What is Sustainable Fashion & How Does the Fashion Industry Affect Pollution?

Jumpsuit: Faithfull The Brand (wearing M) / Bag: Cult Gaia / Sunglasses: Prive similar here

Can the environics and economics of fashion ever coexist?

If you preach global warming and environmental degradation, yet you choose fast fashion over sustainable fashion. You are a hypocrite.

Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world. It is a major contributor to water pollution, plastic pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. This is especially true if you buy designer.

Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Amazon, H&M, Urban Outfitters, and Nike have all confessed in annual reports to burning hundreds of billions of dollars in merchandise in order to “protect” their brand. I’m sorry, but what kind of consumer culture does that represent? Are you proud to brandish their logo on your body? No.

We have all heard the term “sustainable fashion”, but what does that even mean? And why should we care? Mistakenly, sustainable fashion gets put into a category that only the wealthy can afford. That is simply not true my friends. I’ll show you 7 ways to implement sustainable fashion in your life that may even be cheaper than Amazon.

What Shifted My Thinking?

The first time I stopped to think about sustainable fashion was at a Ghent photoshoot. I was set up off of Botetourt in a black-and-white polka dot dress when a woman stopped and asked bluntly what I was doing. I was shooting this post actually!

People stop to ask what I’m doing almost every time I shoot with my tripod. It is sweet because most of them are older, lifetime Norfolk residents. Some are young punks. Either way, I love telling people about my blog! Most of the time, it is a quick 1 minute exchange, they compliment my outfit, and move on with their day. One particular lady made a point to tell me about how much textile waste the fashion industry produces and how my job affects the problem. She previously worked for Coach in NYC.

I think about her often because she shifted my thinking.

Sustainable fashion was not a serious concept to me because I didn’t feel the guilt of contributing to the 13 million tons of textile waste accrued annually. I was not technically purchasing the items…

Well, I was wrong. I was dead wrong!

When I started looking into fashion supply chains, I was shooketh. Learning that there are people on this earth without access to clean water, yet we use 3,000 liters of water to produce one cotton shirt. Heck, cotton shirts are flung out of cannons at baseball games like they are nothing!

How Can I Implement Sustainable Fashion in My Life?

There are 7 ways you can implement sustainable fashion in your own life. You don’t need to be a millionaire. Contrarily, you can even spend less than you normally would on a fast fashion alternative.

To distill to the entire sustainable fashion movement down in one sentence, sustainable fashion means to be more thoughtful about the origination of your clothes. We could go on to talk about sustainable jewelry, home goods, etc. but that is a whole other beast.

Think about it, we all want to protect our precious planet. Most of us are good people who care about the Earth and each other. However, as consumers, we have a responsibility to press back on the fashion industry. We have to move away from cost and wide margins as drivers and move towards a greener future by respecting planetary boundaries.

Bloggers shy away from this topic because we make a commission on sales and campaigns. More is more, right? At what cost though? It baffles me that so many influential bloggers use their platform for their own benefit and they can ignore this global crisis if it means more money in their pocket.

Baby Steps

I am guilty of buying things that I do not reach for enough. However, my goal is to take small, maintainable steps toward living a more sustainable lifestyle. My life now is much more sustainable than it was when I met that stranger on the street in Ghent last summer. I’m thankful she was brave enough to confront me. So, allow yourself to be open to new information. Take a baby step toward living a more sustainable lifestyle today.

Today, I am wearing one of my favorite sustainable brands, Faithfull the Brand. All of the items are ethically sources, sun-dried, and handmade. This boilersuit also comes in a gorgeous turquoise color and a two-piece set. You can shop the FTB collection here.

Podcast Rec.

If your eyes glazed over half of this, listen to Building Smarter, More Sustainable Supply Chains by the Business of Fashion Podcast. I’m ADD too, so I got you, sister.

Thank you for reading! Sign up for my monthly newsletter here and follow me on youtube here if you’d like to stay in the loop. Love ya!

xx, Chelsea