Style and Profile Responsibly

My little sissy, Achaia, wearing the skinny vegan leather pants, graphic tee and BCBG jacket with leather trimming from the Salvation Army.

By now we’ve all heard the term Sustainable Fashion. Of course it’s not a new thing but it has become more of a conscious effort lately.

What is Sustainable Fashion, exactly?

Sustainable Fashion is a movement of fostering change to fashion products and the system towards greater ecological integrity and social justice. It is often referred to as Eco Fashion. In short, the movement encourages less environmentally harmful options, such as using more fibers and dyes that aren’t harmful to the environment and less consumption that may lead to more landfill waste. (Wikipedia)

Thrifting is an excellent way to minimize consumption, as its simply recycling fashion. A few of my favorite thrift stores are Regeneration, Lost and Found, and Salvation Army.

I am a huge fan of the movement, however I haven’t converted 100% to the cause, to be very transparent. If I’m honest, most sustainable fashion lines are a bit pricey (primarily because they are using better quality materials and skilled workers at a fair wage). Yes, each piece is worth the money! They represent quality and will actually last beyond some of the fast fashion lines easily. So since I’m not ready to transition my closet to all sustainable lines, I contribute to the movement by thrifting!

Achaia wearing Velvet mini skirt, graphic tee that she cut to crop, and BCBG jacket from Salvation Army.

Some local consignment shops and sustainable fashion stores that are also high on my list are: Boro Resale, Detroit Is The New Black, Margaux & Max, Detroit Denim Co., Stef N Ty, The Upper Row and a host of others. If you have your favorites that aren’t listed here, please let me know in the comments below.

Last weekend, my sister and I decided to go to Salvation Army and see how much we could get with $20! Yikes! The day we went, they had 50% off of all purple ticketed items. Well of course neither of us found anything we liked with a purple ticket! LOL Matter of fact, it was getting close to being time to go and I wasn’t satisfied with anything in my hand and decided to put it all back.

But then…

It was almost like this coat whispered my name out of a crowded, huge store full of EVERYTHING! It was a vintage, tweed ankle length, over sized coat with a leather waist belt (and a splendid lining). Absolutely beautiful! I tried it on and it was perfect! A whopping $17.99. SOLD!

My sister was able to get a few more pieces than me. She actually went over our budget by about 5 bucks. Who can pass up a good graphic tee with a saying that speaks to you? NOBODY! She also got a pair of vegan leather skinny pants, a BCBG geometric style, wool jacket and a cute, mini velvet skirt. Yeah, she kinda beat me in terms of the number of items! LOL.

Here are her real thoughts though (Laughing Out Loud): “ You cheated b/c you didn’t get a full outfit lol (well, was I just supposed to buy something that I didn’t love?). It was also stressful for me to stay within our budget and finding something that was fashionable (she went over budget by about 5 dollars).”

P.S. I hope this has encouraged you to at least think about ways you can contribute to the movement (if you haven’t already). Obviously, sustainable and slow fashion could have been a longer post, and maybe someday I’ll have more to say, but let’s start here, shall we?

The vintage coat that I scored from Salvation Army, paired with distressed jeans, fedora and slit booties from home.