Since the airing of Stacey Dooley’s BBC documentary on fast fashion and the environment a few weeks ago I’ve noticed both a rise in my readership (I’m guessing people have been searching how polluting the fashion industry is and coming across this blog post) and a rise in the amount of “mainstream” influencers talking about the downsides of the industry too.
This is definitely a good thing.
These influencers reach many more people than I do currently, and if their recommendations or broaching of topics leads people to research and learn more about the ways we’re consuming and how detrimental that is to the world around us, then that is great.
We gravely need these things to become more mainstream and permanently enter the national conversation, in fact we need them to be the norm.
But, in the wake of this increased conversation, I have noticed one trend that I believe comes from a good place but is, in fact, the complete opposite of what we need as a first response to the hyper-consumerism problems we have right now.
So please, please, stop clearing out your wardrobe because you just learned about sustainable fashion.
I understand the urge to do this, it’s the exact same trend that occurred when people started watching the minimalists documentary. You suddenly feel inspired to live with less, so you want to go on a huge binge and become the ultra minimal, zen-like creature you know has always been inside of you, just dying to get out. This totally comes from the right intentions but the thing is, it’s not actually the sustainable choice.
Here are some reasons why you should pause for a second before you actually go through with this plan of action, and some alternative options instead.
Continue reading over on Ethical Unicorn
