5 Simple Ways to Stay Stylish and Sustainable in Fort Collins
Look down at your outfit. It’s highly likely that you’re wearing something that could be increasing waste, greenhouse gas emissions, and killing animals. However, you’re not directly to blame; it’s the fashion industry’s fault.
Every day, people walk around wearing clothes that are terrible for the environment. The fashion industry is the second most polluting industry, and is responsible for over 10% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Sustainable fashion reduces waste and greenhouse gas emissions, supports living wages and good working conditions, and reduces the useless killing of animals for their leather and fur.
We cannot keep going on ignoring the negative effects of the fashion industry, but the only way to start making a change is if everyone does their part to support sustainable fashion. Here are a few ways that residents of Fort Collins can start making steps toward dressing sustainably.
1. Avoid Shopping or Buying Fast Fashion
This is the first and maybe most important step to dressing sustainably. Fast fashion consists of clothing items that are made cheaply so that people will have to buy new clothes more often.
This is an unethical scheme created by big fashion companies to sell us cheaply made clothes for low prices that we’ll only wear a couple times. These clothes are often made in factories with terrible working conditions, where the laborers are not paid nearly enough. And to make it worse, around 170 children are engaged in child labor globally, and half of them work in fashion supply chain.
Fast fashion is a trend that needs to end. However, it’s convenience and cheapness leads people to keep supporting it by shopping on websites such as SHEIN and ASOS. So the next time you want a new shirt or jacket, think twice before ordering the cheapest option and think about the effects it could have.
2. Shop Second-Hand
Shopping at thrift and consignment stores is severely underrated. Similar to fast fashion, when you shop at a thrift store, you can buy several articles of fashionable clothing for really cheap prices. The difference between them is that by shopping at a thrift store, you aren’t harming the environment.
Fort Collins has an amazing selection of thrift stores. From some of my favorite large thrift stores like Arc and Goodwill to smaller, more trendy consignment stores like Ragstock and Plato’s Closet, these thrift stores always have an abundance of affordable and unique second-hand clothing. And, when you wear clothes that you thrifted, you can be sure you won’t see someone else wearing the same outfit as you.
3. Shop at Quality Clothing Stores
Clothes should be made to last for years. I know I personally hate it when I have a piece of clothing I love that becomes pretty much unwearable after a few washes.
Certain clothing brands focus on making high-quality, comfortable clothes that will stay around for the long haul. Pendleton and Topo Design are two examples of these clothing brands that have stores in Old Town Fort Collins.
These brands make durable, sustainable clothes that you can rely on for years. While they may be more expensive, it’s worth it because of the ethical way they’re manufactured and the high quality materials they’re made of that won’t shrink after two washes.
4. Take Advantage of Apparel Repair Services
The good thing about high-quality clothing stores is that the company actually has the best interests in mind of their customer and their planet. So, when you accidentally tear a hole in your jacket, a lot of these stores, like Topo Designs, will offer repair services for their items.
This is a great service that guarantees that your clothes will last a long time, no matter what happens to them, and you can even learn to repair clothing yourself! Repairing your clothes instead of buying new items and throwing the old ones out reduces waste and your carbon footprint. So, next time you rip a piece of clothing, stitch it; don’t ditch it.
5. Donate Your Old Clothes
If you do have some clothes that you’ve grown out of or you really just don’t like anymore, don’t throw them away and waste them.
Do a good deed and donate them to Arc or Goodwill. Or if you’re looking to make some cash, you can offer to donate to a consignment store like Ragstock or Plato’s Closet, and they’ll give you some money for the pieces of clothing that they want.
You can also sell your clothing online on websites such as Depop or Poshmark and make some extra cash that way. There are a ton of good alternatives for getting rid of clothes that you don’t want anymore. So when you see those pants in the back of your closet that you haven’t worn in years, consider donating or selling them; don’t throw them out.
These are just some simple ways to break into dressing sustainably. It’s important that we start thinking twice about what we’re wearing and where it comes from. If more people start to be conscious about their fashion decisions, we can start repairing some of the damage we’ve done to the environment and make our planet and Fort Collins a more sustainable place.
