Sustainability is South Florida’s Newest Fashion Trend
Buyers are increasingly aware that ‘fast fashion,’ which creates cheap garments that fall apart quickly, harms the environment.
By Cassidy Winegarden
South Florida Fashion is embracing change! The announcement of a last-minute push of Miami Fashion Week from May to November is the strongest signal yet of a transformation of the industry. Once known for its exuberant glamor, Miami’s ever-present fashion scene is refocusing on the intersections of sustainability and technology.
As a fashion capital, crypto hub, and world-renowned vacation spot, Miami is a top destination and now becoming a prime example of what happens when environmentally dangerous practices go unchecked. The chemical-tainted air smells of rotten eggs, the once picturesque beaches are shrinking and covered in rotting heaps of seaweed, and waterways are filled with trash, chemicals, and old clothing.
As a fashion focal point, Miami is home to both luxury brands and local designs. One local company is providing services to anyone looking to learn about sustainability. Mana Fashion Services hosts a variety of monthly workshops that cover practices such as upcycling, which is the process of turning already existing garments and scraps into new clothing.
Ava Sysmanski, 21, is a repeat attendee of the workshop. Symanski shared why she is so passionate about producing her own clothing.
“When you go out and see what young people are wearing, it is all the same,” said Sysmanski. “What I love about creating my own clothes is knowing I’ll never walk into a room wearing what someone else is wearing and I guarantee I’ll do it with more pizazz.”
Mana also prioritizes fostering a new community within the Miami Fashion scene of like-minded individuals looking for new ways to create fashion and art and help the earth.
In the spirit of this, they collaborated with Planet Fashion Media and Morph Media to create a two-day Sustainability Conference that was held from April 15 to 16. The conference covered innovations in fashion, ocean conservation, bio-diversity, renewable energy, and lifestyle products.
In recent years, there has been growing popularity of thrifting clothing which is incredibly beneficial and ensures clothing isn’t ending up in a landfill or our oceans. On par with this, South Florida has more and more stores and even pop-ups like Magic City Flea Market which is self-defined as “Miami’s Finest Vintage Clothing and Local Artisan Craft Marketplace” and holds events nearly every Saturday.
Vendors and shoppers alike rave about the community fostered at the Magic City Flea which is one of inclusivity and creativity with an emphasis on sustainability. There are racks lined with perfectly worn-in tee shirts, vintage dresses, and vests that are no longer made how they used to be, and a variety of other unique items sold at reasonable prices supporting small local businesses.
Kelly Nugent sells upcycled clothing through French 75 Vintage, which she founded.
“It is such a great community that supports and inspires each other to create new things and do them in better ways,” said Nugent.
The Magic City Flea Market is a place where you’ll see vendors working together and collaborating rather than competing to sell their unique handmade found pieces.
Items like the colorful and now one-of-a-kind ones that fill the Magic City Flea Market are a result of times when popular fashion retained styles for years and decades at a time, a stark difference from today’s fashion climate.
Fast fashion is the practice of creating more garments that are made cheaper and not long-lasting to keep up with demand and styles but it has detrimental effects. By the time a consumer gets an online order of their trendy clothes, those clothes may be already going out of style, furthering the cycle of fast fashion.
While popular companies like Shein or Romwe are profiting immensely, it is not without cost. Fashion pollution is filling up our landfills and oceans at an unsustainable rate. In 2022, nearly 80 pounds of clothing were pulled from Miami’s Biscayne Bay by the non-profit Debris Free Oceans in tandem with Clean Miami Beach volunteers.
For luxury brands that do not have such levels of mass production are also being threatened by their very own practices. There has been very little change over time in how luxury fashion is produced and distributed, which has caused backlash but the real threat is the availability of their materials. It is getting more and more difficult to continue acquiring the materials they use which do last longer but produce enormous amounts of greenhouse gasses.
To combat this and inspire a more eco-friendly fashion industry, former Miami City Mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, announced the Fashion Forward Fund at an event at Mana Fashion Services last July.
“The Fashion Forward Fund is an initiative intended to create systematic change in the textile, fashion, and apparel industry in the city by prioritizing economy, equity, environment, and engagement,” said Levine Cava.
Yet for some, even with business incentives like this, it can seem very overwhelming or out of reach to transition to a more sustainable business model or lifestyle. Lindsay Zuckerburg, created and owns Zuke’s Refillery, which is a shop in Delray Beach that promotes low-waste living.
“It’s really just about ethical conscious living,” said Zuckerburg. “My business is zero waste, plastic free, and plant-based but I prefer to not use these terms because it can seem daunting and intimidating when it’s about making simple switches.”
Both stubborn fast fashion fans and vintage clothing lovers can make the simple switch of buying laundry detergent in a single-use plastic product that will sit in a landfill for decades and can go to a Refillary like the one Zuckerberg owns. By reusing a container that is refilled at a shop like Zuke’s, anybody can make a difference in reducing their fashion-related carbon footprint.
