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What is Ethical Fashion?

We all generally know what fashion is, but suddenly throwing the term “ethical” in there just makes it quizzical. Is it when shoppers are super kind to one another? Colder. Is it a national holiday where people donate their secondhand clothing? Warmer. So what is it?

Ethical fashion is essentially a broad term that encompasses working conditions, fair trade, sustainability, the environment, and animal welfare in fashion retail. As a consequence of fast fashion and the way the industry operates, there exists unjust labor, environmental damage, harmful chemicals, and animal cruelty.

Workers are overworked with poor pay in cramped and unhygienic facilities. When we say “workers,” this includes child workers that are subject to violence and abuse. With clothing having cheap price tags, this means less and less money goes to people who actually make them.

As for the environment, it can be difficult thinking right off the bat how clothes directly affect it. Let’s narrow it down to three things:

Cotton
Dyes
Landfills

First, cotton makes up most of the world’s fabric, but what do we also use to grow it? Insecticides and pesticides. These chemicals are dangerous for the environment and unsafe to the farmers who grow it. Later, we will discuss how Fair Trade works in relation to cotton. Secondly, we treat most textiles with chemicals to soften and dye them. These chemicals are deadly and can be transferred to the skin upon contact. Lead and nickel are a couple examples of these chemicals. Lastly, the disposable nature of fast fashion means that most clothing are disposed in landfill sites or incinerators, resulting in an abundance of excessive waste every year.

Of course, this doesn’t sum up the totality of all the consequences of retail fashion production. This is just the gist of it: a drop in the ocean. The purpose of the blog is to take a magnifying glass and focus in on every angle of ethical fashion to discuss the initiatives, issues, and efforts relevant today. Together we can discuss and explore this niche article after article!

How I Made Extra Money Reselling Clothes

Selling clothing you no longer wear doesn’t mean your wardrobe has to shrink. Make some extra cash or cycle out your wardrobe!

The End of Shopping Hauls

Believe me – I wish I was being sponsored for this, but I have absolutely adored this mobile app I discovered 6 months ago during quarantine: Curtsy. In the entire span of quarantine, I’ve been having spikes of impulsive online shopping. It was an escape from my remote routine, and it gave me something to look forward to: just anticipating that new clothing piece or accessory arriving at my front door.

As a result of all this shopping, I’m left with heaps of clothes I never got to wearing. These are clothes I thought I would wear, or clothes I aspired to wear. It is the perfect example of excessive buying. With that being said, I realized that I’d benefit in making some extra money by reselling it.

Although I’ve always been familiar with thrift stores like Plato’s Closet, the cash they paid me for my clothing felt so undervalued. These still had tags, never been worn, and were still on trend.

One App to Sell Them All

I discovered Curtsy: a mobile app that has made thrifting clothing, shoes, and accessories easier than ever. The app originally started out as a platform for sorority girls to resell their dresses to one another. Eventually, it obviously expanded to a much bigger and general platform for all users.

The user interface is very intuitive and simple to use. Curtsy guides you in selling your clothing from photos to price suggestions. The app caters more so to Gen Z and Millennial fashionistas who want to rotate their wardrobe with trending brands and styles rather than purchasing brand new clothes.

It is a great mobile app for casual sellers to still be on trend while also being sustainable! Sellers and buyers can message each other negotiating prices and offers as they like.

As a seller, you can see how many people viewed your items and how many loved (saved) them. There is an option to send special offers to those who loved your items, too!

Working a 9-5 job, I had this fear that I would be constantly stopping by the US Post Office to drop off my packages whenever I sold my items. Fortunately, Curtsy reminds you that you can schedule a USPS pickup right at your residence. I haven’t made a trip to the USPS for any of my sold items, which is such a convenience.

In addition, Curtsy sells affordable shipping kits for you to have on hand in mailing out your orders. This way, you don’t have to go scavenging for spare boxes or bags.

The money I receive from my sold items can be used as Curtsy credit to use for shopping on Curtsy as well, or I can transfer it directly to my bank or card.

So far, I am ecstatic to have discovered Curtsy. Not only do I feel like I am making a decent amount of cash from my clothing pieces, but the process is easy and quick with the user friendly clothing resale app. I highly recommend Curtsy and hope you find it not only to be a great app for selling items but also finding new ones!

Defining “Ethical” in Fashion

Zooming into the lens of ethics.

Before jumping into ethical fashion, it’s important to first define what ethics truly means from a fundamental standpoint. Let’s first start by highlighting what ethics can be confused with. Outlined by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, ethics is not synonymous to science, feelings, religion, cultural norms, or adhering to the law. Ethics is about the quality practices that define our righteousness as human beings no matter what the situation is. Out of the six ethical lenses, we will focusing on the care ethics lens. Why this lens in particular? In the production of apparel, there is a lack of child labor laws being regulated and workers barely making a living wage despite working 80 hours a week. In this situation, empathy must be utilized to understand and listen to these individuals rather than focusing on quick production and cheap labor.

By keeping retail prices low and churning out excessive apparel, fast fashion is being cultivated and encouraged while this catalyzes the lack of fair wages and fair working conditions in other countries. Consumers are buying quick trending styles at cheap rates and disposing them when it has sped through its brief fashion cycle. This can result in poor management of landfills and environmental mistreatment. We must empathize and think beyond ourselves to support factory workers and choose to shop at brands that do care about fair wages, work conditions, and ethically sourced materials.

Although fast fashion is a big variable in poor working conditions and low wages, this shouldn’t be mistaken as an initiative to killing creativity and not following trends. Inspiration of these trends are obviously sparked by high fashion designers. This doesn’t mean we’re cornering and blaming them. This is simply about empathy and having awareness as a consumer when it comes to shopping and carefully thinking what we buy and who we buy from. This doesn’t mean we don’t buy trends that are “in.” Just be informed and know how to sustainably dispose of secondhand clothing to extend the lifestyle of that piece. Do some research on thrift stores and donation centers that rid of their unwanted items responsibly. With the care ethics lens, being a part of ethical fashion means being an ethical consumer.

How to Crop an Oversized T-shirt or Sweatshirt

Downsize from “big” to show your “fig”

Fall is the season of comfort and coziness with oversized hoodies and fleece sweatshirts. They are simple to throw on with a pair of jeans for an easy look. Oversized anything is great (especially pumpkin spice lattes), but I do like a more fitted stylish look for going out sometimes. It’s easy to convert any oversized t-shirt or sweatshirt to a crop top without cutting, sewing, or tying. Hold my latte. Let’s walk through these simple steps together!

What do we need?

sports bra
oversized t-shirt or top

How to crop your oversized top

Take the bottom edges of the sweatshirt.
Fold the sweatshirt inward.
Tuck evenly into the band of your bra all the way around.
Adjust crop length to your preference as long as the edges are tucked in.

A cropped silhouette perfectly balances out a wide-leg pant, high waisted jeans, or high-waisted skirt. Buying two pieces to accommodate both a cropped look and an oversized look is wasteful of your money and wardrobe space. This is one of many styling hacks to make the most of your wardrobe!

My Top 3 Fav Eco Fashion Brands

Consciousness on style and sourcing

Boyish

Style

Jeans are hands down the given necessity that we cannot live without. Whether to dress up or dress down, a good pair of jeans are an easy go-to piece for any occasion. I, myself, own a pair and have been wearing them for 4 years without any wear or tear. The fit and durability is flawless and comfortable, not to mention the styles they come in: straight, skinny, tapered, flare, and wide leg.

This brand is centered on “vintage silhouettes with a modern update.” The clothing is created by women for women, which justifies why the quality, fit, and wash make a great fit and design flattering for any body shape.

Sourcing

Boyish is known for using ethical and sustainable practices in the development and manufacturing of its products. All jeans are made with sustainable fabrics that go through an environmentally-friendly and cruelty-free process. They use less chemicals in the dyeing process and only a third of water typically made to create a pair of jeans.

The brand is pedantic in minimizing the environmental impact in the production of their materials, including anything from hangtags to polybags. Boyish makes it their mission to be the role model for standardizing production practices and reducing waste in this polluting industry. Not only does it feel good to wear Boyish jeans, but any buyer will be content knowing it was consciously made with care.

Everlane

Style

The style palette at Everlane is one that is monochromatic, timeless, and modern. Their apparel is usually known for its durability and softness, which I tend to love when it comes to the autumn and winter seasons. Most of their clothing pieces are quite versatile with each other.

Their style is similar to Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, Calvin Klein, or J. Crew so if you’re a loyal shopper to any of those brands alike, you will be a fan of Everlane for sure. They offer clothing for both men and women. Everlane jeans are typically known for their durability and wash retainment. I personally have never purchased or worn a pair, but with a majority of reviews, they are of good quality.

Sourcing

Everlane tends to highlight the conceptual term of “Radical Transparency.” This is defined on their site as “partner with the best, ethical factories around the world” and “source only the finest materials.” They do regular factory visits, giving a compliance audit for each one and scoring them at least a 90 or above.

They do make an effort to expose transparent costs throughout their supply chain processes right before retail markup is added. You can find cost breakdowns for general products on their website.

Pact

Style

Two words that sum up Pact would be “soft” and “supple.” Based out of Colorado, their clothing pieces are the epitome of comfort. I think their styles are classic and modern; usually consisting of adult and children’s basics including bedding and bath. Their colors shine bright when it comes to sustainable sourcing and ethical labor.

Sourcing

Pact is Fair Trade Certified and uses GOTS certified organic cotton along with carbon-offset shipping and a donation program for used clothes. Their goal is to make organic clothing affordable and available to everyone. Pact is 100% organic, meaning they don’t use any toxic dyes or chemicals as well as less water than other clothing manufacturers.

The non-GMO cotton is not only great for the consumer but also supports the farmers who grow it. They overlook every process in the growing and harvesting of organic cotton to be responsible and pure with production. It is fulfilling to shop at a brand that goes to great lengths in being conscious and ethical in the making of their clothing.

Conclusion

These 3 brands are just a few that I’ve personally chosen and loved wearing. There are countless more brands out there that articulate great style pieces while also demonstrating ethical fashion. If you’re curious to check out some more, go to The Good Trade and explore an entire eco-fashion world there!