sustainable-shopping

Sustainable Lifestyle: Ethical Fashion

Tracey Martin is a Sustainable Lifestyle Leader and author and has been a certified Transformational Life Coach as well as health, life and wellness advisor for more than 25 years. Tracey’s mission is simple, to protect our natural resources, planet, and our most precious resource: humankind. She is sharing her knowledge with us in this weekly column and this week Tracey talks about sustainable and ethical fashion.

Do you wear clothes? Then this should matter to you. Sustainable Fashion. Ethical Fashion. Fair Trade.

What does all of this mean? Most of us have never even thought about where our clothes and accessories come from much less about the person who made it. We don’t think about how it effects the livelihood of the worker or the impact on the environment. Today we can no longer be so nonchalant about our lifestyle choices. About how we consumer and why we consume. The movement towards more mindful choices has been brewing since the early 1990’s under the guise of a group of consumers called LOHAS. Which stands for “Life Style of Health and Sustainability”. A brilliant man by the name of Paul H. Ray wrote a book where he defined this movement and back then it encompassed over 50 million people. This is not a “niche” market as people like to refer to it.This is a mindful collective of conscious people who care about our world. Notice I said “movement” not “trend”. Defining what this means to me – “A movement is the expression of changed attitudes and how each person comes to realize how he or she is responsible for the great whole of the world”.

Everyday we purchase items that effect people all around the world. The onset of fast fashion created a movement in the wrong direction. The thought process was that we in the Western world would get cheap trendy clothing fast and with looks just off the runway and the workers would get jobs. It has failed. The worlds waterways are polluted beyond anything you can comprehend. They run red, purple or green depending upon the color of the season. The people that live in these manufacturing areas are paying with their health. The factory workers live sometimes on less than $10 a month and are begging for a change. Recently people who purchased clothing from fast fashion retailer ZARA were met with a hang tag on the clothing that the workers had altered with a plea to the customer informing them that the factory worker had not been paid for the garment the customer was about to purchase. We can do better and we must do better.

This is a consumer problem as much as it is a fashion industry problem. WE buy the clothing. WE drive the sales and WE vote with our dollars. I think it is time WE lead the change. How about you?

Here are just a few of my favorite brands of Sustainable fashion.

For basics – wearpact.com

For denim – nudiejeans.com

For ready to wear – zady.com and thereformation.com

For shoes – nae-vegan.com

Grab a copy of my new book with a complete sustainable shopping guide in Chapter 9.

Sustainably Yours,
Tracey xo

If you have comments or questions you would like to see addressed in this column, please send them to info@fabulousarizona.com.

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For a private one on one with Tracey text 602.568.4124.

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