Why I’m Finding the Fashion “Sustainability” Conversation Frustrating

The internet, Instagram mainly, has been quite an exhausting place for me recently. On one hand, I’m building connections by the boat load with the community of fellow Remake ambassadors and sustainable fashion lovers. On the other hand, I’m getting thoroughly sick of the culture of anger, short fuses, and competition I keep seeing. I’ll explain with an example I witnessed the other day. Another sustainable fashion advocate posted a picture of one of her favourite items in her wardrobe: a leather jacket. This was immediately met with an attack of frustration. “How dare she buy real leather”, they said. She responded beautifully, sharing how this genuine leather jacket from Topshop, was something she purchased over 6 years ago when she wasn’t aware of sustainability in fashion, and has remained one of her most worn pieces. She explained that it was obviously not something she would purchase today, but that shouldn’t stop her from wearing it today. After all, the most sustainable thing we can do when it comes to clothes is WEAR WHAT YOU HAVE. I found the whole ordeal very frustrating, and her response intensely relatable.

Seeing this happen more and more often has made me start to consider the elitism that is shown throughout the online sustainable fashion landscape. I feel like you know me by now. I’m a luxury fashion snob and a thrifting mad woman. I try my best to always shop second hand (check out my commitment for 2021) or otherwise support brands that are transparent and ethical in their practices. But I’m going to make this statement right here and now: I am not perfect. I am not zero waste, nor the poster child for sustainable consumption. I do my very best, and always strive to learn how to be better, and that’s all I expect from anyone else. We’re all just trying to practice what we preach and prove to ourselves and the world of Instagram that we are really passionate and committed to sustainability. What I think we need is, strangely enough, a lot like what is needed in fashion. A slower approach: really thinking before we post, respond, or start discussions, stopping to consider every angle before we call people out, and when we do, do it from an educated stance. Unfortunately I’m seeing this culture online veer towards the need to be, or at least appear, perfect in every way. It used to be in the way you looked: perfect skin and perfect hair. Now there’s a need to appear the perfect sustainable shopper. We’re in a race to save our planet, that’s a fact, but we don’t need to be in a race to become the next viral eco lifestyle influencer. Again, something I’m guilty of. This is happening while people are simultaneously putting down others who are trying their best, but maybe can’t afford all the brands or products that fall under the “socially accepted” category of sustainability, or otherwise are just in the beginning stages of learning about consumption and brand ethics. No one should be excluded from the sustainable consumption conversation. I think we need to go back to the roots of this movement for some clarity and inspiration. It’s all for the betterment of our planet, and the people and animals who inhabit it. We should be putting all our effort into learning, teaching, and spreading our passion for sustainable fashion with kindness.

Rant somewhat wrapped up, I’ll bring things back around to the photos you see before you. This outfit is sacred to me. These jeans, sagging and blood stained as they may be, are my most worn item of clothing. Ever. I’m wearing them as I write this blog post. We are in a deeply committed love affair. Same goes for the sneakers. And the top, is truly the manifestation of what braless clowns like me dream about nightly. I can remember the exact moment each of them entered my life. The top was from a girls trip to Vancouver in 2017, the sneakers from our local department store in spring 2018, and the jeans from a Belfast mall in 2019. They are the pieces I will continue to wear until they disintegrate. They all happen to be from fast fashion brands. How hypocritical of me, right? I’d like to think that’s not the case. Just like the girl with the leather jacket, I can confidently say I wouldn’t buy any of these pieces today, unless I was buying them second hand. Should that mean I can’t wear them with pride in the here and now? Absolutely not. That’s really an absurd thing to even consider. What sort of message would I be sending if I advocated for getting an entirely new wardrobe from sustainable brands and abandoning your existing clothes, no matter where they were from? I’m not telling you to go out and buy the same pieces from Topshop. I’m fairly certain they no longer sell them anyway. The purpose of sharing an outfit photo online shouldn’t always be to influence people to shop! What I hope I’m doing instead is shedding some light on how twisted this conversation has become, while strutting my stuff in some beloved pieces. If you have an item of clothing that you love, wear it. Wear it until the damn cows come all the way home.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below. I’d love to read what your take is on this topic.

Thanks for reading.

Em