What is sustainability in fashion today? How to help the planet with your style choices and create sustainable wardrobe.

Fashion is the second largest industry that creates pollution on our Planet.

Sustainability in our style choices starts with finding the balance between being happy in what we wear and helping the planet the best we can.

It all comes to these aspects we’ve heard thousand times in last 10 years:

slow fashion
Reducing throw-away culture
To prefer natural and durable fabrics
Sustainable manufacturing
Fair trade
Proper disposal
Biodegradable/minimal packaging

And so on.

All the brands promote their sustainability in all sorts of ways. Marketing is such a tricky thing, even if the item is 99% harmful for the environment, companies can hide this 99% and unfold this 1% of actual sustainability in the brightest way. Sad reality. Often, brands that are actually quite sustainable don’t even promote it as obviously as the brands that are less environmentally friendly. For example, if you see in the description of the item something like: “We used 12% less electricity and 38% less water to create this garment”. But… the question is, 12% less from what? How big WAS and IS the actual amount of resources you used? Is it still a lot, even if you reduced it 12%? Another common example is natural fabrics and dyes. For example, raffia bags. We would think it’s a natural material, so it should be sustainable. But the truth is, raffia yarn is often made with harmful chemicals, to make it durable and pretty. These stories can be endless, but let’s talk about us. How to keep ourselves happy with the style choices we make in this controversial reality?

Please, ask yourself these three questions:

Which kind of quality do I prefer?
What are “My Classics”?
How well do I know my kind of beauty?

* What are your classics? Our Classical choices are very different, they can depend on our generation, body type, brands that we love, even memories about favourite clothing we used to wear childhood. Your Classics - is what you’re repurchasing for years, it's the same looking garments with minor differences.

My fundamental principle is a combination of these three answers you made. I love schemes. This is my explanation of the message above:

Basically, before every exciting purchase, ask yourself: will I create pollution by buying this item? Will it support throwaway culture in the short or long term? Is this item sustainable as much as it makes me happy?

Here are some examples and possible solutions, depending on your answers:

“I often get bored of my clothing. I like the quality of mid-range price point garments; I know I look the best in relaxed style silhouettes of neutral colours.”

Solution: Creating a capsule wardrobe of new or preloved items (if you don’t mind preloved) of the most simple (as simple as possible in your style preferences) and suitable to your beauty type garments. And to have a decent collection of accessories and make an accent on these details in your outfits, so wearing the same basic items will not be as boring. This way you’ll be supporting slow fashion and reducing throw-away culture. Mid range price point brands have a lot of sustainable options these days, you can explore this topic with creating capsule wardrobe. And if your jewelry and other accessories are made of natural materials - it’s even better! For example, jewelry with metal and semi-precisions stones instead of plastic crystals. It has a longer life, and can be resold when you’re bored of it instead of being thrown away.
Same with bags. One leather bag lives 10 times longer than a plastic bag, and it even gets old in a prettier way. These ideas will might keep you fancy and happy. As long as we’re open to exploring new brands. It’s so many newcomers these days. They don’t have a perfectly established production, but because of that, they have more freedom to use new ways to create garments. They don’t need to change their machines and technologies, as established brands. Reassembling production is often way harder than to start from scratch.

“I love saving money on what I buy and I do shopping quite often. I’m an impulse buyer. It’s my passion and it keeps me happy.”

The best solution in this choice is to ask yourself before every purchase - if I’ll spill red wine on this item, I’m just about to buy, will my heart be broken, or I’ll forget it fast? I’ve heard this method time ago and it saved me from a lot of unnecessary purchases. For us, as an impuls buyers, best way to shop is - thrifting. If you don’t like this idea - anything made of upcicled, recycled or recicable materials is a great option. Changing wardrobe constantly will be fun and not harmful for the planet at all!

“I love high quality items.”

That’s the best way to be sustainable in my opinion, as long as we purchase sustainable enough items. Doesn’t mean we have to be rich. For example:
High quality bag that lasts 10 years (let’s say, for 500$.) = 10 lower quality bags that we change every year.
So, it's the same money in the end.

Often, premium quality items can be passed through the generations or be resold many times, and sometimes even for bigger money than they were purchased. And the most important fact - you feel so luxurious and loved while wearing it. Also adds chic, and status to your look wherever you go.
No need to be rich to do it. We can thoughtfully plan the budget to purchase these items and to take proper care of them. The most important part of this kind of shopping is to know your body type and beauty type very thoroughly, so every purchase is your long-lasting love (Your Classics).

There are endless ways to create new shopping habits. Simply reading the internet about sustainability in fashion can change your point of view a lot. It happened to me a few years ago and I felt so much better after this shift. My shopping behaviour started to be more conscious and I don’t feel like it’s my guilty pleasure any more.

And the truth is, long lasting garments and accessories can be found in any price range. And it’s wonderful.

* ** I also make my small steps in creating a sustainable brand.
I use natural fabrics and crystals, print scarves only with eco-certified dyes, offer premium quality (slow fashion), long lasting designs, and use biodegradable packaging for shipping the orders.

Happy shopping!

Wishing us to love Ourselves and the World we’re living in with the help of Fashion!

Sustainability and Fashion