5 STEPS TO CHANGING THE WORLD WITH HOW YOU SHOP
WRITTEN BY BETHANY TRAN CEO of The Root Collective ILLUSTRATIONS BY CARINA SCHOEN Owner of Lovely Little Whimsy
i'm so excited you're here.
I cannot even tell you how it makes my heart do somersaults to know that you want to change the world with your every day purchases. Yo u literally have th e power to chan ge th e wo rld. But, maybe you’re overwhelmed. Maybe you’re confused about what this whole conversation about ethical shopping is all about.
Once, I stood right where you are. I was in the beginning stages of starting The Root Collective when the Rana Plaza factory collaped in Bangladesh. The tragedy filled every major news outlet. 1100 people died and 2500 more were injured. I realized that I was responsible. I had been buying clothes from companies and had no idea what the conditions were like where they were produced. I was overwhelmed.
I wanted to change the world with my purchases but had no idea where to start. I took to the Internet. And researched for years. This book is the summary of the things I learned. I have since changed how I shop entirely. This is a journey. It’s not an overnight change, nor is it something that you can pull off in every aspect of your life immediately. But the point is to change, step by step, purchase by purchase, and turn your life into a walking billboard for a change into a culture of kindness.
A definition
Ethical fashion can seem like a simple term, but it can have a variety of meanings. We’re going to focus on one aspect of that, and that’s people. We want to know the answers to questions like: Are workers are treated fairly and not abused? Are they paid living wages, where workers are able to provide easily for basic necessities? It seems simple, but these basic needs are often not met in manufacturing jobs around the world.
What it's not
fast fash ion /’fast faSHun/ noun A manufacturing process where styles go from the runway to the manufacturing floor in an expedited manner in order to capture trends quickly. The supply chain is often compromised in order to meet the demand and offer styles at a very low cost.
ethical fashion is not this.
yo u k n o w h o w m u c h something cost you, but do you know how much it cost the person who made it?
Le t ' s b r e a k this down. Here are a $20 pair of jeans.
The cotton for the jeans had to be grown, cared for, picked, ginned, and turned into denim fabric. The denim was cut and sewn, and likely shipped halfway around the world from Asia.
China produced over 43% of the world’s clothing in 2013, according to The Economist. Those jeans are then likely marked up significantly in order for the brand to make a profit.
H o w i s i t po ss i b le to g o t h r o u g h a ll o f t h o s e s t e p s , h av e a $2 0 p r i c e ta g , a n d st i ll h av e p e o p l e a lo n g t h e s u p p ly c h a i n t r eat ed fa i r ly? C h a n c e s a r e, it’s simply not.
Fast fashion often eliminates the human element. It disregards its workers for the sake of fashion. Instead of creating beauty it creates a massive cog that abuses people and wrecks havoc on the environment. Consumer demand is what drives this, and it’s up to us to put a stop to the cries of “more,” and instead replace it with a steady call to kindness.
How you spend your money determines the kind of world that you want to live in. Let’s get started.
Step one: you're already there
Wanting to change the world is the first step. You’ve seen that the world can be better, and you’ve decided to do something about it. Take baby steps, starting with one area of your purchasing and making a change there. And then the next area, and the next, and the next. Until you’re a powerhouse of a human that purchases everything with intention. the world needs more people like you who are willing to recognize the need for change and then actually
do something about it.
Step two: Create Your Personal Style
There’s a perk for finding your personal style. Have you ever bought the latest trend, only to find that you simply aren’t comfortable in your own skin when wearing it?
You need to be uniquely you. That means finding what makes you feel confident. This style will be something different for each individual person, but that is what allows you to be unique. It means bucking the trends and discovering how to be the fullest version of you. It means rocking that confident air that can’t be faked.
You do not have to be trendy to be cool. Don’t worry about an outfit making you look too young, or too old, or any nonsense like that. If you feel great it in, hold your head up high and rock it. If you don’t feel great in it, it won’t matter if it’s “cool.” You won’t be true to yourself and will feel uncomfortable. Life is too short to worry about what others think.
Step three: Build a Capsule Wardrobe
A capsule wardrobe is small, between 30-50 pieces, but flexible. It means being able to easily mix and match and then swap them out as the seasons change. Having a rotating closet will allow you to change your wardrobe with the seasons, all while preventing fashion fatigue by giving you new options every few months. The items should be either relatively neutral or play well off each other. You can pattern mix with stripes and polka dots in the same color palette. Or, get familiar with the ever amazing color wheel and have a closet of complementary colors (these are colors that are opposite each other on the wheel).
Step Four: Make It Count
Vivienne Westwood captured the essence of one of the most important points we can make perfectly when she said, “Buy less, choose well.� The fact is that buying ethically will mean that it costs a bit more.
It has to. It’s impossible to produce with ethical standards and still maintain the same price point as the fast fashion industry, simply because workers are being paid fairly. The good news is that ethically produced goods are typically higher quality and will therefore last longer, making the dollars you spend go further than they would with a fast fashion item.
Because if you buy a shirt for $10 and it falls apart after five wears, it cost you $2 per wear. If another, higher quality shirt cost $50, but lasted 50 wears, it would cost $1 per wear. In the long run, not only is it cheaper, but you would have to buy ten shirts to match this one in terms of the number of wears.
According to research done by The True Cost, a documentary highlighting problems within the fashion industry, the average American throws away 82 pounds of clothing each year, which amounts to 11 million tons of textile that’s added to our landfills every 365 days. Even more is sent to thrift stores, where only a small percentage of items are actually sold and the rest are turned into rags, sent to landfills, or shipped off to a developing country. In that case, it can actually be harmful to the local economy by taking away business from manufacturers. The secondhand market has all but destroyed jobs in African countries by eliminating the need for new clothing. This has taken jobs away from everyone from cotton farmers to tailors.
Your closet should never be a revolving door.
Step FIVE: Shop With Intention
Being intentional means being thoughtful first. This typically means cutting out impulse purchases, only because now you’ve discovered the importance of brand research. It also means that you won’t have items sitting in your closet because you got sucked into a trend that doesn’t match your personal style.
A key to success in ethical shopping is to stick with what works for you. The good news is that the fashion industry essentially demands new products a few times a year. Checking back with your favorite brands every few months is almost a guarantee that new items will be available. Since you’ll be buying better quality, they will last longer and through more seasons, and you will have to shop less often.
Now Go change the world
You are responsible. You are capable. You can change the world.
You are powerful.
You are equipped to begin changing the way you shop. These simple steps can start you on an amazing journey of changing the world. You are able to literally change the world each and every time you pull out your wallet. Let’s do this together.
Go be awesome.