making the fashion revolution irresistible
In a recent Instagram post, beloved sustainable fashion line Mara Hoffman announced that they were closing up shop after 24 years. In March, Latina-owned brands Selva Negra and Sotela shared that they were shutting their doors. And last September everyone’s favorite sustainable underwear brand ARQ announced they’d be taking a(n undefined) pause.
“We have been fighting for what feels like a long time to make this vision and model work in an industry that I believe deep down in its heart wants to heal and become better. But at the end of the day, its structure is archaic and was never built to prioritize Earth and its inhabitants.” - Mara Hoffman
With the climate crisis looming, one would think that more folks would be opting for mindfully-produced clothing. Sustainable fashion brands are facing challenges of their own: with small profit margins, the current state of the economy, and increased cost of living… paying more for clothing can be a hard sell for folks who aren’t intimately aware of and connected to the issues of the fashion world. And if we are meant to live in alignment with the Hot or Cool Institute Report’s recommendation of 5 new clothing items per year, how is sustainable fashion expected to keep up with fast fashion marketing, pricing, and trends?
When it comes to building a just climate future, we can’t focus solely on swapping out ‘unsustainable’ items with their eco-friendly counterparts. The most important thing we need to shift is consumer habits and mindsets. With platforms like Instagram and TikTok glamorizing overconsumption, clothing being available to us at the click of a button, and fashion platforms promoting endless trend cycles that become shorter and shorter, the fashion industry clearly has little interest in the climate so long as it isn’t trendy.
Shifting hearts and minds is going to take a lot of input from stakeholders across the board. But one promising shift we’re starting to see in consumer behavior is in the secondhand market.
“According to GlobalData, the U.S. secondhand apparel market grew 11%, or seven times faster than the broader retail apparel market, to $43 billion last year. The report estimates that resale sales online and at traditional thrift stores could reach $73 billion by 2028.” Source
Now that today’s fast fashion pieces are low quality and hyper accessible, vintage garments have become increasingly popular due to their exclusivity. And fortunately, this shift in mindset has happened within my lifetime alone: proof that we can change consumer behaviors for the better.
It’s up to us to find more ways to make the fashion revolution irresistible: whether that’s promoting degrowth as an economic concept, holding popular influencers accountable for promoting unethical brands, learning how to sew and upcycle your own clothing, participating in clothing swaps, and so much more, we need to go beyond the traditional ideas of ‘sustainability’, and instead use our creativity to build that just climate future.
