5 Ways To Start Practicing Sustainable Fashion
Sustainable fashion is not only a trend nowadays, but a necessary. What is sustainable fashion? It’s the method of keeping our clothes ethical and environmentally friendly while also refraining from being too wasteful. You can easily start practicing sustainable fashion methods in these 5 simple ways!
1. Be knowledgable and aware of ‘fast fashion’ brands
This is the best place to start if you want to get into sustainable fashion. ‘Fast fashion’ is the term used to describe mass-market retailers that participate in the wasteful treatment of clothes in order to keep up with the latest trends and remain at a low price. While it is budget-friendly, fast fashion isn’t so friendly towards our planet in the long term. Retail brands we have known to love such as Forever 21, H&M, and Zara participate in fast fashion. While the upfront cost of each product they sell is cheap, its long-term cost runs deeper.
2. Build your own personal style
This can be a little difficult, but with trial and error, sticking with your own personal style despite releases of new seasons’ trends can help you get started and maintain the practice of sustainable fashion. You can check your current closet right now and determine which pieces you love and can easily say you would wear forever in order to figure out what you like on your unique body and personal tastes. Fashion is all about keeping yourself confident in whatever you feel good in! Who knows, maybe you can be a trendsetter too!
3. Thrift and give back
This is probably the easiest and cheapest way you can start to practice sustainable fashion methods. By donating your used clothes, even if they were purchased from fast fashion brands, you’re already participating in sustainable fashion because those clothes would be purchased reused by others instead of being burned or thrown in a landfill. By purchasing second-hand clothes at your local Goodwill, or other thrift or consignment shop, you’re also participating in sustainable fashion since you’re not shopping at mass-market retailers. It also keeps the cycle going, which is important for sustainable fashion!
4. Shop at small/local businesses
By avoiding those mass-market retailers found at every single mall, you’re already doing your part in participating in sustainable fashion. You can also be assured to find unique pieces that no one else has, which is a similar experience you can have when thrifting too. It’s always annoying to show up at the same event wearing the same thing as someone else! Small and local businesses can be found by researching your hometown, or even doing some deep research online if you like to online shop for your clothes too! Shopping at small or local businesses in general is a great way to support your community.
5. Shop at ethical brands
While this tip is what we all wish to achieve, it can be initially difficult to purchase ethically-made clothing due to its high prices which is because it’s ethically-made. If you slowly build up your closet of ethically-made clothing by starting with basics that you’ll wear every single day, you’ll soon find that those pieces actually last longer and are way worth the investment. You definitely don’t have to go out and purchase a whole new wardrobe in order to start practicing sustainable fashion! You can easily start small by saving up for one piece, and soon your closet will be full of ethically-made clothing before you’ll even notice. Brands like Reformation, thredUP, and Outdoor Voices are fairly affordable and stylish. You can check out more affordable brands at this article from The Good Trade to help you get started on your sustainable fashion journey!
