come up with!
Giving Your Clothes Some Love
These days we’ve been programed to throw away worn or broken items in exchange for new, but a simple fix of a hem, adding a missing button or patching up a garment is easy and oftentimes adds character. It’s good practice to keep a simple sewing kit at home, you can take one of those you get in hotel rooms, or just grab the essentials from your Mom’s sewing kit.
If you’re not a skilled sewer yourself, you could always ask a friend or take your clothes in to be altered. Instead of going to buy a new top, you can take in one you already have to be altered and update your look. This is why it’s good to invest in high quality pieces that last a long time, if you tire of the style, you can update the look with a little tweak of the fit.
Time For a Make-over!
There are endless projects you can do with worn out clothes, I started a whole business out of this when I was in Hawai’i, repurposing old textiles. Depending on what shape the piece of clothing is in, you could either transform it into something new and wearable, or completely break it down to use for something else.
I tend to get holes in my jeans in the crotch area, and one of my favorite upcycling projects is to make denim skirts. Although, there’s only so many denim skirts a girl can have, think about cutting up the fabric for other projects, such as weaving, patchwork, quilting, or even a household rag.
If you really don’t have the time make something or repurpose the fabric on your own, look into organizations to donate to, or places that recycle or buy used clothing. There are a lot of options here, and you’ll need to do your research. Not all thrift stores are created equal, and it’s important to understand how textiles will be recycled and repurposed. By donating to the wrong organization your clothes could still end up in a landfill or be sent off to Haiti to occupy a landfill there.
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If you go through this article and you still feel like you need new additions to your closet, consider doing a clothing swap with friends. Make a day of it, invite friends over for brunch and have mimosas while swapping your forgotten duds. Having a fun Sunday with close friends will be just as worth the new finds you’ll walk away with.