As International Women's Day nears, We need to highlight the intersection of feminism and sustainability in the fashion industry more than ever. Fast fashion's anti-feminist practices, human rights violations, and environmental harm have prompted a response from a community of women creatives around the world. This International Women's Day, let's explore this connection, focusing on brands led by women for women.
Why Fast Fashion is a Feminist Issue:
The exploitative conditions faced by millions of women in garment factories underscore the feminist dimension of the fast fashion problem. International Women's Day calls for equality, challenging biases and supporting women's achievements. The fast fashion industry's misalignment with these values prompts questions about which brands to support for true equality.
Re-Create and Outland Denim, globally empowering women through their socially sustainable practice '
Good For Humanity. Good By Nature.'
Ethical considerations are crucial in today's fashion landscape, with 'modern-day slavery conditions' affecting predominantly women and girls. Brands like Outland Denim, Re-Create, and Birdsong prioritise women making clothes for women to encouraging fair wages, safe conditions, and transparency to pioneer a generation of change in the industry.
Outland Denim and Minna dedicate their practice to transparent practice, collaborating with female artists globally. Theirs goals are to abolish slavery and support social sustainability for the women involved. Birdsong is a UK-based brand, challenging norms with a 'no sweatshops, no photoshop' policy, supporting women in the industry.
Sleek Collective Campaign image: ' A line of elevated pieces inspired by the global human.'
Empowering women through ethical consumption is echoed by several women-centric brands champion this conscious consumerism: Seek Collective (US) focuses on transparent, authentic, and sustainable production, partnering with like-minded communities. While the R Collective and Recreate (NZ) both create women's collections using rescued, low impact materials, prioritising labor rights and safety - supporting each other from the opposite sides of the world.
Supporting brands like these powers women and contributes to a more sustainable and equitable fashion industry. This International Women's Day, make a conscious choice for positive change, celebrating and uplifting women through ethical and sustainable fashion.