If you run an ethical, sustainable, circular or slow fashion label, you're in the right place. I live, love and breathe slow fashion and The Fashion Advocate is the slow fashion ‘business bible’ you've been looking for to help you run your fashion business with a clear strategy and with purpose, ease and joy.
I know we can use fashion as a force for good, so I share strategies and solutions to help you change the world through fashion and increase your impact and sales. We need to succeed as a community of slow fashion brands if we’re going to change the world, and that means sharing wisdom and sharing strategies to support each other.
It’s what my weekly Instagram LIVE sessions are all about. I speak with incredible guests doing amazing things in the industry and we talk all things fashion, business, sustainability, sales and growth strategies.
And today's Instagram LIVE with Sarah Knop was the perfect example of why slow fashion is so important. It was equal parts confronting and inspiring, but we’ve got to talk about the things that need changing if we’re ever going to really change them. Sarah is an industry expert when it comes to all things ethics and sustainability in fashion, and she’s an inspiring sustainability and social justice advocate.
You can watch the full interview on Instagram here and catch up on the three big takeaways from our chat below...
1. Slave labour still exists in the fashion industry but it's your responsibility to make sure you're not a part of it.
Even though it's 2023, slave labour still exists, and it's more prevalent than most people are aware of. More than fifty million people across the world are still living in conditions of modern slavery and the fashion industry is the second highest user of forced labour. It's a big issue for fashion and a lot of big brands don't even know it's happening in their supply chains, or they do and they turn a blind eye. It's your responsibility as a fashion business owner to know your supply chain, do your research and ensure the labour you're hiring, is ethically paid.
2. There's a big difference between want and need.
Sarah's career has spanned buying roles, research roles and even running her own fashion business, and in some roles, she's been forced to sell fashion as a 'need' rather than a 'want', and it's another big issue with our industry. Yes we need to dress ourselves and yes we need clothes, but we don't need all the clothes and we don't need as much as we're being told we do. If you're running an ethical, sustainable, circular or slow fashion brand, the beauty is in educating your customers on need not just want, and slowing down, not just selling as much as you can as fast as you can to as many customers as you can. Because even if you're selling slow fashion, if you sell it in a fast-fashion way, you're adding to the problem, not solving it.
3. There's enough information out there to make the right decisions.
We have the internet, we have social media, we have free access to millions of reports on ethics and sustainability in the fashion industry and we have enough information to make informed and conscious decisions about running a fashion business in 2023. Yes, it can be confusing and yes, there's a lot of information out there, but you don't have to consume it all today. Start with one report and read it now, and make your way through the information you need to understand ethics and sustainability, and empower yourself to make the right choices so you can use your fashion business as a force for good.
Learn more about Sarah Knop and her work via her Instagram 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
