Ethical vs. Sustainable Fashion: What’s the Difference? + Our First Brand Spotlight: Esby Apparel

Esby FW19 Sweater Knit from 100% Italian Linen Yarn
~ Molly Wier ~ 11,057 Comments
Esbyfest SXSW 2019
Esbyfest SXSW 2019
Last week, I wrote about easy ways you can start thinking and dressing more ethically and sustainably. This week, I’ll define and clarify the differences between Ethical Fashion and Sustainable Fashion. I will also shine a spotlight on Austin-based Esby Apparel. This chic, niche fashion brand uses both ethical and sustainable practices. Read on to learn how Esby is doing things differently and setting the bar higher for other brands.

 

Ethical Fashion vs. Sustainable Fashion

I’ve used these phrases a number of times in previous posts, but before I use them to talk about Esby, I want to take a moment to define Ethical Fashion and Sustainable Fashion. They aren’t the same and the terms aren’t interchangeable, but they do frequently overlap. This is why you’ll often see “ethical and sustainable” paired together. So, how are they different, and how do they work together? I’ll also explain how “Slow Fashion” fits into the picture. Let’s examine.

◊ Ethical Fashion

According to the world’s leading museum of art and design, The Victoria & Albert Museum,

Ethical Fashion aims to address the problems it sees with the way the fashion industry currently operates, such as exploitative labour [sic], environmental damage, the use of hazardous chemicals, waste, and animal cruelty. (VAM, 2013)

An umbrella term, ethical fashion looks at all stages of “design, production, retail, and purchasing” (VAM, 2013). An ethical brand will “make an effort to provide detailed information about how their processes meet moral benchmarks” (Kenton, 2019).

You can read my post about ethical fashion practices here for more background on some of the concepts below.

Ethical Fashion concepts include:
  • Supply Chain Transparency
  • Fair Trade, defined as fashion “created with a goal of empowering marginalised [sic] people while paying them a fair wage and ensuring fair working conditions” (Meier, 2017).
  • Cruelty-Free (such as fur-free or not tested on animals)
  • Human Rights
  • Conscious Consumerism
  • Inclusive Fashion (size, ability, gender identity)
  • Sustainable Fashion (yep–sustainable fashion falls under Ethical Fashion!)

◊ Sustainable Fashion

Sustainable fashion is a movement and process of fostering change to fashion products and the fashion system towards greater ecological integrity and social justice. Sustainable fashion concerns more than addressing fashion textiles or products. It comprises addressing the whole system of fashion. This means dealing with interdependent social, cultural, ecological and financial systems. It also means considering fashion from the perspective of many stakeholders – users and producers, all living species, contemporary and future dwellers on earth. Sustainable fashion, therefore, belongs to, and is the responsibility of citizens, public sector and private sector. (Sustainable Fashion, 2019)

Sustainable Fashion (aka Eco-Fashion) concepts include:
  • Products “made to environmentally-friendly standards” (Meier, 2017)
  • Eco-fibers: linen, organic cotton; upcycled, recycled, or reclaimed fabrics
  • Depending on processing methods, new fabrics like bamboo and hemp
  • Sometimes, Fair Trade Fashion is “considered sustainable fashion as the production is considered ‘sustainable’ to communities of farmers and artisans in providing livelihoods and investing in eco-projects” (Meier, 2017).
      • In this view, Supporting/Shopping locally-owned businesses can be considered a sustainable practice
  • Fashion industry’s environmental footprint, including:
      • Pollution (including air, water, sound)
      • Excessive waste (from manufacturing practices and consumers’ belief that cheap, fast fashion is “disposable”)
      • Carbon emissions and contribution to climate change
      • Loss of biodiversity

◊ Slow Fashion

WHO WHAT WEAR uses a Venn diagram to show how Slow Fashion fits into the picture (Collings, 2018).
This Venn diagram from WHO WHAT WEAR visualizes the components of Slow Fashion (Collings, 2018). WWW defines the 3rd component, “Lasting Fashion” as a method of slowing down the clothing consumption cycle.

Slow Fashion is a lifestyle choice (part of the Slow Living Movement) that combines concepts from both ethical and sustainable fashion. In Slow Fashion, the ethical connection between things is examined: raw materials, human labor, the environment, and more (Kowalski, 2018). It is purposeful and intentional, and about quality over quantity; garments can last years or even a lifetime. The concept is holistic and considers the whole product lifecycle. Designer Emilia Wick thinks of Slow Fashion as “returning to a personal relationship with fashion,” and author Kate Fletcher says it’s about “designing, producing, consuming and living better” (Kowalski, 2018).

Fletcher, who is widely credited with coining the term in 2007 (Kowalski, 2018), defines Slow Fashion as:

  • “Not time-based but quality-based“
  • A new and different “approach in which designers, buyers, retailers and consumers are more aware of the impacts of products on workers, communities and ecosystems“
  • About “choice, information, cultural diversity and identity”
  • A method that requires “durability and long-term engaging, quality products”

Now that you know what these terms mean and how they can overlap, let’s talk about a brand that practices Ethical, Sustainable, and Slow Fashion.

Brand Spotlight: Esby Apparel

Esby Apparel Flagship, Austin, TX
Esby Apparel Flagship Store in Austin, TX

If you talked to me about ethical and sustainable fashion in person, it’s very likely that I’d bring up my favorite slow fashion brand, Esby. With good reason: Esby founder and designer Stephanie Beard was fairly instrumental in sparking my interest in ethical fashion. I met Stephanie about 6 years ago through a close mutual friend of ours (see our group pic at the bottom! 💗), just as she was beginning to build the Esby brand.

Esby founder + designer Stephanie Beard
Esby founder + designer Stephanie Beard

A little backstory on me–I am passionate about entrepreneurship, it was my major in undergrad. I’m especially interested in female entrepreneurs; I’ve always loved hearing about the children’s clothing shop my grandmother owned in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and before grad school, I worked for female entrepreneurs for about a dozen years. Combine that backstory and my love of fashion and you’ll see why I am constantly impressed by this smart, ambitious lady who came to town, said she was going to start a fashion line, and actually did it. Not only that, but Stephanie made Esby a successful brand that has captured the attention of some impressive publications like Business of Fashion, Forbes, Elle, Austin Monthly, domino, WHO WHAT WEAR, and more.

Model wearing Esby beach house top in sterling with Lindsey jeans
Esby Apparel SS19

While I don’t get to see Stephanie frequently, I’ve watched, mostly by following Stephanie and Esby on Instagram and by being on the Esby email list, as she has built this brand. Along the way, I learned bits and pieces about ethical and sustainable fashion, as Stephanie was meticulous about doing things the right way from the beginning.

Fisherman Tote. Esby Leather bags are made in Austin in small batches.
Fisherman Tote. Esby Leather pieces are made in Austin in small batches.

For example, I remember catching up with her one time as she was searching for a place in the U.S. that would sew the tags on Esby clothing. That’s when I learned that many brands send their clothes overseas for tagging, even if the clothes are made in the U.S., adding to the clothing’s eco-footprint.  Also, I didn’t know that entire garments are rarely made under one roof; the entire manufacturing process frequently requires shipping items many thousands of miles, multiple times, until they are completed and finally end up in a store. It’s certainly not a sustainable practice, so it’s incredibly important that brands like Esby are making major changes to the way fashion is produced. This is just one aspect of sustainable apparel production I learned about while watching this brand unfold; I could go on, but the point is that Stephanie and Esby really got me into the concept of ethical, sustainable fashion.

Esby Apparel behind the scenes
Stephanie working with a model behind the scenes

About the Brand

Founder and designer Stephanie Beard launched Esby Apparel in 2014 in Austin, Texas. With over a decade of experience in kids and menswear design and a minimalist POV from years of NYC-living, Stephanie lent a unique perspective to women’s fashion with a menswear mentality.  Esby has grown so much that the line now includes select men’s, plus size, and unisex styles–so inclusive!

Esby Apparel Instagram Tiles
Esby Apparel

Focusing on simplistic design and the highest quality fabrics, Esby is sourced globally and produced in the U.S. Collections are destination-inspired and include classic silhouettes with a vintage influence and comfortable wearability. Every item is pre-washed and pre-shrunk for a true fit, their website features detailed product measurements for each item, and the website even provides a way to reach out for fit advice. Esby uses ethical and sustainable practices and promotes slow fashion.

Esby Apparel

Doing Things Differently: Details of Esby’s Ethical & Sustainable Practices

Fabrics are made of the highest quality all-natural fibers carefully sourced from around the world, including Japanese textiles, French linens, Italian yarns, and Texas organic cotton. Esby works closely with factory partners throughout the patterning process, using small-batch production methods to reduce material waste. Any fabric leftover gets repurposed in Esby’s No-Waste initiative, in which best-selling Esby styles are reproduced from remnant fabrics in a limited run. In addition, the brand recently did its first buy-back event in which customers could sell gently-used Esby clothes from previous seasons back to the brand. This sustainable, eco-friendly practice is one that many brands are adopting, keeping clothes out of the landfill and the used, repurposed or upcycled items circulate in the economy longer (Segran, 2019).

Esby Apparel Instagram
Esby Apparel Instagram featuring a piece from the No-Waste Collection

Esby uses low-impact garment dyes in a Los Angeles-based dye house that runs on solar energy. All fabrics are pre-washed for softness and pre-shrunk for a true fit.

Esby Apparel FW19
Esby Apparel FW19

Esby Apparel is designed in Austin, Texas, and produced locally in the U.S., specifically in small factories with positive working environments in New York and Los Angeles. Esby vets new potential factories thoroughly, and conducts regular in-person walk-throughs on factory floors. Most brands do not practice this level of due diligence and instead use unreliable outside reporting and factory inspections. Basing all production in the U.S. means Esby has closer and more frequent oversight opportunities to ensure the conditions are being upheld. In addition, producing locally means more government oversight and regulation than producing in another country, on another continent.

Jumpsuits have become a staple for Esby.
Jumpsuits have become a staple for the brand, SS19

I can tell you from experience, the fit is on point, the clothes are comfortable, and there’s nothing I’d rather wear in the Texas heat. Everything is versatile, well-constructed, and meant to be worn on repeat for years. And a bonus, it’s all machine washable and dryable! This post is not sponsored, I’m just an advocate for any brand that’s this considerate of their impact on the world and has great style. Pro tip: sign up for Esby’s email list to find out about new arrivals and sales first. Keep an eye out for the very reasonable sample sales!

Shopping with Esby Apparel is a win-win situation. You’ll support an Austin- and female-owned business, the creation of local jobs, and of course–ethical and sustainable fashion. It doesn’t get better than that! If you have any questions about Esby and their practices, I’d be happy to ask and pass answers along.

Esby Apparel
1601 South 1st Street, Austin, TX
512-243-8901
info@esbyapparel.com
https://www.esbyapparel.com/
Esby Stockists
Group photo at Esbyfest SXSW 2019
Our mutual friend Courtney, Stephanie, and Me. Esbyfest SXSW 2019 @ Big Red Sun.
As always, thank you for visiting and reading!

Stylishly Yours,

Molly

 

References:

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Let’s Get Ethical: 6 Ways to Start Thinking and Dressing More Ethically & Sustainably

~ Molly Wier ~ 3,121 Comments
Stella McCartney 2017 Ad Campaign Models at Landfill Site
(via R29) Harley Weir for Stella McCartney. The sustainable designer’s Fall 2017 ad campaign was shot in a landfill in Scotland to draw attention to the “sobering by-product of unsustainable attitudes toward consumption” (Bauck, 2017).

In my last post, I discussed unethical labor practices in the fast fashion supply chain. I included a quote from Patrick Woodyard’s TEDx Talk. I really enjoyed his whole message and think his company, Nisolo, is doing great things in terms of sustainability and ethics in labor (they also have really good looking footwear!). I will include his talk at the bottom of the post. As promised, this post will include some simple steps you can take to start thinking and dressing more ethically and sustainably.

Awareness of social issues is key to understanding the world we live in. While we’ve learned some unpleasant things after exploring unethical labor issues in fast fashion, we can use the resulting unpleasant feelings to fuel our own desire to effect change. Even if it’s on a micro-level.

Before I get to those steps you can take to get more ethical and sustainable, let’s do a little activity!

While researching ethical fashion, I’ve watched a lot of videos and at least a couple of them (including Patrick’s TEDx Talk) told me to look at the clothes I was wearing at that moment. They asked me to think about my clothes: Do I know who made them? Or what they are made of? Do I know where they were made, and how factory workers were paid and treated? Now it’s your turn: I want you to do the same; check out the tag on the items you’re wearing. I’ll post my answers at the bottom.

Here are some ways you can turn your aspiration to change into action:

1. Take Care: Start treating your clothes better. Rethink how often clothing needs to be washed; review on an item by item basis as you undress each day. You probably don’t need to wash things as often as you think, and washing less will help clothes last longer. When you do wash: read the instructions so clothes stay looking their best; but, keep in mind that cold water is gentler on clothes, keeps dark colors from fading, and uses less energy, so use cold more if you can! Hang more clothes to dry; get a great folding drying rack (I’ve had this one for a few years and it’s been great). Between washes, hang clothes up to air out and use a steamer to refresh clothes if needed. Don’t use dry cleaning, and if you do, use it sparingly (better for the clothing and the environment). Get clothes repaired (or DIY) or altered to extend their life. Commit to working on stains so you don’t have to throw something out; try Googling how to remove a specific type of stain. [Note: I highly recommend you get yourself a stain guru–my mom is my go-to resource for giving stained clothing another life! I always have a small pile of clothes to hand over when I see her.]

2. Get & Stay Curious: Read the tags on the clothes you own and while you’re out shopping. What is the item made of, and where is it made? Research brands you have in your closet and the brands you are considering buying. If you have a smartphone, USE IT! Conduct quick Google searches as you’re shopping to learn about a company’s sustainable and ethical efforts, if any. I will be providing some great resources for sustainability info on brands soon; until then, GOOGLE (and no, I don’t work for them, just a fan 😉).

via Unsplash

3. Be Wary of Greenwashing: Brands that give us the impression their product is more green, sustainable, and/or ethical than it actually is; essentially, environmental propaganda. They’re capitalizing on our desire to feel good about our purchases. Look for brands that are transparent–with their supply chain, pricing, materials, practices, etc. Vague descriptions almost always mean Greenwashing. When you know you’re buying from a truly ethical, sustainable brand, you will feel great every time you wear that item.

4. Speak Up On Social Media: Make your voice heard! Tell your favorite brands and stores that you want sustainable and ethical clothing, accessories, and shoes. Praise brands when they announce changes but hold them accountable for following through. As a current digital marketing grad student, I can tell you: brands are listening, especially on social media!

5. Adjust your expectations: This is hard for anyone but if you’ve been a highly bargain-oriented shopper for years, adjusting your expectations about what clothing should cost is going to be a tough process. Try shopping with a brand that is completely transparent with costs, like Everlane (see image below of cost breakdown on a pair of jeans). Even if you just look at their product webpages to see a breakdown on the garment’s cost/pricing structure, this should help you gain a frame of reference. When you see a bargain, think about the craftsmanship and labor that went into it and ask yourself if the person who created it is truly being valued.

via Everlane

6. Let Your Money Talk: When you do shop, spend with ethical & sustainable brands or brands that are making moves to improve the transparency of their supply chain. Look for a curated list of brands that support ethical and sustainable practices coming soon to the blog! Till then, here’s a link to get started:

Models in ethical clothing brands
Article: “Best Ethical Clothing Brands”
Ok, did you look at your tags? What did you find out? Anything interesting? I’d love to hear in the comments! (Scroll up to “Leave a Comment” under the post title.) Here are my tag answers:

I was still in PJ’s that morning, so I checked the tag on my Gap pajama pants:

  • 95% modal 5% spandex
  • No country of manufacture listed
  • Fall 2010 (Gap tags list the season and year and I love to see how incredibly long some items have lasted—like 9-year-old PJ pants!)

Then I checked the tag on my old J. Crew Factory tee that was demoted to the PJ pile at some point because I didn’t love the fit of it (which is why I shouldn’t have bought the cheap tee in the first place, but I’m getting off-topic):

  • 100% cotton
  • Made in China
  • J. Crew doesn’t print the year on tags, but I would bet the shirt is about 6 years old

I felt pretty good about the fact that although Gap and J. Crew aren’t considered sustainable brands, I’ve kept these items forever and used them like crazy. Cost per wear is fractions of a penny and they haven’t ended up in a landfill. But, I have no idea who made the items or how well those people were paid or treated in the factory. This is the way to do it if you are going to shop at retailers like Gap or J. Crew; treat it well and make it last, honor the time and craftsmanship that’s gone into it. And let’s make sure we tell these brands we want them to make some changes.

Thank you for reading! I hope you will think about some of these ideas a little more each time you look at your wardrobe or go shopping, and maybe even adopt a change or two in your life. As Sheryl Crow sang, “A change would do you good.”

Stylishly Yours,
Molly

 

Video: TEDx Talk “Fast Fashion’s Effect on People, The Planet, & You”

 

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Ethics in Labor: Hidden Human Rights Costs in The Fast Fashion Supply Chain

Women working at sewing machines in a subcontracting garment factory in Bangladesh
~ Molly Wier ~ 15,031 Comments

[ Bonus video! At the bottom of my post, you’ll find a funnier take on this serious subject in a video about fast fashion from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. It’s 17 min long, but worth it.]

Women working at sewing machines in a subcontracting garment factory in Bangladesh
(via PBS) Most garment factory workers are women. Photo of subcontracting factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, by April Gu/NYU Center for Business and Human Rights

My last blog post featured a video outlining fast fashion’s negative global impact. In this post, I’m exploring the unethical labor practices at the root of fast fashion manufacturing and the ‘hidden’ human beings at the other end of the apparel supply chain.

In his TEDx Talk, Patrick Woodyard, CEO of sustainable shoe and accessories brand Nisolo, made the apt point:

As the distance from the production location to the purchase location of our products has grown, what has decreased is the amount of accountability and transparency in our supply chain.

Today, we are so far removed from the people who make our clothing, shoes, and accessories. Most consumers don’t think about the point of origin of the items in their closet, or the skilled garment workers who created them. It’s certainly easier to let all the ethical issues in the global clothing supply chain stay out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

In a world with social media and the internet, we are increasingly informed; we’re becoming more conscientious about the brands we choose to support. This is where ethical fashion enters the equation:

“Ethical fashion refers to clothing and apparel produced by manufacturers that aim to reduce waste and exploitation in their supply chain wherever possible.” 

In pursuit of cheaper manufacturing costs, many major fashion brands are moving apparel production to underdeveloped parts of the world where workers earn far less, like Cambodia, India, and Bangladesh (one of the very worst offenders in the treatment of garment workers), and exploitation goes unchecked. Despite labor laws that may be in place, lack of oversight by local government and outside agencies in rural or developing areas frequently results in exploitation and human rights violations.

Fast Fashion’s Unethical Labor Practices

◇  Garment industry workers are paid below-living wages, or below minimum wages, which are not living wages

    • Most factory workers earn less than $2 per day, with no way to save for sickness or emergencies
    • Workers report if they ask for better wages they’re told the work will go to someone else
    • ‘Flexible’ or no contracts for workers, and those with contracts are often threatened with losing them if they don’t meet production quotas or deadlines
    • Self-employed homeworkers are even further exploited; women and girls doing garment work from home are sub-contracted by factories on a per-piece basis that pays even less than factory work, for example in India, they earn between $0.13 and $0.15 per hour while also having to absorb some production costs 
    • It’s estimated that about 60% of garment production is done by primarily female homeworkers in Asia and Latin America

◇  Child labor is rampant

◇  Major health & safety risks exist due to substandard working conditions in factories

    • Safety standards and requirements are completely disregarded
    • Shoddy, unsafe construction is used to build these factories inexpensively and speedily
    • According to one study, the occurrence of serious injuries and disabilities almost doubles among individuals with factory jobs (7%), as opposed to non-factory jobs (4%). This risk percentage increases every month a worker remains employed in the factory.
    • Unsafe working conditions that continued unchecked resulted in the collapse of Rana Plaza in 2013, an 8-story building that housed 5 factories and thousands of workers. About 1,134 workers tragically died in the building collapse, and over 2,000 were injured; it was a wake-up call for many Americans when brands such as Gap and The Children’s Place were found to have clothing manufactured in these factories

◇  Management practices are often illegal and abusive

Wow. Some of the facts about unethical labor practices are hard to read, and becoming a more conscious fashion consumer is really difficult. Change is uncomfortable. But we’re in an era of major thought-change, so let’s challenge ourselves to start thinking about fashion differently, too. Let’s remember the stories of the women at the opposite end of the fashion supply chain and get concerned (like the Twitter user below) about deals that seem too good to be true–like this bikini for £1 ($1.26):

Screenshot of tweet by fast fashion retailer Missguided announcing $1.26 bikini back in stock
via Twitter @Missguided
Twitter user @Amyleigh expressed outrage at Missguided's $1.26 bikini
via Twitter @Amyleigh

In the next post, I’ll tell you about some simple steps you can take to become a little more ethical and sustainable with your fashion choices. (HINT: It won’t involve throwing all your clothes away and starting over. 😉)

Please feel free to comment and ask questions, I’d love to know what you think. What surprised you the most? Are you interested in outgrowing fast fashion?

Thank you for reading, and enjoy a little of John Oliver’s fast fashion-outrage below! 👇

Stylishly Yours,
Molly

 

And now, this:

View my sources below. Click the links to if you’d like to read more about ethical labor practices.

Resources:

Blattman, C., & Dercon, S. (2017, April 27). Everything We Knew About Sweatshops Was Wrong. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/opinion/do-sweatshops-lift-workers-out-of-poverty.html

Epatko, L. (2018, April 6). 5 years after the world’s largest garment factory collapse, is safety in Bangladesh any better? Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/5-years-after-the-worlds-largest-garment-factory-collapse-is-safety-in-bangladesh-any-better

Fast Fashion’s Effect on People, The Planet, & You | Patrick Woodyard | TEDx University of Mississippi. (2017, March 8). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPM9lhackHw&feature=share

Fashion: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO). (2015, April 26). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/VdLf4fihP78 

Findlay, O. (2019, June 20). People are not happy about that £1 Missguided bikini. Retrieved from https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/missguided-bikini-backlash?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1561800394

Hodal, K. (2018, June 5). Abuse is daily reality for female garment workers for Gap and H&M, says report. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/05/female-garment-workers-gap-hm-south-asia

Kara, S. (2019, February 15). The invisible women and girls who make your clothes. Retrieved from https://www.eco-business.com/opinion/the-invisible-women-and-girls-who-make-your-clothes/

Labour Behind the Label. (n.d.). Working Conditions. Retrieved 20 September 2019 from http://labourbehindthelabel.org/our-work/working-conditions/

Martin-Muir, F. (2019, April 9). Why ethical fashion is made for referral marketing: Buyapowa’s Expert Insight on Referral Marketing: Blog. Retrieved from https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/ethical-fashion-made-for-referral-marketing/

Muscati, S. (2018, February 22). Garment Worker Diaries Reveal Working Conditions, Wages in Bangladesh, India, Cambodia. Retrieved from https://sustainablebrands.com/read/marketing-and-comms/garment-worker-diaries-reveal-working-conditions-wages-in-bangladesh-india-cambodia

Stauffer, B. (2018, April 6). World Report 2018: Rights Trends in “Soon There Won’t Be Much to Hide”. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/essay/transparency-in-apparel-industry

WIEGO. (n.d.). Garment Workers. Retrieved 20 September 2019 from https://www.wiego.org/informal-economy/occupational-groups/garment-workers

 

Fast As You Can: A Fast Fashion Introduction

Three storey H&M store lit up at night
Video ~ ~ Molly Wier ~ 4,654 Comments

The subject of ethical, sustainable fashion is vast.

via GIPHY

I’ve been dealing with information overload and a little analysis paralysis.

My educational mission with this blog is to inform and increase awareness of ethical & sustainable fashion, the slow fashion movement, and garment industry practices.

But it’s hard to know where to begin.

It’s a challenge to maintain a narrow scope when I’ve found so much data about really significant problems that are worth talking about.

To provide information of real value and keep myself from going overboard, I’m going to focus on shorter posts with singular topics.

With that in mind, I’ll start from the very beginning!

If you want to learn about sustainable fashion, fast fashion is a good place to start.

via GIPHY

I discovered this helpful video, “Fast Fashion Explained in Under 5 Minutes” on Kristen Leo’s fun, informative YouTube channel about ethical fashion and living. Kristen gives an excellent primer to the concept.

I think you’ll enjoy it much more than me relaying all the details in writing.

Watch “Fast Fashion Explained in Under 5 Minutes”

Pretty painless, right? Maybe you even knew some stuff you didn’t know you knew. 😉

If you’re interested in watching more of Kristen’s videos, check out her YouTube channel.

Now that you have a foundation on fast fashion, in future posts, I’ll start breaking down some of the environmental, social, and labor issues that surround the fashion industry.

I’m so glad you’re here!

Stylishly Yours,
Molly

For the Love of Fashion

Sustainably Stylish: An Ethical & Eco-Friendly Fashion Blog
~ Molly Wier ~ 1,319 Comments

Welcome to my new blog! 

My name is Molly, and I’m fashion-obsessed. A friend recently observed that I “light up” when I talk about it, so I guess my obsession is pretty obvious. From high fashion and haute couture to chic daily wear and practical wardrobes; I love it all and I’ll talk about it any chance I can get!

In recent years, I’ve started to consider the toll that “fast fashion” has taken on the environment and have come to feel more responsible for my own personal footprint on our planet. I want to learn more about ethical, sustainable practices in the garment industry and I invite you to come along on my journey! Please feel free to comment on posts (click “Leave A Comment” under my logo, above) and share your thoughts, ask questions, and tell me what you want to learn about sustainable fashion; I would love to hear from you all!

What this blog is:

  • A forum to explore sustainable, ethical fashion. It’s about being a little more informed and aware of the apparel we wear and live in every day. A place where I encourage you to learn, discover new things, perhaps reconsider some ideas, and maybe make some changes in your life—maybe not.
  • A look at Fast Fashion and its ethical counterpart, the Slow Fashion movement. Exploring manufacturing practices in the garment industry, the footprint on our eco-system, the ethical treatment of garment industry workers and safety standards in factories.

What this blog is NOT:

  • A place for the shaming of habits, shopping or otherwise. Organic, sustainable products can be significantly more expensive than their counterparts, and a “green” lifestyle is frequently perceived as only being for the wealthy. Know that there are no expectations for your spending here; we all have our own unique situations and needs and must choose what is right for ourselves.
  • And it’s NOT about politics or a particular political view. It’s honest opinions from someone who worked in fashion retail for 12 years. I aim to present truthful, supported information, in a safe space open for discussion.

I’m looking forward to learning with you!

Stylishly Yours,

Molly