THE FUTURE O F F A S H I O N Sustainability isn’t just a trend, it’s here to stay. Business owner Deschel Mckillian discusses the importance of shopping sustainably, as well as empowering women and black owned businesses. By Bec Doyle
D
echel McKilian, founder of GALERIE.LA, is a force to be reckoned with in the sustainable fashion world. This stylist turned sustainable business owner is committed to the evolution of eco-friendly and sustainable products, as well as empowering women, and standing up for civil rights in the Black Lives Matter movement.
to evolve. The retail store closed due to the mandatory shutdown, so McKillian shifted her business online, which meant pressing pause on in-person community
building events such as in-store pop-ups, interviews
with brand founders, and panels promoting female entrepreneurship.
Yet out of these difficulties launched a new era for GALERIE.LA: “The Simple Sustainability Series.” Now a regular event, the Instagram live streaming interviews introduce the audience to different brands and their founders, aiming to further educate newcomers to the movement. “I think it’s very important when you go down the sustainability journey, to take it slow and really educate yourself. It’s not like you have to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe. Once you kind of GALERIE.LA we focus learn the facts - what fabrics to look out for - then you can start to make better choices,” she says.
Located in the historic arts district of downtown LA, GALERIE.LA is part of the Row DTLA, a business collective dedicated to the mission of bettering the world through culturally innovative products and services. McKillians’s attention to detail, taste and her commitment to cultivating the best in sustainable and vegan fashion, products and homewares, is apparent with each quality item she curates. The first steps of McKillian’s “conscious journey” began with her traveling the world as a wardrobe stylist to Drake, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Fergie and Black Eyed Peas. After witnessing the extent of pollution and waste worldwide, she felt called to pull ethical and environmentally friendly fashion for her artists to wear, only to discover her options were woefully limited.
“At
Undeterred, McKillian plunged down a rabbit hole of research. She reached out to brands leading the sustainable fashion movement... and soon found herself amongst the vanguard of pioneers dåriving the industry forward. “I feel like within the sustainable fashion movement, it really is a collection of people that are working toward a common goal. And I think when you have that intention there really is no space for competition, because everybody wants to grow, everybody wants to support each other”, she says. For the customer, McKillian takes the ‘work’ out of shopping sustainably, bringing the best and highest quality brands you can trust, to one place. The Covid-19 pandemic brought new challenges and changes to GALERIE.LA. Like most businesses, they had
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Shortly thereafter, the Black Lives M atter movement compelled McKillian to re-examine her role as a woman of color in the sustainable fashion industry. “I think this [BLM] is the civil rights movement of our time”, said Mckillian. “What am I doing to amplify black businesses and voices at GALERIE. LA?”. This question inspired her to create the monthly “Goodie Bag”, a feature aimed at introducing customers to the black owned businesses at Galerie LA. “Sustainability, I think is a growing part of different industries that often target and market toward white people, she says. By promoting the women of color fashion founders, the Goodie Bags are part of McKillian’s mission to break that stereotype and diversify sustainable fashion one GALERIE.LA goodie at a time. Go to www.galerie.la to explore the future of sustainable fashion, products and homewares for yourself.
