FT NEWS

There is a very common misconception that fashion comes at the colossal cost of environmental health and inevitably our ethics. But this could not be further from the truth. In reality, wearing good, looking good, feeling good and doing good can often overlap, with consciously-manufactured, well-designed clothing, crafted to make you feel like your best self.

Today mankind has modernized to a great extent, but unfortunately, we have sacrificed quite a lot along the way. Since the dawn of time, humans have ruthlessly taken from the planet, while rarely ever giving back. Oftentimes, we forget our roots, the story of our inception and how closely we are tied to our planet, no matter what phase of life we are in. Now, with an impending climate crisis on our hands, natural disasters that occur more often than not, depleting wildlife and continuous plundering of resources, we find ourselves wondering where to even start doing our bit from.

As cliche as it sounds, it’s all about the little steps. The act of doing good for the planet starts within oneself. If the last year has shown us anything, it has been the glaring reality of the value of material objects we so often find ourselves attached to. Our wardrobes, for one, have been majorly untouched, with high utility, functional and comfortable clothing seeing the most use. When we strip down the noise and embellishments and go back to basics, we find ourselves one step closer to our roots. When we eliminate all the extra, we will inevitably find that at our very core, we are all animals. And like animals, once we are comfortable in our own skin, be it metaphorically or in our clothes, there’s no looking back.

Human beings are quite notorious for often considering themselves better than animals. But truth be told animals are exactly like us. They are capable of having complex emotions; they feel pain, love, joy and even have friends that they deeply care for. They live their whole lives one with the planet, taking only what they need and using that which can be replenished. It begs the question, why are they referred to as “wild”?

Fashion has always been one of the most planet-intensive industries on earth. A single, regular cotton T- shirt takes 2,700 litres of water to manufacture. When we picture 135 buckets of water, it’s almost certain we can find better use for them than the making of a T-shirt. So why don’t we? We live in a privileged time, with technological innovations in fabric growing leaps and bounds. GOTS-certified Organic Cotton, for example, offers all the benefits of traditional cotton, with extra softness and durability as a bonus. The best part? Growing and cultivating organic cotton uses 91% less water compared to regular cotton. There is a lot of science and study to back these claims.

If we start consuming consciously with the core philosophy of giving back, we can achieve a level of harmony with the environment. In fact, it is very much possible for fashionability and sustainability to go hand in hand. We need not sacrifice fashion for sustainable and cruelty-free options. There are several clothing options available today that check the boxes of being organic, fashion-forward, economical and diverse, so everybody can consciously make the decision to wear good, look good and simultaneously do good for the planet.