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Wearing clothes that make you look good can be an excellent mood and confidence booster. With all the statistics on how million tons of textile waste is produced to create clothes and many more going to landfills, it can be a little shocking how much waste management is needed for fabrics alone. Fortunately, there are ways you can contribute to reducing this and one of them is making a conscious choice in going for ethical fashion.
Ethical fashion is a term used to describe purchasing fair trade and sustainable clothing. More than that, it seeks to lessen the impact on people, animals, and plants. While most people think that ethical fashion is expensive or think about overpriced clothing, there is a way to create a wardrobe on a budget. Here are some tips to get you started:
Quality Over Quantity
In the world of “fast fashion” buying trendy stuff seems to be the norm as styles change season to season. While it’s great to have new clothes to wear all the time, it’s bad for the environment in the long run and impractical for your savings. Another downside is that these clothes are not designed for quality; meaning they have a short lifespan and will be ragged after multiple washes and wears.
Instead of going for the hottest clothing of the season, invest in timeless pieces that are of quality. They may be simple but you will definitely get more bang out of your buck as you can reuse them any time of the year. If you must go for trendy stuff, make sure that they are sturdy and you can find multiple uses for them throughout the year.
Go For Handmade
Homemade goods are often one of a kind so if you go for handmade clothing, there’s a chance you’re the only one that has it. You can even custom fit it to your size. Thanks to the power of technology, you have access to e-commerce platforms where people can buy and sell clothes online at a reasonable price. If you are fond of making handmade goods, you should check it out. You can even sell secondhand clothes and other items there as well.
Thrifting Is Low Impact
Another way to save money is by going to thrift or consignment stores. There you’ll find treasures like secondhand items in good condition. The latest trends are often a comeback of the styles of yesteryears so there’s a good chance you’ll find something according to your taste there as well. Furthermore, buying secondhand is low impact because you’re not contributing to the trend of fast fashion.
Research Ethical Brands
You really don’t have to do anything differently if you decide to go for ethical fashion. The difference is that you will be more conscious of where you put your money into. It pays to research ethical brands because you know that you’re not contributing to mass-produced items that may have been produced in low-wage sweatshops in some third-world country. Additionally, you’ll also be supporting smaller brands that get their sources from ethically-sourced materials made by local artisans.
Sign Up for Emails/Flash Sales
Quality clothes that are ethically-sourced may be a bit more expensive than the usual mass-produced ones but they are for a good cause. It is understandable that not all people can afford it on the fly. When you do your research about ethical brands, make sure to sign up for emails because there’s a good chance it comes with notifications about upcoming flash sales where items are sold at discounts. Who doesn’t love a good discount, anyway?
Choose Well & Upcycle
There’s no need to completely redo your whole wardrobe for ethical fashion because that would be counterintuitive to the cause. Instead, pledge yourself to choose better for next time. If you have good quality clothing that needs a bit of fixing, consider upcycling it if you can instead of putting it in the garbage where it could end up in a landfill. It only takes a few choices to make a difference.
How do you support the ethical fashion lifestyle? Share your thoughts below.
