WHAT DOES SUSTAINABILITY MEAN?

Well hey there friends, it's been a hot minute since I posted on the blog and I honestly don't have an excuse because I've just been too busy. Believe it or not, I've had a bunch of ideas and things I want to talk about so I'm going to just start at the top of my list and work my way through, top of my list is sustainability.... bit of a hot topic now,[ right?

So, the linguist in me has to start here: Sustainability is a noun, meaning 'the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level', meeting the needs of a person without compromising others needs to be met now or in the future. At the moment there is a lot of chat about shopping sustainably and obviously, that is a great thing, but there seems to be a small number of people online who are really doing their bit whilst being mean about people who aren't? Very specifically, in regards to sustainable fashion. I've seen people share things online, calling out brands for 'not trying' enough, calling out influencers for not trying enough or not talking about it enough. And you know what's not sustainable? THAT. 

So maybe I've had a bee in my bonnet about this for a little while but please bear with me. You may or may not know that I work in retail, I work in retail because I needed a job (I have two jobs, fyi) and that's the same for a lot of people. I work for a company I personally believe are so much better than other high street retailers, and who I do think could try a little harder to be sustainable and environmentally sound because I think all big corporations could, but who are trying nonetheless. When people target these brands with comments about how awful they are, they make the employees feel like shit too.

Regardless of the above, I'm going to discuss what sustainability means to me, what I do and why that is enough for now. 

1. I'm vegan. I've been vegan since I was 10 years old. If you want to know why that's so good, click here for 9 great reasons...

2. I wear my clothes, like all the time. I've always loved clothes and fashion and having fun with my style and that's never going to stop. Yes I have a big wardrobe and I don't need any new clothes but it would be unrealistic for me to promise I'll never buy new clothes. I make conscious decisions when it comes to shopping and I won't buy things I won't wear or things that I'll be done with after one wear because that is crazy wasteful- for the planet and my wallet.

3. I charity shop, I vintage shop and wear hand-me-downs. I share and swap clothes with my mom and sister, it's like shopping but without the money.

Sustainability is so bloody important to me, but so is being clothed, fed and being kind. Not everyone can be the same definition of sustainable and that's ok? Give people credit for trying and don't blame individuals for the environmental crisis- we need big corporations to step up and we need everyone to be imperfectly sustainable to make a difference. Stop blaming people for not trying enough or for buying a top they quite liked, in the words of Taylor Swift- you need to calm down.

IWx

*All photos taken by Scarlett Stevens.