S I M P L I C I T Y

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

--Alice Walker

Our world is quickly reaching its boiling point. We have become a consumerist society, obsessed with sporting the newest trends and styles. Anything we want is just a smartphone click away. But at what cost is this instant gratification coming? Who are we harming by wearing the latest trend for a week then discarding it like last night’s old food? Well, for starters, we are hurting our Earth. This planet we call home is the only one we’ve got. We are quickly depleting it of its natural recourses and poisoning the ones we do have left.

I have worked in the fashion industry for eight years now, and seen first hand the amount of waste the industry produces. I have worked for companies had entire warehouses full of old stock just collecting dust. I have worked for “sustainable” brands that don’t even have recycling bins in their warehouse. That is where I truly understood that it is about way more than simply pasting a “sustainable” sticker on the label. I started with the intention of becoming a fashion designer, but realized a shift needs to be made in garment manufacturing and the planet needs to rethink how we view consumerism as a whole.

Many of you probably have thought about these facts from time to time but feel somewhat helpless; I know I used to. As Alice Walker put it so well, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

It is up to us, the consumers, to make conscious decisions about what we spend our money on. It is up to us to hold companies accountable for providing goods that use sustainable materials, are ethically sourced and produced, and take care of their workers and communities. It is also up to us to make the least environmental impact as possible in our day-to-day lives. No one is perfect, but if we each do our part and try a little harder, the world will begin to change.