Ethical fashion is a nebulous issue.
Even within “sustainable” brands, there is a wide range of commitment. Are you paying your workers a living wage? Are you disposing of toxins responsibly? Are you using ethically sourced fabric? Are you offsetting shipping carbon? The list goes on and on and I doubt there’s any company doing absolutely all of these things.
By its nature, ethically made fashion costs more and not everyone has the resources available to participate in it. There also is not the same range of size availability that there is in other brands.
There is also a sneaky trick being played by corporations wherein they try to place the responsibility for these ethical dilemmas on consumers. Holding large corporations (and the government for not regulating them) accountable for their unethical practices will make much more of a difference than punishing ourselves for not making the most ethical purchase.
Despite all of these things, when I talk to people on the interwebs, they feel guilty if every purchase isn’t perfectly, sustainably, ethically made. Some of you aren’t buying new clothes because you’re paralyzed by the task of trying to make the best purchases possible.
Here’s the thing: clothing affects how we feel on a given day and you need clothes that fit. If you feel bad about yourself because you’re wearing clothes that are too small, you won’t have the energy and capacity to work towards bettering the world.
The most ethical thing you can do is to buy clothes that you will wear often. You can buy new clothes ethically even if the clothes aren’t ethically made by considering how much you’re going to use and wear something. If you buy something from the Gap and wear it three times a week for three years, it’s a more ethical purchase than something ethically made that never gets worn.
Even then, you’ll make mistakes. You’ll buy things you thought you’d love and wear but you don’t. You’ll buy things and then your body will change again. Do your best.
Am I saying you shouldn’t strive to buy clothes ethically? Absolutely not. But shaming and guilting people into feeling bad about procuring new clothes to fit their current body is not productive and is actually hampering the overall forward movement.
What do you think? Are you trying to achieve eco-conscious perfection?