In today’s episode, I’m chatting with fashion policy expert Kenya Wiley.

Kenya Wiley is a policy counsel, professor and advisor focused on fashion law, technology and social justice. Kenya created Georgetown University’s first fashion law course in 2019—with a focus on fashion tech, social justice and sustainability. Kenya has also served on the faculty at the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School, and she has guest lectured and presented at numerous institutions and government agencies—including Parsons School of Design, American University, MIT Media Lab, the Federal Bar Association and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In this episode, Kenya is sharing behind the scenes on the processes behind legislation and regulation — and even explaining the difference between the two terms — and some of the current policies in the works that could involve fashion that the fashion industry isn’t talking about. These could be potential needle movers to cleaning up fashion, but aren’t being taken advantage of right now.

Kenya is also discussing the much-anticipated Green Guides from the Federal Trade Commission to help reduce greenwashing, what recent US Supreme Court decisions mean for the fashion industry, a funding opportunity for sustainability-minded fashion organizations, and more.

Listen to This Episode: 

Tune in to this episode of the Conscious Style Podcast below, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

And find the transcript here.

Highlights from this Conversation with Kenya

The difference between “legislation” and “regulation”

“When we talk about legislation, here in the US, we are referring to bills and legislation before Congress, either in the House or the Senate. When we discuss what’s known as regulations or rules or regulations, oftentimes, we are referring to what the agencies are doing.” — Kenya (00:08:26)

How everyday citizens can influence sustainable fashion policy

“I always say that politics starts at the local level. August is the perfect time because this is when the Senate is in August recess. Congress is in recess. The members are back in their home states and home districts. And, oftentimes, they will have town hall meetings with their city councilmen, their city Alderman, and other state and local elected officials. So this is a great time to go to those town hall meetings and express your concerns. 

Express your concerns in a way where you’re also recommending changes that the member can take back to Washington, or at the local level depending on who you are speaking with at that time. 

Make sure you do your research. Find out the committees that they work on, the caucuses that they belong to, their passions, and what are they interested in moving. Consider how you can work with them to propose legislative solutions so that you aren’t just going in there to complain. Instead, you are sharing challenges and suggesting solutions.” — Kenya (00:30:36)

Trends in global sustainability legislation

“One of the things that we always say in my fashion, law, and social justice class is that first, it’s Europe, then it’s California, and then the country and the US government eventually follows.” — Kenya (00:40:20)

Links From This Episode

• Online Community: Conscious Fashion Collective Membership
• Website: Kenya Wiley
• Instagram: Kenya Wiley
• Newsletter: Fashion Law and Social Justice Newsletter
• Online course: Fashion Policy and Justice (Note: listeners can take 50% off with code JUSTICE50; contact Kenya directly for the 80% off student discount)
• Podcast Episode: EP79: Sustainable Fashion Policy and Collective Action with Elizabeth Cline
• Information Resource: 2023 Farm Bill
• Information Resource: SEC Climate Disclosures Rule
• Information Resource: The Recycling & Compostability Accountability Act

This Episode Was Brought To You By:

Osei-Duro

Osei-Duro is a slow, artisan-made sustainable fashion brand based in Ghana using handmade textile techniques to create contemporary garments that are true works of art.

Their colorful, bold-printed clothing is hand-dyed and sewn in Ghana by small-scale artisans and manufactured to support the local apparel industry. And they have extended sizes, with many styles going up to 4X.

Osei-Duro’s clothing is made with care — and the people behind these garments treat each other with the same care and respect. The small business pays full-time wages for a 4-day work week and offers numerous benefits including full health insurance and maternity coverage.

Get 20% off sitewide by using the code CONSCIOUSSTYLE20.

The post Fashion’s Overlooked Sustainability Policy Opportunities with Kenya Wiley appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.

Some days I feel despondent, and other days I feel deeply, joyfully connected to the world around me. Then some days I feel sorrow, and other days I feel endlessly hopeful. 

Sometimes I feel alone in this complex mix of feelings. But what I have learned from following today’s guest, Isaias Hernandez — who is an intersectional environmental educator whose work I deeply admire — is that this range of emotions is normal. He calls them “climate emotions”. 

After learning about climate emotions, and seeing climate doomism proliferated in the media, I knew I wanted to have Isaias on the show to unpack this and understand how it’s connected to the fashion industry.

In this episode, we are grappling with the complexity of climate emotions, unpacking the harms of climate doomism narratives, and understanding why what Isaias speaks of as “evidence-based hope” is essential for reorienting action and working towards equitable solutions for the fashion industry – and how we can all cultivate this hope in our own lives.

Tune in below or find the transcript here.

Listen to This Episode: 

Tune in to this episode of the Conscious Style Podcast below, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Or get the transcript here.

Highlights From This Conversation with Isaias

How do fashion, food, and cultural heritage intersect?

“I got into fashion through food. I do a lot of foraging. And one of my favorite foods I grew up eating is cactus. Cactus is so abundant in Mexico. Every meal my mom cooked had cactus with it. Cactus has a lot of water, so it’s a good hydration if people don’t have access to water in a nearby area. It also just tastes delicious. Seeing how food can be used as both medicine, and clothing, and for food and nourishment showed me that we need to consider all of these different intersections. Food, culture, and fashion are the same thing. You can’t separate them.” — Isaias (00:06:20)

Acknowledging that there are valid climate emotions beyond climate anxiety

“I struggled to identify with the word ‘eco-anxiety’ because I didn’t have fear of the future of the planet anymore. I was angry. I was grieving. I felt sorrow. I felt a different complex of emotions. I started to wonder: how did I relate to the environment when I was a kid? Why is it that we laugh at adults for talking to trees or the land in our urban society? Kids are always touching dirt, sometimes they’re eating it, sometimes they’re making weird stories about it, about fairies and goblins or whatever they want. What happened to those emotions?” — Isaias (00:14:36)

The danger of climate doomism as a dominant narrative

“The reason why it’s very dangerous to get on this narrative and this rhetoric of human supremacy are that, yes, I agree that if you look at emissions as colonization was happening, emissions started to rise there. Right? But what I’m trying to get at is that it’s white supremacist corporatized systems that allowed us to get to the point of exploitation because indigenous communities have always existed and still exist today. Indigenous communities aren’t creating these types of emissions and they’re the ones who protect the largest percentage of biodiversity in the world.” — Isaias (00:22:09)

Why fashion’s climate marketing narratives need to shift into justice-led climate action

“A large part of the fashion industry relies on immigrants. So what are fashion industries doing as a climate crisis is making things worse? Factories are flooding. Factories are on fire. People are getting exploited at such a massive rate. These industries have so much wealth accumulated within their CEOs and C Suite boards. and they’re not redistributing those funds.

So with the narratives around certain fashion brands trying to create messaging for the planet, I think it needs to go beyond the messaging of just having climate activists on their fashion campaigns. It needs to be about having real conversations that bring in those who make our clothes giving accreditation acknowledgment to them.

I think if the fashion industry worked more locally with the communities where they’re based, they’d become agents of change rather than trying to fight for their brand to be considered the most sustainable because there is no ‘most sustainable’ brand out there.” — Isaias (00:25:00)

What is evidence-based hope?

“Evidence-based hope was defined by one of my mentors, Elin Kelsey, who talks about the fact that sometimes we can’t physically see hope, but we can imagine it. Or we can understand that it exists, but we can’t see or hear it. Whereas, evidence-based hope looks at the continued progress and momentum that has been happening on the ground for local solutions. When we think about hope, we just think about praying that someone will get up and do it. Evidence-based hope is acknowledging that there are real solutions that our people are doing on the ground every day.” — Isaias (00:32:55)

Links From This Episode

• Website: Queer Brown Vegan
• Instagram: Queer Brown Vegan
• Online Platform: Conscious Fashion Collective
• Online Community: Conscious Fashion Collective Membership
• Video: Is it too late to save the planet? Evidence based hope vs climate doomism with Elin Kelsey
• Podcast Episode: EP88: What Is Regenerative Fashion? With Safia Minney
• Website: Desserto
• Website: The Or Foundation
• Website: Elin Kelsey
• Article: What is the Climate Scale?
• Article: New York therapists see surge in eco-anxiety as smoke fills skies: ‘Every client addresses it’
• Article: 12 Materials Of The Future That Could Change The Face Of Fashion
• Resource: The United Nations’ Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook

This Episode Was Brought To You By:

Kotn

Kotn is a slow fashion brand that’s taking transparency to a new level with their fully traceable supply chain. 

The brand sources the cotton for their collection directly from over 2,000 smallholder cotton farmers in the Nile Delta in Egypt and ensures living wages and fair working conditions along every step of the way, from seed to final stitch.

Each piece from Kotn is made ethically and transparently with natural materials — like long-staple Egyptian cotton, recycled cotton, and linen — by people earning living wages.

Get 15% off sitewide from June 20th to August 31st, 2023 by using the code CONSCIOUS15.

Osei-Duro

Osei-Duro is a slow, artisan-made sustainable fashion brand based in Ghana using handmade textile techniques to create contemporary garments that are true works of art.

Their colorful, bold-printed clothing is hand-dyed and sewn in Ghana by small-scale artisans and manufactured to support the local apparel industry. And they have extended sizes, with many styles going up to 4X.

Osei-Duro’s clothing is made with care — and the people behind these garments treat each other with the same care and respect. The small business pays full-time wages for a 4-day work week and offers numerous benefits including full health insurance and maternity coverage.

Get 20% off sitewide by using the code CONSCIOUSSTYLE20.

The post Choosing Hope Over Climate Doomism with Isaias Hernandez (@QueerBrownVegan) appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.

It’s no secret that we live in a world with far too much clothing. If we are to work towards a more sustainable fashion industry, we need to unpack the ways that fashion brands and designers can pivot away from the mainstream business model of take-make-waste and embrace alternative sustainable fashion business models that limit waste. And our mindset as consumers plays a pivotal role in this too.

In this episode, we hear from Mahdiyyah Muhammad who is a sustainable fashion designer (MAHDIYYAH / @mahdiyyahofficial), circular fashion strategist, and educator. We’re talking about the realities of designing, building a business, and engaging with fashion and style in our current fashion system where all we need is less — less resource extraction, less consumption, less clothing waste, less focus on passing trends, and less exclusivity.

But, as you will hear from Mahdiyyah, to make this happen, we need more community. Cultivating community is essential for sharing resources and ideas, and creating meaningful connections, as well as making the slow fashion movement more accessible and inclusive.

Listen to This Episode: 

Tune in to this episode of the Conscious Style Podcast below, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Or find the transcript here.

Highlights From This Conversation

Rethinking the traditional role of fashion designers

“We should approach the design process completely differently. This should also be integrated into school curriculum and learning. With the process being so focused on the need to create and satisfy the trending consumer desires, using clothing waste as a resource instead definitely helps in showing people how to design with the end in mind, instead.

We have more than enough clothing and fashion has a waste crisis. Designers have the responsibility to consider the ways we can create more intentionally with the end in mind.” – Mahdiyyah (00:02:37)

How language can make the slow fashion movement more inclusive

“What’s now called ‘sustainability’ and ‘upcycling’ are practices I learned in my household as a way of life. Making do with what we had was just something my mom did, much like many other elders historically have too. It’s nothing new.

Yet, when I teach my workshops, a lot of the elders who join don’t know the commercialized words like ‘sustainability’, ‘eco-friendly’, and ‘upcycling’. But then I start to explain to them that their original practices that were passed down for generations are what people are calling this now — then they get it.

Language has a way of uniting people, but it can also exclude and alienate whoever doesn’t know the language.” – Mahdiyyah (00:06:17)

Is it possible to scale slow fashion businesses without encouraging overconsumption?

“It’s definitely possible to run a slow fashion business, but the scaling part is where it gets tricky. This is because we don’t need more clothes or fashion brands.

To scale in the traditional sense would be harmful to the environment. As designers, I think it’s time for us to stop thinking about designing clothing as a scalable is like and instead time start to consider other ways we can be of service in this industry.” – Mahdiyyah (00:18:30)

Broadening our identities from “consumers” to “contributors”

“Moving away from being a consumer to being a contributor is about asking what: how can I be of service to something? I think that’s important. We’re socialized to take and take and take, especially from the planet. Now it is time to consider how we can be of service.

We need to challenge ourselves to reflect on how we can contribute to spaces without always having a transactional mindset, because transactional thinking is based capitalistic.” – Mahdiyyah (00:37:42)

How can we get in touch with our creativity

“I always tell people to get curious. Get curious about how things are made, and where things come from, and ask all the questions about why things are the way they are. Take classes and workshops and research those random facts that pop up in your head. I guarantee you, somewhere along that process, creativity will just hit you like a ton of bricks, because, whenever I’ve researched or learned about something, it always opens up my mind to all these other hallways and avenues on the way to the answer.” – Mahdiyyah (00:33:29)

>> Get the full transcript to this episode.

Links From This Episode

• Online Platform: Conscious Fashion Collective
• Online Community: Conscious Fashion Collective Membership
• Organization: Fashion Takes Action
• Podcast Episode: EP17: More Creativity, Less Consumption: Tips from Slow Fashion Stylist Alyssa Beltempo
• Podcast Episode: EP83: What is Circular Fashion Design? With Carmen Gama
• Podcast Episode: Black Material Geographies: Colonialism’s Afterlife & Upcycling Fashion
• Database: Upcycle Web Directory
• Website: Threads of Habit
• Article: 7 Alternative Sustainable Fashion Business Models Changing the Status Quo

This Episode Was Brought To You By:

Kotn

Kotn is a slow fashion brand that’s taking transparency to a new level with their fully traceable supply chain. 

The brand sources the cotton for their collection directly from over 2,000 smallholder cotton farmers in the Nile Delta in Egypt and ensures living wages and fair working conditions along every step of the way, from seed to final stitch.

Each piece from Kotn is made ethically and transparently with natural materials — like long-staple Egyptian cotton, recycled cotton, and linen — by people earning living wages.

Get 15% off sitewide from June 20th to August 31st, 2023 by using the code CONSCIOUS15.

Juliemay

Juliemay offers a natural alternative to the synthetic-heavy lingerie market. They use GOTS-certified organic pima cotton as their main fabric, line all of their products with Mulberry peace silk’ and do not use harsh chemicals in production.

The brand is accredited by AllergyUK to be friendly for people with allergic reactions to synthetic fibers and who have sensitive skin. This is something that I have become personally really interested in since I started to experience psoriasis after wearing synthetic undergarments myself a few years ago. 

Additionally, Juliemay has bras for a wide range of circumstances, like post-surgery bras or bras that offer back support. Juliemay also supports several environmental and social impact nonprofits.

Use the code SOCIAL15 for 15% off at Juliemay!

The post Can Slow Fashion Businesses Scale Without Encouraging Overconsumption? With Mahdiyyah Muhammad appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.

The fast fashion system thrives on building one, uniform, global fashion system that requires a lack of transparency and traceability to continue perpetuating its profit-seeking harms. On the other hand, a more equitable future of fashion will comprise multiple regional and local textile systems that are each in tune with the contexts of local communities.

But what will it take to get there, in practice?

Well, in today’s episode, Stella is chatting with Laura Sansone, who is passionate about creating regional and regenerative textile systems. Laura is an Assistant Professor of Textiles at Parsons School of Design and the creator of New York Textile Lab, a design and consulting company that supports environmentally responsible textile methods, and bioregional systems of production.

She is also the founder of the Carbon Farm Network, a purchasing cooperative that connects designers to Climate Beneficial fibers that are grown on New York State farms practicing Carbon Farming on their lands.

This conversation unpacked a lot of complex terms, such Climate Beneficial materials, purchasing cooperatives, and bioregional textile systems.

Even if you are not a designer, this conversation was great to dive deeper into the stories behind our clothing and think about where our clothing begins. It also got me curious to look into the materials and fibers that are available in my geographic context and find ways to advocate for building up localized textile systems.

Listen to This Episode: 

Tune in to this episode of the Conscious Style Podcast below, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Links From This Episode

• Instagram: New York Textile Lab
• Organization: Fibershed
• Podcast Episode: EP30: Regenerative Fashion & Building a Seed-to-Sew Supply Chain
• Brand: Wol Hide
• Brand: Vincent James Designs

This Episode Was Brought To You By:

Kotn

Kotn is a slow fashion brand that’s taking transparency to a new level with their fully traceable supply chain. 

The brand sources the cotton for their collection directly from over 2,000 smallholder cotton farmers in the Nile Delta in Egypt and ensures living wages and fair working conditions along every step of the way, from seed to final stitch.

Each piece from Kotn is made ethically and transparently with natural materials — like long-staple Egyptian cotton, recycled cotton, and linen — by people earning living wages.

Get 15% off sitewide from June 20th to August 31st, 2023 by using the code CONSCIOUS15.

Juliemay

Juliemay offers a natural alternative to the synthetic-heavy lingerie market. They use GOTS-certified organic pima cotton as their main fabric, line all of their products with Mulberry peace silk’ and do not use harsh chemicals in production.

The brand is accredited by AllergyUK to be friendly for people with allergic reactions to synthetic fibers and who have sensitive skin. This is something that I have become personally really interested in since I started to experience psoriasis after wearing synthetic undergarments myself a few years ago. 

Additionally, Juliemay has bras for a wide range of circumstances, like post-surgery bras or bras that offer back support. Juliemay also supports several environmental and social impact nonprofits.

Use the code SOCIAL15 for 15% off at Juliemay!

The post From Extractive to Regenerative Fashion: Slow Growth, Climate Beneficial Fibers, and Cooperative Models with Laura Sansone of New York Textile Lab appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.

That’s what we’re getting a glimpse into in this episode with Dani Des Roches, designer and founder of the upcycled brand Picnicwear (@picnicwear), recognizable by its groovy 60s/70s aesthetic, bold and playful use of color, and most notably its use of vintage towels as its primary material. 

Before that, Dani attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and was behind the scenes as a sweater designer for household names like Urban Outfitters and Express.

Feeling dissatisfied with the industry, Dani started her own B2B design studio, Kismet Concept Studio and of course her Direct to Consumer brand, Picnicwear, which creates high-quality pieces using 95% pre-existing materials.

In this conversation, Dani is giving us a look under the hood of the operations at big fashion brands and sharing what she thinks we should all know about how these brands operate.

She’s also getting transparent about her own journey building a small slow fashion business.

If you want to learn more from Dani, Dani is leading a Circular Fashion Design Workshop that we’re hosting over at Conscious Fashion Collective.

It will be an educational and interactive event for designers, industry professionals, sewists, and sustainable fashion advocates wanting to learn more about sustainability in fashion.

You’ll learn how brands and designers can use circularity as a foundation for design, what a holistic approach to circular apparel design looks like, and tangible strategies to integrate circularity into apparel production and post-consumer reverse supply chain.

>> Get tickets for the circular design workshop led by Dani here!

Or join the Conscious Fashion Collective Membership to attend for free.

Listen to This Episode: 

Tune in to this episode of the Conscious Style Podcast below, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Links From This Episode

• Picnicwear
• Event: Finding Creativity In Circularity — Circular Apparel Design Workshop

The post Behind The Scenes: Fast Fashion Designer to Slow Fashion Founder with Dani Des Roches appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.

In this episode, Stella interviews the founder of slow fashion brand Lilabare (@lilabare) Ria Ana Sejpal, about building a Kenyan fashion brand, rethinking traditional supply chains, and the value of building long-term relationships with the people involved in them.

Plus they cover how Ria measures the impacts of the garments LilaBare creates and how size-adjustable gender fluid clothing can make sustainable fashion more inclusive. 

Listen to This Episode with Ria Ana Sejpal: 

Tune in to this episode of the Conscious Style Podcast below, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Links From This Episode:

• Podcast: EP88″What Is Regenerative Fashion? with Safia Minney
• Podcast: EP31: The Reality of the Secondhand Clothing Trade with Nikissi Serumaga
• Podcast: EP61: Behind Fashion’s Waste Crisis in the Atacama Desert
• Podcast: EP29: Compostable Clothing, Natural Dyes, and Localizing Fashion Systems with Lydia Wendt

This Episode Was Brought To You By:

Kotn

Kotn is a slow fashion brand that’s taking transparency to a new level with their fully traceable supply chain. 

The brand sources the cotton for their collection directly from over 2,000 smallholder cotton farmers in the Nile Delta in Egypt and ensures living wages and fair working conditions along every step of the way, from seed to final stitch.

Each piece from Kotn is made ethically and transparently with natural materials — like long-staple Egyptian cotton, recycled cotton, and linen — by people earning living wages.

Get 15% off sitewide from June 20th to August 31st, 2023 by using the code CONSCIOUS15.

Juliemay

Juliemay offers a natural alternative to the synthetic-heavy lingerie market. They use GOTS-certified organic pima cotton as their main fabric, line all of their products with Mulberry peace silk’ and do not use harsh chemicals in production.

The brand is accredited by AllergyUK to be friendly for people with allergic reactions to synthetic fibers and who have sensitive skin. This is something that I have become personally really interested in since I started to experience psoriasis after wearing synthetic undergarments myself a few years ago. 

Additionally, Juliemay has bras for a wide range of circumstances, like post-surgery bras or bras that offer back support. Juliemay also supports several environmental and social impact nonprofits.

Use the code SOCIAL15 for 15% off at Juliemay!

The post Rethinking Traditional Supply Chains with Ria Ana Sejpal of Lilabare appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.

Recently I read the book Regenerative Fashion: A Nature Based Approach to Fibres, Livelihoods, and Leadership*, by Safia Minney. And this book could not have come at a better time for me. I was feeling discouraged and overwhelmed by the weight of it all and the stories and changemakers highlighted throughout this book was the inspiration that I needed. 

So I am super grateful that I was able to have the author, Safia Minney — who has been a disruptor in the fashion space for decades — onto the show. You may know Safia Minney as the founder of fair fashion brand People Tree, or you may know her as an activist, consultant, thought-leader, or author of books like Slave to Fashion and Slow Fashion.  

In this episode, Safia Minney discusses the themes of her latest book on regenerative fashion. And what I loved about this book was that it wasn’t just about regeneratively grown fibers and decarbonization — though of course that was covered and that’s super important.

But Safia also discussed regenerative leadership and regenerative relationships, the importance of revitalizing artisan crafts and textile traditions, why living wages and a just transition are central to regenerative fashion, and how our current economic systems are completely at odds with a livable future.

So let’s dive in and explore both the challenges and solutions facing the fashion industry from one of its foremost sustainability advocates.

*Bookshop.org affiliate link

>> Enter the Podcast Book Giveaway!

Giveaway closes on July 6th @ 4pm CDT. Winner will be announced in July 8th’s newsletter.

Listen to This Episode: 

Tune in to this episode of the Conscious Style Podcast below, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Links From This Episode

• Organization: Fashion Declares!
• Book: Regenerative Fashion: A Nature Based Approach to Fibres, Livelihoods, and Leadership*
• Safia’s Fair Fashion Brand: People Tree*

*affiliate link

About Safia

Safia is an award-winning social entrepreneur & sustainability champion. Internationally recognised for the company she founded, People Tree, the pioneer of sustainable fashion & food. She led the business as Global CEO for 20+ years, leaving her operational role in 2015. She founded Fashion Declares, REAL Sustainability and is a Speaker, Author, Advisor and Executive Coach. Safia is a Trustee with The Countryside Charity (CPRE) and advisor with Business Declares.

Safia launched Fashion Declares in 2022, with leaders from FARFETCH, Reformation, Continental Clothing and other campaigning organisations to build a bottom-up, industry-wide movement bringing together people at all levels within the fashion industry to tackle the current climate, ecological and social emergency.

Safia is recognised by the World Economic Forum as an Outstanding Social Entrepreneur and is a leading influencer in Sustainability, Anti-Modern Slavery and ethical business.

‘The True Cost’ movie featured Safia’s work and she has made many documentaries and short films. Author of 7 books, including, Slave to Fashion campaigning to eradicate modern day slavery. By Hand, Naked Fashion – The Sustainable Revolution, and Slow Fashion – Aesthetics meets Ethics. Saf’s new book Regenerative Fashion was published 2022 in English, Spanish and Japanese.

This Episode Was Brought To You By:

Kotn

Kotn is a slow fashion brand that’s taking transparency to a new level with their fully traceable supply chain. 

The brand sources the cotton for their collection directly from over 2,000 smallholder cotton farmers in the Nile Delta in Egypt and ensures living wages and fair working conditions along every step of the way, from seed to final stitch.

Each piece from Kotn is made ethically and transparently with natural materials — like long-staple Egyptian cotton, recycled cotton, and linen — by people earning living wages.

Get 15% off sitewide from June 20th to August 31st, 2023 by using the code CONSCIOUS15.

Brook There

Brook There creates organic cotton bralettes, underwear, and slip dresses ethically cut and sewn by their team in Massachusetts. Their GOTS-certified organic cotton is even milled and dyed domestically in the US too.

Brook There has a beautiful range of colorways — from ballet pink to bright orange to versatile neutrals, which are all colored using low-impact fiber reactive dyes.

The post What Is Regenerative Fashion? with Safia Minney appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.

The level of awareness we are reaching for sustainable fashion is “a beautiful moment, but it is also very dangerous” as sustainable fashion advocate Livia Firth put it. “There is greenwashing at a level there has never been before”.

Prefer to listen? Check out the podcast version!

You can also tune in via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever else you listen to podcasts.

What is Greenwashing in Fashion?

The term greenwashing was coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986 when he saw a hotel asking guests to reuse towels in order to “help the environment”, when in reality the hotel didn’t want to wash guests’ towels to save money and their own bottom line. The term was then used to describe “outrageous corporate environmental claims“, like the advertisements oil company Chevron took out to brag about its “environmental programs”.

The term holds a similar meaning today though it has taken on broader applications.

Greenwashing refers to practices undertaken by companies, organizations, and even politicians to overstate or mislead people on their ecological or social responsibility.

In fashion, greenwashing is often employed by Big Fashion brands — like fast fashion labels — that want to capture a growing market of climate-conscious consumers.

We’ll get into the specifics below, but greenwashing in fashion often looks like small “eco” collections (while the rest of a brand’s range is wholly unsustainable) or a fashion brand just advertising one eco element of their production (like recycled packaging or dyes that use slightly less water), asserting that it makes their entire product sustainable.

I’d also argue that all fast fashion brand’s sustainability claims are greenwashing unless they address the biggest sustainability issue of them all: overproduction. When you see the ecological crisis caused by mountains of clothing waste in places like Atacama Desert in Chile, it’s (visibly) clear that brands are producing far far too much clothing.

How Can You Spot Greenwashing in Fashion?

The “7 Sins of Greenwashing” sum up the main ways that companies overstate or mislead people with green marketing. Below I will break down what each greenwashing sin is, how it is present in the fashion industry today, and how you can spot it!

1. Hidden Trade-Off

What it is: The sin of hidden trade-offs is where a brand claims a product, collection, etc. is eco-friendly based on a small set of attributes without taking the full impacts of production into consideration.

Fashion Greenwashing Example: If a large fashion brand uses partially recycled fabrics for their collections and calls them “eco-friendly” although those garments were produced in excessive quantities in fossil-fuel-powered factories and are designed to go out of season in just a few months.

Some fast-fashion retailers have even been investigated or warned by authorities and watchdogs for exaggerating their sustainability claims. H&M was criticized by the Norweigian Customer Authority for “misleading” marketing of their Conscious Collection because “the information given regarding sustainability was not sufficient, especially given that the Conscious Collection is advertised as a collection with environmental benefits.”

How to Spot it: Look at a brand’s about or sustainability pages to get a more holistic view of that brand’s overall environmental and social responsibility practices.

Do they use renewable energy to power their workshops or factories? What efforts are they taking to reduce (or even eliminate) excess water use, waste, or carbon emissions during production? Does the brand use recycled or compostable shipping materials? Do they source a majority of eco-friendly fabrics and dyes or does just a small percentage of their collection uses these types of materials?

2. No Proof

What it is: When a brand makes some environmental-related claim without actually providing evidence.

Fashion Greenwashing Example: An example of this in the fashion industry is when brands say their clothing is made from recycled fabrics, but they can’t actually verify or prove that those fabrics were recycled. Another example would be if a brand says that they pay fair wages but they actually don’t ensure that all of their suppliers are paying a living wage.

How to Spot it: Always look for details! Does the brand say A) “we produce ethically” or do they say B) “we pay above Fair Trade wages/3x the minimum wage, provide healthcare benefits for workers, invest in educational initiatives, and ensure all garment workers never work more than X hours per week.” Something like B is far more preferable.

In addition to details, look for evidence that the brand has to back up those claims. Does the brand have a traceable supply chain so that they can actually verify what they say in their marketing about sustainable or ethical production? Do brand representatives visit the factories they source from or does the brand have a vertically integrated supply chain where they own the factories where their products are made? Does the brand use independent audits or do the supplier factories hold certifications like Fair Trade or Global Organic Textile Standard?

The types of evidence used will look very different depending on the size of the brand. Larger brands are more likely to have proof in the form of certifications or audits and smaller brands are more likely to have proof in the form of photos, videos, and personal accounts of the workshops they work with or own. Certifications can be quite expensive to get, so smaller brands are not always able to get those, even if their practices meet or exceed the requirements of the certification.

If it’s a larger brand, look for a Sustainability Report or Impact Report that details their social and environmental impact as well as the progress they are making. See what independent data the brand provides to back up its green marketing claims.

I know this is all quite overwhelming and can be time-consuming, so you can also look at third-party ratings such as the Good on You app if you want to be able to make a quick assessment of a brand’s sustainability. No rating is perfect, but it can give you a good start.

3. Vagueness

What it is: The sin of vagueness refers to the practice of using terms that are broad and cannot be really defined or understood.

Fashion Greenwashing Example: This one is rampant in the fashion industry! Many brands will use words like “conscious”, “eco-friendly”, or “ethical” and provide zero details about how they are any of these things.

How to Spot it: Look for as many details as possible when brands make statements about their eco-friendliness. It’s not enough for a brand to say made from “sustainable fabric”. Look at what fabric it is. For instance, some brands with say eco vegan leather, when actually they’re using toxic PVC made from petroleum. Yes, it’s vegan — but it’s certainly not sustainable.

Or when a brand says natural fibers, be sure to check which fibers are being used and what percentage of the piece is made from those natural fibers.

Also, natural isn’t always eco-friendly. For example, most cotton is grown with industrial chemical-intensive agricultural practices.

Some earth-minded natural fibers are organic cotton, hemp, and linen. It’s still important to consider how those fibers were processed, but just looking at the fabric content on a product description page or garment tag is a good place to start.

4. Irrelevance

What it is: This is when a brand states something on their marketing that is true but is not actually relevant to advertise.

Fashion Greenwashing Example: When a fashion brand says their production is ethical because they pay minimum wages or don’t use child labor. Those things are already required by law in most parts of the world so that doesn’t make a brand “ethical” — it just means they’re following the bare minimum legal requirements.

How to Spot it: When a brand is advertising some sort of benefit and your first instinct is “shouldn’t all brands already be doing that?” then you may want to investigate the claim a bit further.

While it’s true that not all fashion brands actually follow all environmental and labor laws (mostly by using subcontractors to avoid accountability for any violations), a brand should not advertise that it is sustainable or ethical just because it follows basic standards already required by law.

5. Lesser of Two Evils

What it is: The Lesser of Two Evils is the “sin” where brands claim that their products are more eco-friendly than their competitors when the whole product category is actually unsustainable.

Fashion Greenwashing Example: The best example of this is fast fashion brands claiming their collections are conscious, circular, or eco-friendly. These fast-fashion companies fail to acknowledge the unsustainability of their very business model.

Yes, using more eco-friendly materials and dyes is certainly a step in the right direction. But pushing for endlessly more, cheaper, and faster production is not and never will be sustainable.

This approach requires far too many resources (even “renewable” resources can be consumed at a faster rate than they can actually renew), creates excessive waste, encourages overconsumption, and inevitably leads to labor exploitation.

Sustainable fashion MUST include discussions about less. Any brand actually committed to sustainable fashion must have a focus on higher quality, longer-lasting, fewer garments. Making garments from green fabrics doesn’t help much if those garments fall apart after two wears or go out of style after one season.

And no matter how ecologically responsible their garments may be, a brand cannot be sustainable if they do not ensure safe conditions for workers and a fair, living wage.

A brand simply cannot claim to be sustainable if they are exploiting labor. What kind of world would we be “sustaining”?

How to Spot it: Avoid fast fashion brands and be suspicious of any claims from large brands that operate with a model of endless growth.

Hint: any brand publically traded company is likely receiving pressure from stockholders to pursue continual growth quarter after quarter.

One step US comapnies can take is to become a Public Benefit Corporation, which is is a for-profit company that’s “required to consider the impact of their decisions not only on shareholders but also on employees, customers, the community, and local and global environment.” However, the requirements vary state by state and some states let a company measure its own performance (i.e. they don’t require any third-party verficications to make sure a company is actually doing what they say they are).

6. Fibbing

What it is: Plain ol’ false advertising!

Fashion Greenwashing Example: When a fashion brand says they use 100% recycled materials or non-toxic dyes but they actually don’t. This can also happen when a brand claims they hold a certification (fair trade, organic, etc.) but they actually do not.

How to Spot it: Unfortunately, this one is the hardest to spot! But if you are unsure about a brand’s claims, email them asking for their specific certification number or a copy of the certificate given by an independent third-party.

7. Worshiping False Labels: 

What it is: When a brand implies that they hold a third-party verification or certification though they actually do not.

Fashion Greenwashing Example: If a brand puts on a fake certification label saying something like “Green Product” or “Guaranteed Ethical” that they designed themselves.

How to Spot it: This is a great go-to resource breaking down the various sustainability and ethical certifications you may see on product tags or fashion brand websites. Some common trusted certifications are Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), B-Corp, and Fair Trade Certified.

For a more holistic look of brands, check out Remake’s Directory or the Good On You directory. Remake’s rankings are far more in-depth, though it’s newer so they haven’t reviewed as many brands as Good On You has yet.

What if I Fall for Greenwashing in Fashion?

We can all be fooled by overstated or false claims of sustainability from brands. I’ve been there and while I make efforts to thoroughly research brands, I cannot necessarily avoid 100% of greenwashing myself either.

While there is a growing amount of research available to us from third-parties, research groups, as well as bloggers and publications, there is still confusion, conflicting advice, and potentially influence from industry interests at play. Identifying greenwashing is therefore an imperfect process.

There is also little to no regulatory oversight of the fashion industry, making it very easy for brands to exaggerate or flat-out lie about their sustainability claims.

This is why we should be pushing our governments to make stricter laws against greenwashing — and actually work to develop agreed-upon standards for sustainability in the first place!

Currently, it is up to an individual’s own due diligence to make sure a brand is actually as eco-friendly as they claim. And that is a big task.

So, don’t be hard on yourself if you have bought from a brand that wasn’t as earth-friendly or people-friendly as you originally thought they were. Use it as a learning opportunity for the future. And, if you were disappointed by a brand, don’t be afraid to speak up and let them know on social media or through email. Many of these huge brands will try to get away with greenwashing for as long as they can get away with it (and profit off of it) so it’s important for us to continue putting pressure on these corporations!

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The post How to Tell if a Fashion Brand is Green — or Just Greenwashing appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.

Independent journalists can play a crucial role in this accountability, since they can provide a critical outsider’s look on what’s happening in the industry, such as ascertaining if a fashion brand’s sustainability claims are legitimate or not. And it’s also a role that comes with a lot of responsibility.

One of the sustainable fashion journalists that both Stella and I have immense respect for is Sophie Benson. If you’re subscribed to our weekly newsletter, The Conscious Edit, you know that I often share articles written by Sophie in those Saturday emails. So it’s exciting to have her on the show this week.

In this episode, Stella is interviewing Sophie to discuss her journey and her insights as a journalist in the sustainable fashion space. For more on sustainable fashion journalism as a career path, check out Sophie’s Conscious Career Chat on Conscious Fashion Collective. 

Listen to This Episode: 

Tune in to this episode of the Conscious Style Podcast below, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Links From This Episode

Interview: Sustainable Fashion Journalism Career Chat

Jobs: Conscious Fashion Collective Job Board

Article: Was 2022 The Most Important Year for Sustainable Fashion?

Article: Fashion Is In Its Copy And Paste Era

Podcast Episode: Sustainable Fashion Legislation with Elizabeth Cline

This Episode Was Brought To You By:

Brook There

Brook There creates organic cotton bralettes, underwear, and slip dresses ethically cut and sewn by their team in Massachusetts. Their GOTS-certified organic cotton is even milled and dyed domestically in the US too.

Brook There has a beautiful range of colorways — from ballet pink to bright orange to versatile neutrals, which are all colored using low-impact fiber reactive dyes.

The Rounds

Looking for the convenience of grocery and product delivery to your doorstep, but not a fan of the wasteful packaging? Enter in: The Rounds. 

This closed loop, two-way logistics network offers a zero waste delivery process by delivering your essentials with refillable containers in a reusable tote bag and picking up the empties for you — mostly by e-bike — to clean and reuse them. 

See if The Rounds is offering services near you or get on their waitlist.

Use the code CONSCIOUSLIFE to get 1 month free and $10 off your first order!

The post Holding The Fashion Industry Accountable with Journalist Sophie Benson appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.

But I also see immense value in looking to the past. To see where we came from so we understand how we got here and what solutions could actually be effective in bringing about change.

So I was intrigued to read the book Worn, a People’s History of Clothing. (Bookshop affiliate link) to understand this history more deeply — and it did not disappoint. I learned so much from this book and I knew I had to get the author, Sofi Thanhauser (@Yesfutureyes) onto the podcast. 

And here we are today, Sofi is joining me to talk about some of the key themes covered in the book: like how the industrial revolution spurred mass-production in fashion — and not just from the standpoint of technology — how the rise of advertising helped enable the rise of fast fashion, the toxic shocking history of rayon, the factors that enabled synthetics to dominate garment production, and what we can learn from successful labor movements as we advocate for change in the fashion industry.

This season of the podcast is focused on fashion’s role in our climate crisis, but we don’t take a super narrow view of that theme and I think this episode shows a lot of the overlaps between workers in fashion and the industry’s environmental impacts. We see how lack of worker rights and low wages connects to overproduction, how lack of worker safety is connected to the continued production of toxic synthetic materials, how advertising covers up the realities of how our clothes are made and enables fast fashion to continue to thrive.

We also will be continuing our Green or Greenwashing ending segment in this episode. This week Stella and I will discuss our thoughts on the trend of climate-change ready clothing — do we really need clothes that are, quote: designed for the apocalypse? Are they filling a need or just getting us to buy more stuff. Stay tuned until the end to hear our thoughts on that. 

Listen to This Episode: 

Tune in to this episode of the Conscious Style Podcast below, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Links From This Episode

Book: Worn: A People’s History of Clothing*

Podcast: Learn more about the International Accord

Petition: Tell brands to sign the Accord

Article: Clothes for the “apocalypse”: How to design for a climate crisis

*Bookshop affiliate link

This Episode Was Brought To You By:

Brook There

Brook There creates organic cotton bralettes, underwear, and slip dresses ethically cut and sewn by their team in Massachusetts. Their GOTS-certified organic cotton is even milled and dyed domestically in the US too.

Brook There has a beautiful range of colorways — from ballet pink to bright orange to versatile neutrals, which are all colored using low-impact fiber reactive dyes.

The Rounds

Looking for the convenience of grocery and product delivery to your doorstep, but not a fan of the wasteful packaging? Enter in: The Rounds. 

This closed loop, two-way logistics network offers a zero waste delivery process by delivering your essentials with refillable containers in a reusable tote bag and picking up the empties for you — mostly by e-bike — to clean and reuse them. 

See if The Rounds is offering services near you or get on their waitlist.

Use the code CONSCIOUSLIFE to get 1 month free and $10 off your first order!

The post A People’s History of Clothing with Sofi Thanhauser appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.