The Gray Areas in Sustainable, Slow Fashion - Where I Stand Today

I watched a video by Alexa Sunshine83 on YouTube about her conflicted feelings on the sustainable fashion movement. This post contains my current opinions (which could change in the future) and I'd be happy to hear if you agree or have any differences of opinion in the comment section below or over on The Keeper of Things Instagram account.

First of all, I think that any sustainable fashion movement is better than none but the emerging gray areas of the movement remind me a lot of the differences of opinion that arise within feminism. While the word "feminism" and the term "sustainable fashion" seem like they should have a single, undebatable definition, the reality is that they don't and they can mean different things to different people.

Here are my tenets:

1) Sustainable fashion starts with considered, intentional purchases and a long-term, quality focus. The key words are "considered" and "intentional", which ultimately mean that you will make fewer purchases and move away from a "current trend" mindset. Currently, I try to buy things that I intend to keep forever.

2) Businesses have a right to make money within the world of sustainable fashion. But, personally I focus my spending only on small businesses that tend to resell vintage and antique jewelry, clothing items, and home decor.

There is something that feels "off" to me about businesses (both small and larger) that try to scale their sustainable business by completely remaking vintage items in new materials and stones to sell en masse. This situation feels like a basic retail brand with set product SKUs "reverse-merging" into or masquerading as a vintage business. Large, sustainable brands are something I'd need to investigate on a case by case basis as I'm increasingly skeptical about the sensational branding and marketing that lures people in (I feel the same way about "clean" beauty brands).

Generally, I believe the ability to create a business and to make money is a human right but I choose to support (via my personal spending) specific types of businesses.

3) My spending is an extension of my overall investment plan to further my long-term, life goals. In the future, I'd like to think that if I wanted to sell any of my vintage or antique items that I could make money or at least recoup my initial outlay. Part of the reason I love buying vintage jewelry is that the real, raw materials can be assets with true market values. Buying vintage and antique jewelry items represent legitimate investments to me.

In closing, talking about vintage and antique items doesn't always fit well with social media, which feeds off of what's new and volume-based content such as hauls or try-ons. For people like us who want to talk about our version of consumer behavior, we may need to forge ahead knowing that our content doesn't fit the mold.

Where do you stand?

Talk soon,

The Keeper of Things