My Journey as a Sustainable Fashion Activist

Photography by @vessmess_create

The first time I heard of sweatshops was in primary school. I can’t remember the details, but my class and the one next door were sitting in front of our teachers who, in the middle of reading or teaching or making announcements, had somehow gone on a tangent where they briefly talked about children in sweatshops. This was in 2010. Three years before Rana Plaza.

The first time I heard of sustainable fashion was in my first year of university. I can’t remember the details, but out of a list of six social enterprises, I chose to do an assignment on Undress Runways. I watched Edda Hamar’s Ted Talk on the harsh realities of the fast fashion industry. I watched her explain the origin of the $15 dress she wore, and I watched her take it off, undo a belt, and a bamboo dress tumbled to her ankles. On the Undress Runways website, I flicked through the brands she featured on her runway. None of them, apart from one that looked to be inactive, looked like anything I wanted to wear. They were all boring and expensive anyway, I thought. Later that day, I remember finding myself in a Kmart to search for one of my siblings. I looked at the stacks and racks of clothes, I remembered the hands that made them, and I felt guilty but resentful towards Edda. As I did my assignment on Undress Runways, I imagined attending one of the events, and Edda coming out to answer questions, and me snidely asking “But what about alternative fashion? What about me?” Deep down I wanted to change, but at the time the only resource I could find about sustainable alternative fashion listed a handful of brands inspired by goth fashion. I did not change my behaviour. I did not compromise for the people who made my clothes. I waited for the guilt to pass so I could fall back into blissful ignorance. This was in 2017. Four years after Rana Plaza.

The first time I opened my eyes, heart, and mind to sustainable fashion was a year later. I can’t remember the details, but on YouTube I fell down the rabbit hole of Pretty Pastel Please’s kawaii mega hauls, and somehow the very next hole I fell down was sustainable and ethical fashion. This was at a time when I was desperate for change. I was tired of how often I would spend hours in bed on my laptop or phone instead of doing work or chores or chasing my ambitions or whatever I wanted or needed to do. There’s a lot of this period of time that blurs together. I learned about the sustainable fashion movement, I learned about minimalism, and I learned about productivity and self-improvement. I listened to some important audiobooks like ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up’ by Marie Kondo and ‘The Year of Less’ by Cait Flanders. They inspired me to do the “soft declutter” I described in an earlier blogpost, as well as reduce my spending (on clothes, at least) for about three months. The sustainable fashion media I consumed inspired me to only buy secondhand fashion whenever possible in future, because at the time I didn’t know of any sustainable  brands that I would want to wear.

Around that time, I met Edda Hamar at a social enterprise pitching event my youngest sibling was competing in. Edda was one of the judges. Before the pitches started, I didn’t recognise her as she strolled around, looking at the projects of pairs who didn’t get to pitch on stage. I only saw a woman with a blonde bob, glasses, and purple blazer that I quite liked. I wanted to say hi but I sat in the corner with my then boyfriend who was on crutches for the weekend. My family, my boyfriend, and I sat in the front row, just behind the judges table. When I read the flyer that was on my seat, I realised that Edda Hamar was sitting right in front of me. The host introduced her, and my mum whispered to be that I should talk to her. I whispered back, “I know. I did an assignment on her. I’m a fan of her work!” When the pitches ended and the winner was announced (little sis should’ve won) I seized the opportunity to talk to Edda.

“Hi,” I said. “I really admire you and the work you do. I’m new to sustainable fashion, and as you can tell I have a fairly unusual style.” I was wearing pastel rainbow light up sneakers from YRU, a pink dress covered in cupcakes, and the Lost in a World cardigan from Lazy Oaf. "I struggle to find sustainable brands that fit my style. Do you have any tips?”

Edda loved the coord and she said, “Have you heard of the app Good On You?”

“No,” I said, pulling out my phone to look it up.

“It’s a great resource for checking how sustainable brands are.”

I found the app and downloaded it immediately. I couldn’t stick around though because everyone was leaving and I had a long distance boyfriend with a twisted ankle to break up with- I mean take care of.

Around this time I also started studying sustainable fashion at university. Since I happened to educate myself about two weeks prior to the semester, a lot of what I learned about the fast fashion industry wasn’t as confronting to me as it was to other people. There was one person in my tutorial who said she used to shop fast fashion every weekend, but after the lecture on labour conditions she didn’t shop for the rest of the semester. I still learned a lot about sustainable fabrics, design techniques, and initiatives, like the holistic approach Outland Denim takes to employment in Cambodia. It was useful, even if it came a bit late for it to be life-changing.

During the semester, I discovered my first ever kawaii sustainable fashion brand. I searched up “rainbow shirt” on Depop and as I scrolled I came across a collection of collared shirts made from fabric scraps. The aesthetic reminded me of Zero Waste Daniel but with even more colour! This was my first exposure to my favourite brand that you never stop hearing me rave about. CLEAN: the label.

This was the brand that proved to me that sustainable, kawaii fashion brands did exist and they are out there, waiting to be discovered. When I found CLEAN on Instagram, I searched through the accounts they were following for other brands, which was how I discovered Strawberry Skies Design, a brand that creates gorgeous dresses, jumpsuits, and two piece sets out of vintage kimono fabric.

After months, maybe even a few years of hesitating, I launched my blog in October 2018. I remember dreaming of and planning blogposts before learning about ethical and sustainable fashion, and after that enlightenment, my vision for my blog completely changed. Before, most of my ideas were similar to what you would find on a lot of kawaii fashion blogs today with your personality and style as the main point of difference, but I had found a gap in the sustainable and alternative fashion niche that needed to be filled. This was my chance to deliver the content, resources, and advice that I needed a year ago. While my audience was (and still is) quite small, people did read and interact with my blog. What meant more to me than likes and view counts were the comments from people who were inspired or profoundly affected by my posts. It's incredibly humbling to know that I validated someone’s experiences, showed them a better path, or even encouraged them to think just a little more before they purchased something.

I ended my 3-month-long “shopping ban” with a prince shirt from CLEAN, which I wrote a review about. Christina, the designer, had announced on her Depop that she was going to sell her pieces at a market, so if anyone wanted a particular piece it was either buy now or it could be lost. I was able to buy the shirt which arrived a week later. I wasn’t having a great mental health day but it definitely helped to have a new piece to play dress up with.

While I'm still incredibly happy with the shirt and wear it all the time, it did take a few mistakes for me to shop more intentionally. My next purchase was a vintage rainbow hat that was too small for my head. I wore it to one fashion meet and I sold it a few months later. I also fell for Lazy Oaf’s casual greenwashing. I thought that because of the high prices and the recyclable packaging, they must be okay, but after emailing them during Fashion Revolution Week, I’ve decided not to shop with them for the time-being. Despite the rookie mistake, I don’t regret purchasing my Esther Loves Oaf trousers. Well-fitted jeans with interesting patterns and colours are nearly impossible to find sustainably. I still intend to wear my trousers until they fall apart.

During my blogging journey, I met more people in the alternative fashion community who also cared about sustainable and ethical fashion, but there wasn’t an active space to talk about it. I decided to co-create the Alternative Fashion Lovers for Sustainability Facebook group with Allis Ohlsson of @lettucetalkgreens, which got over 70 members in its first week thanks to admins allowing me to promote my group in their groups. Now we’re boasting over 350 members! I’m very proud to have created one of the few places on the internet where people can discuss modern slavery, pollution, art theft, and other tough topics as they relate to alternative fashion. At the same time, it’s also a place of optimism where people can ask for advice, recommend brands, show off their sustainable outfits, and discuss other fun topics.

A few months later I started the Sustainable Alt Fashion Instagram and Facebook page, and was lucky enough to get a shout out from Sammy aka Synthpop Circus which boosted us to over 100 followers in less than 24 hours. Unfortunately, it has not been something I have been able to give as much focus to as of late and hope to delegate to other people in the community.

For my first Fashion Revolution Week, I initially wanted to message as many influencers in the kawaii and alternative fashion community to encourage them to join in, but I had unfortunately developed a nasty habit of starting new projects instead of focusing on the ones I was already working on. I wrote a blogpost introducing Fashion Revolution Week to the alternative fashion community and explaining why it was important that we joined in. Then I made daily posts on Instagram. The first four showed a clothing love story, an upcycled DIY, my washing process, and the obligatory post asking three brands who made my clothes. The last three posts were outfit shots from the Fashion Revolution event in Brisbane.

There are so many highlights from the Fashion Revolution event that I can hardly list them all. I accidentally arrived an hour early to the event and volunteered to help out with the grazing board. I met plenty of wonderful people, including Kerry, the designer of Grump Online and Kat of @buynothingnew2019. I attended some great panels about fashion activism in Cambodia and diversity in fashion. In a lucky door prize, I won a top from Coy Street Clothing which is perfect for layering. In the first 30 minutes of the all-day vintage markets, I bought a pastel rainbow shrug which is now all over my Instagram. I came and I saw and I laughed and I learned and I got to be a part of my local sustainable fashion community.

I’ve also been incredibly fortunate to receive support from the alternative fashion community online. The comments, the fan arts, the discussions we have all mean so much to me, and even though my reach is still small, to know that I am a positive force, an inspiration in people’s lives, is amazing. It proves that what I am saying is important and worth listening to.

My journey is still ongoing and perhaps one day I will post a part two. I intend to continue doing what I’m doing, and I will continue to grow and learn as a sustainable fashion activist. Mistakes will continue to cultivate wisdom. If you have any suggestions on how I could make this blog better, more educational, or more inclusive in any way, please do let me know in the comments below or on social media.