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We live in a time where there is more to clothing than just looking good. The fashion industry is the second largest polluter (just after the oil industry) in the world - largely due to cotton farming. And with nearly one garbage truck’s worth of textiles being dumped or incinerated every second, damage done by the industry is only growing.
What adds a layer of complexity to the problem is the fact that clothing is universal. It is something that everyone uses and needs. Which is exactly why the entire issue needs more attention, and why it is niche enough for the average person to direct change. Not just that, mass consumerism is literally killing the planet. It is our responsibility as consumers to ensure that we balance some, if not all, negative impacts of consumerism.
In the spring of 2019, I freelanced as a creative director for a sustainable fashion startup and design label, GreenSanity. The company plays at the intersection of sustainable clothing, conscious consumerism and ethical fashion.
My responsibilities included making and monitoring brand campaigns, creating social media posts, shaping the company's aesthetic and managing client relationships.
I'm part of a team of social entrepreneurs passionate about sustainability and its dimension in fashion. As sustainable fashion continues to grow, our team's aim to promote what we think is the fabric of tomorrow: Hemp.
The whole idea of fast fashion is to make clothes that are cheap to produce and cheap to sell, thus increasing demand within the general public. The problem with the whole setup is how fast-fashion brands tend to overlook environmental and ethical factors, such as using toxic-dyes, non-biodegradable fabrics, and exploited labour.
We’re stepping into a new decade. Which means selling products built on labour abuse, exploitative marketing strategies and wreckage of our planet isn’t simply seen as a sustainable business model by us
We believe individual actions lead to global impact.
A conscious consumer is one who considers the ecological, social, environmental or political impacts of their purchase. Our target audience is a conscious consumer, as well as a curious-conscious-consumers. Conscious consumers want to use their individual actions to help create global impact.
As anyone who stays up-to-date on contemporary issues might know, the fashion industry is notoriously known for exploitative, unsustainable and unethical labour to capitalise on profits.
Moreover, factories such as those in Cambodia and Bangladesh, churning out billions of dollars worth of cloth export while working in the most despicable of conditions, are the building blocks of the traditional fashion industry. Dirty, right?
