Cora Maria

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 li...

Fanart by @eclecticlunarhop on Instagram. There are so many things I love to wear or would love to do that aren’t good for the environment. I would love to add more glittery things to my wardrobe, but glitter is a micro-plastic. I would love to bleach my hair, but bleach poisons the earth. I would love to buy a pair of Irregular Choice shoes, but they often use leather and other non-eco-friendly materials. I want to support my friends' businesses, but I don’t know the hands that make their clothes. I love things that are plastic, artificial, and bad for the Earth. I also love the Earth. Isn’t it ironic that the people who feel the most guilty about their environmental impact are the ones doing their best to reduce it, while others get to consume and consume without feeling the weight of a dying world every single day? Isn’t it ironic that even though it’s not my fault that fast fashion companies are violating human rights every single day, I still feel personally res...

  Keep looking forward. Photo by @volkphotographyy on Instagram.   It’s been a week since Fashion Revolution Week ended, but the fight for a more ethical, sustainable, and transparent fashion industry is not over. After asking "Who made my clothes?", it’s time to ask, “What is my next step?” I believe that any change is good change. If you take any step towards a more sustainable lifestyle, no matter how small, you bet I will congratulate you with much enthusiasm. When you first think about making better choices, you’ll often find yourself overwhelmed by all the wrongs of the world and wonder why you should bother. Instead, you focus on one thing and work on that and see how it goes. Once you've reached your first goal though, there comes a point when you have to consider what your next step might be. It’s easy to get caught in the trap of “Well I’m already doing something so why do I have to change more?” but in reality that first step is to built mome...

A question every influencer should ask. Art credit goes to @the_stitchess on Instagram. Recently more and more fashion influencers have decided to ditch fast fashion in pursuit of a more ethical and sustainable lifestyle, and beyond that, most seem to be at least vaguely aware of the atrocities within the fashion industry. I’m also willing to bet (or hope) that a large number are still unaware of the ethical and environmental issues behind the brands they flaunt. With Fashion Revolution Week just a few hours away, these issues will be brought to the forefront of many fashion communities, and simply being unaware is becoming less common. Regardless of if they know the truth about the fashion industry or not, is it appropriate to criticise influencers for supporting fast fashion? This week I will go through the pros and cons of each argument, and try to come up with a solution to help people encourage their favourite influencers to make better choices. Yes, we should criti...

I know the answer for a few of these items, but that isn't enough. One of the things that has bugged me about my blog is how much I’ve focused on individual responsibility when it comes to sustainable fashion. It’s been all about how you  can shop better, how you  can reduce your consumption, how you  should use and dispose of your clothes in better and more eco-friendly ways. Yes, individual responsibility is incredibly important because large groups of people boycotting brands forces them to adapt or die, but there is also great change to be made in activism. The highly problematic fashion industry has created systems that are nearly impossible to navigate in a completely ethical and eco-friendly way. I’m here to say that it’s time for us to take a stand against the system and a stand against the brands. It’s time for the alternative fashion community to participate in Fashion Revolution Week. What is Fashion Revolution Week? Fashion Revolution Week i...