If you run an ethical, sustainable, circular or slow fashion label, you've landed here for a good reason. The Fashion Advocate is the slow fashion ‘business bible’ you've been looking for and I share strategies and solutions to help you change the world with your fashion business and increase your impact and sales.
We need to succeed as a community of slow fashion brands if we’re going to create positive change, and that means sharing wisdom and sharing strategies to support each other.
The good, the bad, the ugly, the stuff everyone’s talking about and the stuff we need to share more of - if it’s happening in the fashion business world, I want to talk about it!
Conversations create change and that’s what my weekly LIVE chats are about. I speak with incredible guests doing amazing things in the slow fashion industry and we talk about all things fashion, business, sustainability, growth strategies and sales.
And today's Instagram LIVE with Meriel Chamberlin was an inspiring conversation around all things supply chain traceability, sustainability and quality in the fashion industry. Meriel is a textile technologist and a passionate supply chain traceability expert, and she firmly believes that great products can be made without exploiting people or the planet. Our interview was a great reminder that where there's a will, there's a way! We can always do better in fashion, it just takes a little elbow grease and a creative mind.
You can watch the full interview on Instagram here and catch up on the three big takeaways from our chat below...
1. Fashion has to be practical but it also has to have a positive impact.
One of the problems we see in the fashion industry today is a lack of balance, and fashion is either 'one or the other'. It's sustainable and made from natural fibres, but it fits poorly or doesn't last, or it's beautifully designed and looks great at first glance, but it's made with unsustainable synthetic materials. There's no balance. For fashion to be truly world-changing, it needs to be both practical and well made, as well as ethical and sustainable. You can't have one without the other - otherwise, it's just wasteful. Every detail needs to be considered.
2. Circular fashion is a mindset.
A 'circular' garment isn't any one thing. Circularity is a mindset and a constant journey, and it's about thinking longterm about the impact on the planet and its people. It's about creating a circular system that supports the way we consume fashion, and being conscious of the beginning, middle and end of a garment lifecycle to make the most of it. We have to reduce, reuse, and recycle as much as possible until we can bring the impact of fashion down as much as humanly possible. And when it comes to recycled polyester, Meriel believes that it's 'just a slow motion oil slick' because at the end of the day, polyester as an apparel textile fibre (whether recycled or new), simply isn't sustainable.
3. The status quo isn't the only way.
Just because the fashion industry does something a certain way, doesn't mean it's the only way. We don't need to invent new technology to be sustainable or zero waste, we just need to use the tools we have in a different way and change our values. 'Business as usual' might have worked until now, but there's a lot we need to change about the fashion industry, and we need to move forward with open and creative minds to achieve a better and more sustainable industry.
Learn more about Meriel and her work via the Full Circle Fibres website here or watch our full Instagram live interview here to learn more about fashion, business, sustainability, sales and growth strategies that you can apply to your own label.
If you're running an ethical, sustainable, circular or slow fashion brand and you have a challenge you're trying to overcome, tune in every week on Instagram to watch my LIVE interviews with brands and businesses who have overcome their own challenges - proving that you can too.
You can also reach out to me here.
Claire x
