It’s probably not the first time you hear the phrase ‘sustainable fashion’ but do we actually know what it means?
sus·tain·a·bil·i·tynoun
the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or leveloravoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance
Being sustainable is a love letter to Planet Earth, it’s a commitment with which you really essentially pull your own weight as an earthling. Sustainability means making mindful and thought-out choices in your everyday life of consumption. It means to produce, purchase and use any product in a way that creates minimal impact to the environment.
Being a late-eighties child I can’t tell you how sad it is to see how rapidly and in a big scale the production of fashion has changed for the worse. When I was a child and even in my early teens, there was no ”going shopping” or ”hey let’s spend the Christmas bonus”, I grew up in hand-me-downs and working the sewing machine. It wasn’t even that much about the lack of money but shopping just wasn’t a thing. There were only a couple times a year perhaps when me and mum would go and buy a few fashion items that didn’t come from the huge faux brand stock building behind the bread stand at the local market, where I beeegged mum to buy me the 2-stripe ”Adidas” jogging set and wore it proudly for 3 years afterwards. And funny thing – I was probably lots happier with those than I have ever been in my adulthood after purchasing bags of clothing.
Sadly in today’s world buying new has become mainstream, a daily activity. Browsing through a rack in a retail store or clicking through pages of product online is so easy! You do it on the weekend in a shopping centre or on your lunch break at work… Even I am guilty of the occasional ‘I have 6 white tees at home but this one is only $10′ and how many times did I wear that 7th one? Once, twice? Most probably none.
Now, to give myself some credit I never threw clothing out, I always made sure to resell or give away or donate it and I still do.
The amount of fast fashion that hung in my wardrobe slowly started to make me sick a few years ago and luckily I managed to make hundreds of dollars reselling them as I was about to move my life across the world so that was a good time to start making better choices, right? Wrong.
After a few months of being on a retail cleanse I felt I needed a few new dresses to match the new climate… Maybe some swimwear pieces for the beach… My old bags didn’t really seem like anything I wanted to carry anymore and there were all these new uncovered retail stores in Sydney!
I played this game a few times and really started to get into sustainable fashion about a year ago when I decided to read more about it, watch documentaries on the effects of fast fashion and following sustainable brands on Instagram.
Don’t get me wrong I am in no way living a wholly sustainable life but I am doing and trying my best with each purchase.
There are many people and brands who are making being sustainable so much easier – like the beautiful girls Emma and Shannon at Adeera.co who believe that sustainable fashion needs to be easily accessible while also being stylish with no compromises made;
” There are hundreds of sustainable brands, and with the fabric options these days you don’t need to compromise your style. We’re making it our mission to provide you with sustainable brands all in one spot so you don’t need to compromise your style. After all, if its just as easy to shop slow and fashionable as it is to shop fast, why wouldn’t you, right? “
Adeera is continually growing and they offer some wonderful garments from sustainable fashion brands as well as amazing vintage pieces! You can check them out on Instagram @adeera.co