• Did you know fashion is the second most polluting industry in the world after oil?
• Did you know it takes 70 million barrels of oil to produce the polyester used in fabrics each year? Oh and this polyester is non-biodegradable too!
• Did you know in less than 20 years, the volume of clothing Americans trash each year has doubled from 7 million to 14 million tons, which roughly works out to a whooping 80 pounds per person?
• Did you know stone washing of jeans is done using volcanic pumice stones and when they are used they break down and this waste is dumped in rivers and inhaled by workers in the jeans factory? (Needless to say, these jeans originally manufactured in the United states are now manufactured in developing nations. Cant get their precious water and precious workers in harm’s way can they?)

I din’t know many of these facts until recently and I won’t blame you if you didn’t either! But this is just a minuscule compilation of facts against fast fashion. The kind of resources and the kind of waste the fashion industry is creating has gone unnoticed and hidden from us for too damn long and its time we take a stand!

What do we as people trying to be responsible do about this? Where do we start? There are numerous things you can do to help this planet and I thought it will be a good idea to do a small blog post about each way, and here’s the first way!

Know brands in your city/country which stand for sustainable and ethical fashion

Shopping locally ensures that minimum costs, efforts and pollution have gone into shipping and logistics. It means you are wearing fabrics best suited for your environments. It also ensures you are doing your part to supports artists and craftsman in your city/country!

So this step, as a I realized very late (:|) is very easy in India because we live so close to the fabric produce and the weavers and the tailors. It gets harder in this country because only 3% of all the clothes worn in the United States are made here! :O And needless to say, all ethical brands here charge you an arm, a leg and a kidney for one piece of clothing! A lot of digging and research later I found a great brand Amour Vert (Means Green Love in French!) which stands for responsibly sourcing fabric and also plants a tree for every purchase made! What’s better? They don’t kill your bank account for an outfit!

In an attempt to build my wardrobe staples first, I bought this black and white striped tee-shirt. It was more expensive than what you might pay for something similar at a H&M but knowing this is going to last you much much longer makes it worth it.

I paired it with my Nikes tights which I’ve had forever and a pair of trusted converse. I didn’t know what to have in my hand (I feel I need some prop in my hand always! :’) ) and so I went on Pinterest to draw some inspiration and I saw denim jackets look really good with such a look and so decided to have my denim jacket in my hand with no intention of ever wearing it for the look! 😛

The “basic” striped top can be worn in so many different ways. I chose this very basic one because really more than the outfit, the cause (sustainability) and the way to achieve it (shopping locally) is what this post is about! 🙂

This top is literally 100% made in the United States. It is made of Texas-grown organic cotton. Knitted in Los Angeles. Cut in Oakland. Sewn in San Francisco! Feels like I’m wearing a piece of the west coast on me! 🙂

If you have navigated through all these photos and reached this point, Congratulations! 😛 Now I have a question for you! While I was doing my research about locally made brands, one thing which eased my search so much were lists of ethical brands made by so many American and European bloggers. Do you think I should do such a hyperlinked list or an index of sorts of Indian Ethical and Sustainable Slow fashion brands? These lists would ideally include apparel, footwear, accessories and probably bags. Would that be useful to you? Please let me know in the comments below! 🙂 Have a lovely Sunday and lovely extended weekend to all my friends in this part of the world! ❤

Here’s the link to this top : https://amourvert.com/products/bria-sleeveless-top?variant=39711722631

This is in no way a sponsored post! I bought this top (for my Birthday :P) and decided to blog and post about it myself!