Forever 21, the literal definition of the American Dream, was founded in 1984 by a Korean-American family and has recently filed for bankruptcy. Although there is some hope that a few of their stores will stay open, the landscape for apparel has changed drastically within the past few years because of one word: sustainability.
Sustainability became a recent topic within the realms of fashion as more people (especially edgy teens) have discovered second-hand stores like Goodwill and local vintage shops, and even created their own fashion lines like womn. Womn.’s clothes are being made with upcycled fabrics, which is labeled on their site as “leftover fabric that other companies purchased to make clothing and never ended up using.”
One of the biggest misconceptions of sustainable fashion is that this article will lead you to five different sustainable brands’ sites, so you can buy all of their clothing and “be sustainable”… but that’s not the way it works. Being sustainable means to maintain the clothes you have, to minimize waste through the supply chain, and to keep high-quality, timeless pieces of clothing.
Now, you’re probably thinking, so what about trends? Will the clothes you wear be fashionable? This is why brands like Forever 21, that create fast fashion, thrived at one point for teen apparel – they created clothes based on current trends at cheaper prices. However, at this point where climate change and being environmentally friendly are big topics in our society, so are the clothes we wear. Sustainable fashion does the opposite of fast fashion: it’s not wasteful and it doesn’t keep up with trends that last for about 6-30 months.
This means you can make your clothes fashionable, and dress up in a way that fits trends. For example, buying and maintaining essential clothing like white t-shirts, fitted blouses, jeans, and jackets can go with any outfit you put together. Then, collecting standout pieces from any second hand or vintage shop can give you more color in your closet – thus creating a balance, part essential clothing and part standout clothing.
I admit, it takes a lot of time and effort to figure out the clothes you want to buy, let alone sustainable clothes you’d want to buy. Yet, the accessibility for sustainable clothes has become better and some fast fashion companies are even going out of business. So, let’s practice what we preach – don’t just buy metal/paper straws to #SaveTheTurtles, let’s push the agenda towards maintaining sustainability with fashion and caring for our clothes.