So you want to stop buying fast fashion? That was me in 2015. This post goes through my slow fashion journey – what inspired me, what I’ve learned, and what I wish I knew before I got started.

Where My Journey Begins

I loved fast fashion

When I started this blog in 2012 nearly all of the outfits I featured in posts were from fast fashion brands. I was in high school, I lived for trends, and I considered shopping a hobby. I wore a uniform all through high school so there really was no need for a constant stream of new clothes, but nevertheless fast fashion items piled up in my closet. I was drawn to fast fashion for a fairly typical reason – I could be on top of the latest trends without spending a ton of money.

Soon shopping at fast fashion stores became more than a shopping habit; it developed into a mindset. I had an overflowing closet but “nothing to wear”. I bought clothing items for specific events with no plans to wear them again. I justified purchasing $1.90 tank tops from Forever 21 because “if it got ruined I could just buy another one”. I was waist deep in the throwaway culture that the fast fashion industry perpetuates, and I wasn’t really connected to anything in my closet (other than my One Direction tees).

When I began thinking about a future career in the fashion industry in my later years of high school, I tried to pay attention to more than just what the clothes looked like. I took note of visual merchandising in stores, how different brands approached social media marketing, and how there seemed to be an endless stream of new clothes rotating through stores. I also realized that while some trends stuck around for a while (shirts with “Abercrombie” written across the chest and neon anything lasted a bit too long IMO), there were some trends that seemed to come and go in the blink of an eye. While I wasn’t aware of any of issues with fast fashion at this point, looking at clothes through the lens of the industry responsible for producing them set me up for quite the awakening in college.

College was a turning point

I started at USC in the Fall of 2015 when water conservation was at the center of many conversations in California due to the drought. One of my two Freshman roommates also happened to be an environmental studies major. Fresh off a summer as a sleepaway camp counselor in Vermont, I went from one sustainability-minded environment to another.

I went into college knowing I wanted to work “on the business side of the fashion industry”, but as a Freshman I had no idea what specifically I wanted to do. I registered for my general education and required freshman courses based entirely off of professor reviews and time slots. As a result I ended up in two sustainability-related courses: introduction to environmental studies and a freshman writing seminar about issues with sustainability. I was not thrilled about these classes, and even did everything I could to switch into other “less boring” classes, but to this day I credit these two classes with being life changing.

In my first week of class I learned about how many of the environmental issues in Los Angeles (the drought, smog, invasive species of plants) were caused by or significantly worsened by humans and human activity, and my writing professor assigned our first research paper: sustainability issues in the industry we hope to work in after graduation. My writing professor recommended that I watch The True Cost documentary as research for my paper, and with my new understanding of environmental science, this documentary shook me to my core.

It was the first time I had thought about all of the people and resources that were required to make the clothes I wore every day. It was the first time I learned about fast fashion and started to connect the dots between the hyper-trends I noticed in high school and the motivations of the fast fashion industry. And it was the first time I drew a connection between farming and clothing – I knew cotton textiles came from a cotton plant but I had never thought about how soil health or pesticides could impact clothing. I consider myself an empath, so to find out that something that I loved was hurting people around the world (specifically women) and the planet, I knew I had to make a change. I haven’t been able to look at clothing the same since watching this documentary.

If you haven’t watched The True Cost yet, now is a great time to do so. It is available for free on Prime Video.

I kept learning

Even after turning in the final draft of my research paper, I felt like I had to keep learning more about the dark side of the fashion industry – the waste, the pollution, and the human rights violations. I followed a ton of zero-waste bloggers on Instagram, found out about cool brands with commitments to sustainability like Reformation and Stella McCartney, and started reading the Women’s Wear Daily sustainability section every morning.

Here are some of the important things I learned early on that helped give me a good understanding of sustainable fashion and issues with fast fashion:

• Sustainability definitions (the differences between ethical fashion, sustainable fashion, slow fashion, eco-fashion etc.)
• What different labels mean (Fair Trade, USDA Organic, B Corp, GOTS etc.)
• All about materials sustainability (TENCEL, the impacts of conventional cotton and synthetic materials, etc.)
• Statistics about consumption habits (like the infographics above)
• Information about garment workers (Fashion Revolution is a great resource to learn about the Rana Plaza Factory Collapse, The Garment Worker Center in LA is also a great resource)

Want to learn more about sustainable fashion? Here are some of my favorite resources.

Changing Where I Shopped

I (tried) to stop buying fast fashion

Since I had developed an intense fast fashion consumer mindset, quitting fast fashion cold turkey was impossible. I had to stop so many habits I had become used to, like online shopping in my free time, reading my favorite brands’ daily e-mail newsletters to stay on top of the latest trends, and thinking I needed a brand new outfit for every concert or event I attended. Through my first two years of college I made major efforts to continue learning about issues caused by the fast fashion industry, but every once in a while cognitive dissonance would creep back in and I’d buy new, trendy fast fashion items. These two dresses I bought at Forever 21 in the summer of 2016 still haunt me to this day. I felt guilty even just being in the Forever 21 store, but I desperately needed dresses for sorority recruitment and Forever 21 was the only place I could find dresses in the right shades of pink and blue. It wasn’t until my Junior year that things really started to turn around.

I over-consumed at thrift stores

When I was a Junior I realized that there was a Goodwill right by campus. I grew up going to a thrift store in my hometown and had thrifted quite a bit on my days off at my summer camp in Vermont, so I wasn’t new to the idea of digging through racks of items to find a few good gems. I had also become aware of the benefits of extending the useful life of clothing that already exists (as opposed to buying new clothing), so I felt good about shopping secondhand. I stopped into this Goodwill a few times throughout the school year, but had my first major thrift experience when everyone on campus moved out for the summer. I spent over $80 on a ton of brand name items USC students no longer wanted or couldn’t fit in their suitcases to go home. That summer was the beginning of my thrifting obsession.

Though thrifting was a major shift in where I shopped, my consumer mindset still hadn’t changed. Yes, secondhand clothes were better than fast fashion clothes, but I was still mainly motivated to buy items at the thrift store because they were cheap and trendy (I even bought mostly fast fashion brands like Zara and H&M at the thrift store). And I was still buying a ton of clothes each time I went to the thrift store. At this point in my slow fashion journey, thrifting was a great transitional way for me to have some normalcy in my shopping habits: I could still have some low-cost, trendy items without directly supporting the fast fashion industry.

A major mindset shift

My consumer mindset began to shift when I was a Senior. I somehow got looped into sample sale networks and was constantly getting information about sample sales throughout Los Angeles. The first sample sale I went to was a Reformation sample sale. Reformation was one of the first sustainable brands I had learned about, but I hadn’t purchased anything from them because of the price. Going to sample sales became a way sustainable fashion to become more accessible to me. I was able to spend some time digging through a box to find $50 Reformation jeans instead of buying them new for $150.

Though items at samples sales were on sale, they were still a lot more expensive than the fast fashion items I grew up buying and the thrift store items I was starting to purchase. I saw these sample sale items as investment pieces. I learned how to wash denim properly and I wouldn’t ignore “dry clean only” or “lay flat to dry” clothing tags, and these clothes ended up lasting a long time. I still made some impulse purchases at sample sales, but I began looking at clothes differently. I saw a major difference in quality, but also saw a difference in how the clothes held up when I cared for them properly. I still have the first pair of jeans that I bought from a Reformation sample sale for $40.

I began to understand how I could actually save money by shopping sustainably. By investing in high quality items that I loved, I had a closet full of clothes that I wanted to wear that would last me through multiple seasons. I no longer bought hyper-trendy clothes that would fall apart after a few wears, so there was no need to shop for new clothes on a regular basis. I really saw the value of buying one $100+ pair of Reformation jeans that could last me 4 years (as opposed to buying $40 pairs of jeans from H&M or American Eagle every few months over the course of 4 years).

Connecting to the process of clothing production

I began my Master of Science in Global Supply Chain Management program in the Fall of my Senior year of college because I understood that if I wanted to create change in the fashion industry I had to understand the global fashion supply chain. Through my education I learned about raw material sourcing, supplier management, reverse logistics (what you need in order to make product lifecycles circular), and got hands-on experience interning in the supply chain department for two global footwear and apparel brands. My education made me a better activist, and my activism made me a better student and employee. It’s important to understand the current production process before changes can be made all throughout the supply chain, and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing in school.

Fast fashion brands intentionally disconnect consumers from the process of clothing production. Fast fashion storytelling always centers around their low prices, but they never share how they are able to sell their products at such low prices. Why would they? Slow fashion brands, on the other hand, put the people throughout their supply chains at the center of their product stories. Allbirds regularly talks about their wool farmers in New Zealand. By connecting consumers to the process of clothing production, those consumers gain a greater appreciation for the work that goes into making the garment they purchase.

Think of it like food. When you buy food at a supermarket you aren’t thinking about the farmers who made that bag of spinach, you’re thinking about how much it costs. But when you go to a farmer’s market, you may have the opportunity to connect with a farmer who grew that food. Sure, cost may be consideration in your purchase, but it’s also about connecting to the process of how that food was made. I have my favorite veggie booth at the Melrose Place Farmer’s Market, and while I love the 2 for $5 deal on veggie bundles, I also love connecting with the farmer, his wife, and children each time I go there. I can see exactly what my purchase is supporting.

Recently, with the extra time on my hands due to social distancing, I’ve gotten back into sewing. I haven’t been thrifting or online shopping for quite some time so this has been a really great opportunity to connect with the clothes I already have in my closet. I’ve been doing some thrift flips, experimenting with natural dyes, and even making some of my own clothes from leftover scraps of fabric. I have really come to appreciate the skilled labor required to sew clothing – I spent two whole days working on a single tank top from scratch! These past few weeks have been a great opportunity for me to literally connect to the process of making clothes.

Continual reflection

I have been on my slow fashion journey for just over four years now. I call it a journey because I am still learning new things that change my perspective every day. Reflection has played an important role in my slow fashion journey. I regularly reflect on the new information I learn, whether it’s about the impact of COVID-19 on garment workers or distribution center employees or a new sustainable material. I regularly reflect on my privilege and the fact that I have the time and energy to pay close attention to my consumer mindset and how I shop. I regularly reflect on how I can continue to encourage all of you to become more conscious consumers when I know that not everyone has the same privileges that I do. I regularly reflect on how I – an activist and supply chain professional – can make a difference in this industry.

Giving up fast fashion and changing your consumer mindset are difficult things to do, but they are doable. I hope this post gave you a good look at what my slow fashion journey has been like and I hope during this Fashion Revolution Week you feel inspired to make a change in your closet or call for action in the industry.

Ready to kick start your own sustainable fashion journey?