Dressing MORE Sustainably and Ethically

Photos by @annabrzozowskaphoto

Something that I seem to be asking myself a lot is… Is what I’m doing good ethically and is it damaging the environment? I thin kin general, bloggers seem to have a bad name … As in, we are known to buy clothes simply for a blog shoot then return it, or just wear something once, and even buying from fast fashion stores. Yes you’re right, we do as a whole buy from fast fashion stores and some do buy and return. But if you think about it… There is such a big pressure on bloggers to constantly come up with new looks that people do just buy a lot of new clothes. Yes, I’ll be honest, of course I buy from fast clothing stores like Topshop, H&M, Zara etc… I love their clothes and their sizes suit me… But sometimes you just realise that you gotta help the planet out just a little bit. We as humans aren’t the best when it comes to looking after our little world. I think it’s so important to remember that we need to look after the world we live in and it all starts a the small things. In this cheeky little post, I want to explore the ways that I’m utilise to help the environment out ! Just remember that Tesco’s motto of ‘Every Little Helps’ is definitely true for this kind of thing ! So even doing the small things helps. Imagine a million of us doing small things when it comes to our fashion choices … How much could we change things?!

What’s the problem!?
Fashion is DESTROYING our planet… in short… We are using more natural resources, water, energy, oil etc than our planet can re-produce. Fun fact: Everything has plastic in it, and plastic comes from crude oil which is what we use in our cars, to produce electricity and those things are damaging enough. Not only that, fast fashion promotes the use of sweat shops, unethical practises in production… Do we as a society want to be fuelling unethical practise??

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(Whole outfit is vintage ! Wearing Levi 501’s re-vamp by myself, vintage pink Chinese style blouse from a kilo sale, a lime green leather blazer from Depop, a vintage Gucci bag from Vestiare Collective and finally rainbow heels also from Depop 🙂 .

Step 1) BUY SECOND HAND … I know you’re probably thinking… How do you do that when and even find fashionable clothes?! Put it this way, the outfit I’m wearing in this blog post is ALL second hand! Not one thing was bought brand new… It’s simple, all you need to remember is that you can find so many gems when clothes are second hand/ vintage! If you’re like me, or someone who wants a capsule wardrobe with a few standout pieces then this is the way to go! I think there is a lot of ear in going to a charity shops and just with second hand clothes in general. ” Ewww, someone wore it before me, it smells bad… what if I can’t return it?!” So many questions one can ask! The trick is, If you wore something for a long time and it started to smell bad, you would just wash it and not think twice?! What’s the difference with something you buy second hand? You wash it and it’s yours! In a way, surely second-hand clothes even have a little history, whatever you bought could’ve been someone’s favourite jumper and now it’s yours to love and cherish. There’s something comforting about wearing something that someone loved before you in that sense.

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There are so many places to buy second hand clothes and bags etc, so here they go 😉 . Vintage stores (the expensive option), Depop (another expensive option), eBay (the best and IT’S CHEAP!) Finally, charity shops, they’re both ethical and helping good causes all at the same time. A different win win. If you’re not a fan of second hand then INVEST in brands which promote Slow fashion!

Step 2) Slow fashion means produces things more sustainably, greener, producing things in the UK rather than abroad etc. My favourite slow fashion brand of ALL time just must be Peregrine. They do the NICEST knitwear and their clothes are perfect to build that capsule wardrobe! I know you’re probably thinking, “but Izzy it’s more expensive” But isn’t it better to buy something more beautiful, special, spend a bit more on it while saving the environment? It’s very true to say that clothing produced in the slow fashion industry are often of much higher quality due to more time and effort being taken into production. They produce less clothes per minute meaning that they can spend more time on increasing the quality of clothes! If it were me, I want my clothes to last a long time so yes I would spend the money if I knew it was of better quality than something you can buy in Primark or something!

SO what would I do?? I wouldn’t expect anyone to suddenly stop shopping on the high-street! But even the smallest of things such as just being more aware of slow fashion and try to help the environment just even a little bit 😀 . Tesco is always right… “ Every little helps…”

I’ll see you in my next one ! STAY SUSTAINABLE 😉 Izzy xxx