New Millennials – Generation’s X and Y have far greater concerns about the wellbeing of the planet than the Baby Boomers. The Baby Boomers focused on giving their kids what their parents had never been able to. Earlier generations had been focused on finding new worlds and ways of living, and fighting wars to be concerned about planetary health.
The focus on a better quality of life, therefore, was aimed at material wellbeing. In the process of building new wealth, sustainable living habits fell by the wayside. Fortunately, it is not too late to learn new habits and ways to look after our beautiful world. Use these lifestyle tips to get you started.
Recognize sustainable fashion items through specific clues
Join the fashion revolution, which is growing around the world. Be a fashionable student in terms of the clothes you wear, your fashion accessories and mostly your attitude. Show that you care about your planet by making choices that preserve its integrity. Demonstrate your integrity through your actions, rather than just by your words.
You can add your value to the fashion revolution by following some basic practices. These practices indicate your awareness of the need to protect the planet. They will show that you care enough to do the right thing by reducing demand for unsustainably produced fashion.
When you make a conscious choice to stop purchasing fashion items that compromise the health of the planet, you are active. This active behavior will force businesses to adjust the way in which they source the materials to manufacture their products.
Learn how to recognize sustainably produced consumer goods, fashion, and accessories. Learn more about deadstock and how sustainable it really is.
Organizations that promote sustainable fashion production
Among many organizations online, here is one organization online that is making a difference in how fashion is produced and perceived – Fashion Revolution. They have created their own manifesto to support good fashion practices, which encompasses a wealth of information that students can use to grow their knowledge in this area.
Learn what organizations are dedicating their time, effort and expertise to improving the way the world does business. Understand and appreciate how their efforts impact fashion – a part of your daily life. Appreciate how you can make a difference, simply by recognizing sustainable fashion logos.
Become active in your support by avoiding purchasing fashion items that do not align with sustainable fashion. Other than recognizable names referring to fair trade practices, organic or eco-friendly manufacturing techniques, learn to recognize those that aren’t yet so familiar. Informing yourself between legitimate and fake logos, will also help to reduce poor fashion practices.
Get involved with programs to appoint students to become ambassadors to spread the word about being a fashion activist. This is a satisfying way to add value to your own life, will enhancing the wellbeing of others and the world we live in.
To ensure that volunteering does not happen at the cost of your studies, get help from paper writing services or the essay writing services that provide you with an essay writer of your choice. This will keep things on track and you won’t be late on your assignment deliveries.
The more familiar names that underscore sustainable fashion practices
The words “fair trade” and “eco-friendly” have become popular over the past decade as consumers became aware of negative business practices. While these words are important, be aware that even these may not be as fair or as friendly as they could be.
The following organization names are familiar, however, and they have made positive changes to the way fashion is produced. Learn to recognize some of these to support your positive choices as a student.
- Fair Trade USA– setting certification standards for conscious living in manufacturing processes.
- Fairtrade Foundation– empowering small farmers to supply sustainable products as inputs for fair business manufacturing processes. This program helps to alleviate poverty, and to support consumer choices.
- Global Organic Textile Standards(GOTS) – independent certification of companies by this global textile leader. This organization focuses on sustainable practices related to organic fibers, ecology and social elements throughout the supply chain for fashion and other industries.
Many of these organizations are dedicated to improving human rights in sustainable fashion manufacturing, such as Fair Wear Foundation. Others like are focused on protecting animal rights such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, while others focus more on environmental rights such as Greenpeace.
Identifying lesser-known organizations that encourage sustainable fashion
Here are some of the companies that help educate the public about unfair labor and manufacturing methods. These names are not so familiar but are just as important in creating positive change for the world we share.
- Anti-Slavery International – an organization that fights against contemporary slavery in all its forms.
- Business & Human Rights Resource Centre – promoting the rights of the vulnerable who cannot speak for themselves and need others to stand up for them.
- Canopy– working as intermediaries between big corporates to save the last of the world’s forests. (Do we really need more palm oil that deprives animals of their natural homes?).
- Centre for Sustainable Fashion– using fashion as a meeting point between education, research and business to promote change.
- Ellen MacArthur Foundation – finding ways to do business that focus on regeneration and restoration.
- Environmental Justice Foundation – empowering local communities to stand up for their rights through sustainable practices.
These names provide you with a basic guide for how to recognize sustainable fashion. Becoming aware that sustainable fashion production is necessary to save the planet, is just one step towards achieving this goal.
Start working on your own wardrobe
Anyone doesn’t instantly become aware of sustainable fashion until getting enlightened by this pressing issue. Because you’re still a student, you might not have known about sustainability in fashion before, so your wardrobe is still unchecked. If you want to support this cause, it’s best to examine your wardrobe and start building an eco-friendly one.
First things first, don’t throw away your clothes from brands that don’t support sustainability, as you’re rendering the meaning of sustainability useless. Instead, make the most of these clothes and take note not to buy them again in the future.
Comfort and reliability are essential aspects of a student’s wardrobe, especially students who wear uniforms regularly. In this case, your wardrobe should contain comfortable undergarments that’ll support you throughout your day at school.
Aside from the environmental advantage of sustainable fashion, most clothing pieces also sport soft, lightweight, and irritant-free fabrics that students will particularly love. When shopping for undergarments, swap synthetic options for natural ones like bamboo fabric used for the Bamboo Men Boxers collection.
If you have old clothes that you don’t prefer to wear anymore, you can turn them into your loungewear, sleeping clothes, and even into pieces of rugs, rather than throwing them away.
Moreover, refrain from buying clothing pieces that are unnecessary and have the same purpose as your existing ones. Buy clothes that you’ll actually wear, not those that’ll only accumulate dust in your closet.
Before educating others about sustainable fashion and why it matters, it’s crucial to implement these practices to yourself first to have a firsthand experience of how it’s like to be mindful of your apparel.
Sustainable accessories for the modern student
Always check the source of your sustainable bags and wallets and fashion items. Look at who made them, which country they came from. Establish what business practices were used in the making of those items.
You are expected to be able to conduct in-depth research as a student to further your higher education. Take action now and be responsible for how you dress, and which businesses you support when clothing yourself.
Fashion comes at a price. Regrettably, high item prices are not the only cost linked with fashion. Poor business practices are another price to be on the alert for, because these may involve child labor, says Martin Grace, the student, one of the best professional essay writers at Assignment help Australia. Bad business practices may also involve unsustainable environmental behavior, which deprives animals of their natural habitat. Be on the lookout for fashion items that seem suspect, because they might just have deprived the last orangutan and its small family of their home.
Talking about good business practices, for you as a student, it is also important to identify the best academic writing services that provide thesis and dissertation service, plagiarism-free work done with deep research into the subject.
Better fashion choices for the discerning student
As students become more knowledgeable about sustainable fashion, they will become familiar with sustainable fashion brands. Share these brand names with others to promote a change in the way you consume goods. As demand behavior alters, so will the way that companies manufacture and produce fashion items, also change.
Here are some brand names that you can start looking out for.
- Organic Basics – uses recycling methods to reduce pressures on landfills.
- Oh My Clumsy Heart – jewelry with heart that concentrates responsible sourcing at fair prices to produce beautiful fashion accessories.
- Know The Origin – this brand highlights sustainability at every step in the production process. The focus here is organic materials that are biodegradable – crops free from chemicals. Human rights, safe environments and fair wages are part of the transparent manufacturing goals promoted by this brand.
- Project Pico – is an example of a successful Fair Trade initiative. Beginning with organic cotton underwear, this company has expanded to include quality hand and sheet toweling.
- Birdsong – another fashion-conscious brand that avoids unsustainable trends. Quality is key in the apparel produced, the wages paid, packaging and support of the disabled in the process. This brand has successfully rebelled against quick fashion in favor of quality and integrity.
These are just some of the emerging brands that can guide students to make better choices. Look out for sustainably produced hemp and bamboo products on your journey, but always check the label.
Other ways to preserve sustainable fashion
You really aren’t as helpless as you think. Neither are the small choices you make in changing your fashion attitudes, useless.
Whenever you take the small actions listed below, these are magnified by thousands and millions of other students making the same choices. Added up – your small decision amount to major changes in supply and demand in the fashion industry.
Here are some ‘small’ actions to take toward promoting styling with sustainable fashion:
Do a wardrobe audit. Go through your cupboards to separate the items you no longer wear; from those you use daily. If they still fit, decide if you can repurpose them, vamp them up to create your own unique fashion, or if they should be discarded. Don’t simply discard these items though, personally gift them to others in need.
Gift unwanted fashion. Check through your wardrobe. Where you find clothes, shoes and accessories that no longer fit, set these aside. If you cannot repurpose these for your own use, make sure you personally donate them to a local charity or gift them to someone who is in need, and can use these items. Do this personally, because then it becomes meaningful.
Get creative with fashion repurposing
There are loads of ways to repurpose fashion for sustainable reasons. As students, you have access to an enormous network of men and women, who mostly all love fashion. What garments the one no longer wants, will be brand new for someone else.
Start a fashion swap shop on campus to recycle fashion items to promote sustainability.
Create your own sustainable fashion drive to educate students about the need to protect the environment
Rope in support from students in fashion design. Hold competitions to see who can repurpose second-hand clothing items the best. These items can be used as prizes for other student drives to raise money to save animals from cruel use in the fur trade, for example. Or, these donations can be made to organizations such as P.E.T.A. which actively protect animal rights.
Begin a fashion charity donation. Students can drop off unwanted items that can then be donated to local orphanages, churches or other charities to support their goals to raise money.
Hold competitions to drive other business ideas related to sustainable fashion practices.
Conclusion
All of these ideas can stand alone or be integrated to encourage education, information sharing and physical action to become sustainable fashionable.
Becoming conscious and aware of the choices you make, can be a fulfilling journey of self-discovery and positivity. Acting on new knowledge makes you an activist who has every ability to protect the planet, its people, animals and the environment for sustainable fashion.
