Brand Collaborations and Ethical Fashion Choices

For years I have been conscious of the fashion choices I make, often refusing to shop in some fast fashion stores for various ethical reasons. I’ve now been considering not just what I purchase, but also the items that I’m gifted through brand collaborations.

Ethical Fashion

It is well known that the fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world – after the oil industry. Some of the impact on the environment includes water pollution, toxic chemicals and textile waste. This textile waste is not just through production, but also the amount thrown away by consumers.

Each year I have given myself a fashion resolution and this year was no different. My latest resolution is to only purchase pre-owned clothing for the whole of 2019. So far this year I haven’t actually bought any clothes, shoes or accessories.

Brand Collaborations

While I have been giving my purchases careful consideration, it hadn’t really crossed my mind to think about gifted items. Occasionally I am approached by brands asking if I would like to choose clothing from them to style or review. A lot of the time I say no but if I’m curious about the brand or really like the items then I will agree.

What has started to concern me is that these brands are often fast fashion. I feel like it makes me a hypocrite that I’m putting so much effort into thinking about what I buy, but may not be giving that same level of thought to the PR samples I’m accepting. Going back over previous blog posts I feel that it looks slightly odd that I continuously mention trying to make positive changes and yet my site is littered with these reviews.

Making Changes

I realise any change is a positive and we can’t all lead ethical and sustainable lives 100% of the time. However, I still feel like I should be doing more. I’ve been thinking about how to approach these collaborations that align more with my feelings on the fashion industry.

I will be carefully thinking about the brand in question and taking a look into their background and their practices. Not everyone can afford to make higher end purchases and fast fashion does make fashion more accessible to everyone. When it comes to more affordable brands, that may or may not be of a slightly lower quality, if I like the clothing and can see myself getting a lot of wear out of pieces then I will consider a collab.

I recently read about the 30 times rule which, I believe, was started by Livia Firth. I love the idea of this which basically means that every time you shop you stop and think “will I wear this at least 30 times”. At the moment I’m not really shopping but I’m going to apply this to any collaboration I consider.

Do you think bloggers should be more aware of what they’re promoting?