No money. No followers. No ads. No problem. I started my first sustainable label at 18 with nothing but a sewing machine, a big dream, and a deep belief that fashion could be a force for good.
Then I ran a sustainable fashion PR and events company. Then I built one of the largest online stores for ethical and sustainable fashion. Then I co-founded an ethical menswear brand. Then I worked with multi-million dollar slow fashion brands.
And the whole time, I’ve been squirrelling away what I’ve learnt. So, if I had to start all over again in 2025 with $0, I know exactly what I’d do, and you can do it too.
1. I'd get personal.
I wouldn’t hide behind my brand, I’d get in front of the camera, nerves, awkwardness, pimples and all. I’d share my story. I’d show my face. I’d talk about who I am and what I care about.
I’d share my values and my purpose and I’d unashamedly talk about what I stand for and what I stand against. I’d tell the world what I really care about and why I’m building what I’m building, again and again and again.
Because people trust what they can see and they support what they connect with. And they can only trust you if they see you, and they can only connect with you if they feel something, and your story makes people feel something.
2. I'd get a mentor.
I’d find a mentor who has done what I want to do, and I’d flat out ask them for their help. How do you think Carla Zampatti said yes to me? I asked her. I’d create my dream boardroom of mentors, free and paid, so I had the support I needed.
I’d ignore the gimmicky get-rich-quick courses and block out the sleazy explode-your-brand salesmen who tried to sell me soulless crap that doesn’t work for slow fashion.
I’d treat finding a mentor like hiring staff and find someone who has built a brand from scratch, not just worked in the marketing department for one. I’d choose a mentor who understands slow fashion. Someone who shares my deep unwavering passion and drive to change the world. Someone who gets what I really need because they listen, not just talk.
3. I'd get serious.
I’d work a second job if it meant having the money to put into my brand. I’d stop watching TV at night and work for an hour instead. I’d pound the pavement and do the markets and walk into stores and flat out ask them if they wanted to stock my range.
I wouldn’t bust myself to the point of burnout but damn, I’d do the work with every spare second that I had. If I was serious about making money, if I was really serious about turning this into something, I’d commit to building a business not complain about not making enough from my cute-sy side hustle hobby.
I’d stop scrolling and start creating. I wouldn’t hustle, but I’d get real. I’d get hungry. I’d get serious. I’d commit.
4. I'd ditch my perfectionism.
I would do the things, create the content, write the stuff, and get it out without editing and editing and agonising. I wouldn’t use AI. I would automate the boring bits and the flows but I wouldn’t automate my story or use AI to over-edit.
I wouldn’t use ChatGPT to write every single post. I wouldn’t doubt the power of my own words. I wouldn’t hold back because I was afraid it wasn’t perfect.
Because progress is more powerful than perfection. If I wasn’t so obsessed with being perfect, I would have been a hell of a lot happier on the journey and I would have celebrated every single one of my 18 awards properly instead hunting for the next one.
5. I'd back myself way more.
I wouldn’t hide what I did because I was afraid someone wouldn’t get it. I wouldn’t cry that time someone told me I didn’t have a ‘real job’. I wouldn’t be quiet about my purpose or the problem with fast fashion.
I wouldn’t be embarrassed about being a conscious, feeling, purpose-driven sustainable fashion advocate just because the rest of the world wasn’t awake. I’m changing the world man, f*ck what they think. That’s what I’d tell myself.
I wouldn’t worry about my competitors or what Temu was doing or the algorithm. I would back myself way more. I would talk about what I did at dinner tables, with friends, with family, with strangers, even when I felt uncomfortable.
I would create more tables that wanted to have my kind of conversations instead of feeling uncomfortable at the wrong tables.
Because where there's a will, there's a way.
After being in the industry for nearly two decades and running my own fashion businesses for over ten years, travelling the world and working in the global industry, being on the front covers of magazines and talking on TV about sustainable fashion, I know deep in my bones: where there is a will, there is a way.
It doesn’t matter if you’re broke. It doesn’t matter if you’re not good at marketing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a single mum, a college drop out with no degree, a homeless bum with nothing.
What you don’t have isn’t holding you back.
Use what you have instead of focusing on what you don’t have.
I’m not talking about money. I’m not talking about resources. I’m not talking about the fancy things. I’m talking about you.
Your will. Your purpose. Your drive. Your passion. Your guts. Your cellular-level knowing that the world needs what you’re doing.
If you are running an ethical, sustainable, circular, handmade or slow fashion brand and you’re using fashion as a force for good, keep going. If I can build my businesses without money, without investors, without a degree (the Harvard one came later), through grief and sickness and trauma and temporary homelessness and loss and life and kids and all the messy intensity of life... You can build yours. You just have to dig deep.
Because f*ck fast fashion.
If you’ve made it this far, you and I, we’re sitting at the same table. This is the table for slow fashion founders who give a damn. Who know we can do better in this industry. Who know how powerful and beautiful and moving and feeling and good slow fashion is.
Who say f*ck fast fashion loud and proud.
And if you’re doing something good for the world with fashion, I want to help you do more of it, and you have a seat at our table.
And at our table, we are here to grow, to use fashion as a force for good, to make our lives and businesses wildly successful so we can heal the world in the process. If you share my views, you'll love my workshop: F*CK FAST FASHION.
You’ll learn the seven secrets of successful slow fashion brands so you can stop struggling and start scaling, change the world, make more sales, run a fashion business you love and have fun doing it.
Claire x
