You’ve poured your heart and soul into your sustainable fashion brand. You’ve sacrificed weekends, worked late nights, and juggled a dozen roles at once... designer, marketer, customer service rep, stock manager, and everything else in between.
So when you hear stories about brands that 'got featured in a magazine and sold out overnight,' it’s tempting to think, 'That’s the missing piece. If I could just get my brand in front of a big audience, everything would change.'
It’s a seductive idea and PR (public relations) feels like that golden ticket. A glossy magazine spread, a feature in Vogue, or a mention in a national paper; it all looks like instant credibility, instant visibility, and, most importantly, instant sales.
But media coverage does not automatically equal more sales.
And this is the danger of chasing 'PR as a magic bullet. I’ve seen it too many times. A founder spends thousands of dollars on a PR agency, chasing the high of a big-name feature. The article goes live. They post about it on Instagram. Friends and family cheer them on.
And then… nothing. Website traffic bumps for a day or two, but sales stay exactly the same.
It’s heartbreaking, especially when you’ve invested money you couldn’t really spare in the hope that it would be the thing to finally get your business moving.
So why does this happen? Why do some brands get the PR fairy tale ending while others are left wondering where they went wrong?
We answered that question today inside the Slow Fashion Lab with Tahlia Crinis, founder of Boss Media PR, and it's an unmissable session that could save you wrongly investing thousands of dollars in the wrong PR strategy with the wrong person.
Tahlia dropped a truth bomb every slow fashion founder needs to hear, 'PR is about building trust, awareness, and credibility. These are foundations for long-term growth, not instant sales buttons.'
That one sentence is a game changer, because it flips the whole conversation around PR. Instead of asking, 'How do I get PR to make me sales?' you start asking, 'How do I use PR as part of a bigger strategy that leads to sales?'
And this is why PR isn't a quick sales tool.
PR works in the 'earned media' space. You don’t pay for the space like you do with advertising; you earn it by having a story worth telling. And that’s the key word: story.
If all you have is a product, you’re just one of thousands of brands fighting for attention. But if you have a compelling story that connects with people’s hearts and minds, you give journalists a reason to share it, and audiences a reason to care.
Don't expect people to care straight away though. People rarely buy the first time they hear about you. PR can open the door, but if you don’t have the systems, messaging, and offers in place to turn awareness into action, that door might swing shut again without a single sale.
So how do you make your PR effective?
In the masterclass, Tahlia broke PR down into simple, practical steps that any founder — big or small — can use. The one that resonated most for me (and that I think will change the way you think about PR) is, lead with your story, not your product.
Think about it. How many slow fashion labels have beautiful dresses, well-made linen pieces, or organic cotton basics? Hundreds. Maybe thousands. The product alone won’t make you stand out.
What does stand out? The human behind the brand. The why. The journey. The values that shape every decision you make. That’s the stuff people remember. That’s the stuff journalists want to write about.
And it's what separates 'just another brand' from a 'feature worthy' one.
Imagine two brands pitching to the same journalist.
Brand A: 'We make high-quality linen dresses for summer.'
Brand B: 'After working in fast fashion for 10 years and seeing the waste and exploitation up close, I quit my job, sold my car, and moved back home to start a zero-waste linen label. Every offcut becomes a hair tie, every dress is made by a local seamstress, and for every piece sold, we fund a micro-loan for women in the garment industry.'
Which one is getting the feature? Brand B of course, because it's about more than just a product. It's a story, and PR is about stories.
And here’s the thing — if you’re running a values-led, sustainable brand, you already have this kind of story. You just need to know how to tell it in a way that cuts through, and you can do it by yourself, but help from the right PR people goes a long way too.
Your time, energy, and money are precious. If you’re going to invest in PR — whether it’s your own time writing pitches or paying a professional — you need to be clear on what success looks like and how PR fits into your overall marketing ecosystem.
When you approach PR as a trust-and-awareness tool, and you’ve got a plan to nurture that attention into long-term customer relationships, you’re making a smart, strategic move.
When you expect it to be an overnight sales machine, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
Inside the Slow Fashion Lab, you can watch the full 70-minute masterclass with Tahlia, where she goes deep on:
- How to uncover your most newsworthy angles.
- How to write pitches that actually get read.
- How to time your outreach for maximum results.
- What to do after you get coverage so it actually moves the needle for your business.
PR can absolutely work for you — but only if you use it strategically. And that’s exactly what we help you do in the Lab.
You’ve worked too hard to throw spaghetti at the wall with your marketing. It’s time to make smart, values-aligned decisions that actually grow your impact and your income.
Find what you need to move forward inside the Lab.
Claire x
