Sustainable Fashion Guide and Lookbook

BY RACHEL VANDENBERG

There’s a richness to compassion and it should be exercised throughout all different facets of life, even through your wardrobe. Oscar Wilde said: “You could either be a work of art or wear a work of art”. If you approach your style with this mindset, along with incorporating sustainable knowledge – such as knowing where the fabric you’re wearing came from, you’ll start putting more value into your wardrobe. Moreover, you’ll start to acknowledge the effects it has on its surroundings, the environment and the people who make it.  Vivienne Westwood stated: “Buy less and choose well”, and she’s absolutely right. With this mindset you can reduce so much textile waste throughout your life. By using these sustainable options, you're enriching your own wardrobe, as well as helping the planet. The greatest luxury of all is caring and helping to put an end to the problems that permeate the world and the environment. Prioritize buying clothes with sustainable materials, and look into the brand you’re buying from:

• Good fabrics: linen and organic cotton.

• Bad fabrics: nylon, polyester and materials treated with toxic chemicals, such as viscose.

See if the brand is environmentally conscious by researching into it and looking at the brand’s delivery tactics.  THRIFTING 

Top: Fete; it’s handmade from the brand itself. Bottom: Vintage Dior (Sororitè) Second-hand products reduce landfill waste, which usually ends up being incinerated and emitting more CO2 into the air. ANTIQUING 

• Invest in antique jewellery (Aunts boutique and Ethereal Jewelry).

• Handmade top from Muse.

When you purchase antique jewellery, you aren’t contributing to the mass production that plagues our planet. UPCYCLING

Take old clothes or stray fabrics and use your creativity to turn them into something new. It helps the Earth because you’re not sending the clothes to landfills and you’re using recycled fabrics. 

Some sustainable brands:

• Marine Sere

• Vivienne Westwood

• Stella McCartney

• Mara Hoffman

• Patagonia

Vintage luxury stores:

• Vestiaire Collective

• Sororitè Vintage

• Rita Lene Vintage

• Your local antique shops