Reducing Your Corporate Fashion Footprint ft. Lauren Scott (The Resilience Report)

Hi everyone, welcome to this episode of The Resilience Report. 

Today is another solo episode where I'm going to be addressing a question that I get quite often, which is how can you balance your love of fashion (especially in a corporate environment) and the idea of minimizing your environmental footprint? 

This goes back to a principle I'm sure you've heard many times in many different situations, which is reduce, reuse, and recycle. 

So how does this apply to fashion? 

Let's start with reduce. 

Certainly, we know this concept of fast fashion is problematic when it comes to the environment. So, there are a couple of different angles that you can take here in terms of reducing.

The first is making sure that when you are buying a piece that it is really of good quality. So, this might mean that you buy less pieces and make more investments throughout the year. Or just making sure that, as you wash the garment, that it maintains its integrity and it's not just something that is meant to be disposed of within a year. So, you have that idea of investing in certain pieces. Certainly, also choosing items (if it's within your means) that are made locally can have a big environmental impact, so made in your local country. Also seeing which materials are being leveraged. For example, are they using recycled materials. There is a company that I love here in Montreal. It's actually more on the athleisure side than necessarily what you'd wear to the office, but it's called ORAKI. And they make leggings and tops and sweaters for working out that are made from recycled bottles. And I think it's such a phenomenal, great idea. It is also made locally here in the city. So phenomenal option and just kind of ecopreneurs trying to pave the way there. 

So, when you're reducing, you're trying to choose those quality pieces. You're trying to make sure that, if possible, they're made locally, they're made with recycled materials, and you can really just also help reduce by making friends with your local tailor. I am not someone who is very skilled with thread and needle. However, there are a number of different local tailors that I can work with to make sure I'm repairing pieces correctly. Or if, for example, overtime your pieces don't quite fit right, this is an opportunity for you to go to know your tailor, have them fixed so that you're avoiding having to throw them out or to give them away. On the international scale, there is a recent program introduced in France that I think is so creative to support the economy AND the environment: they now subsidize repairs to clothing and shoes in order to cut waste and pollution from the textile industry. This means that if you bring your item in to be repaired, you get the discount right away, and the service provider will be reimbursed by the program within 15 days!

We've covered the idea of reduce, and now let's go to the area that I love, which is reuse. 

I think growing up, I had always assumed that to buy something secondhand meant it was really kind of an inferior quality, just kind of dull and drab. But I've really discovered over the past few years, especially when I'm trying to have a corporate-looking attire, is that there are some great different options available. First are the secondhand shop, so you can definitely have your average secondhand shop, but then you can also have those that are slightly more elevated that are selling those designer or higher end pieces at a deep discount, but they are previously loved so you know that you're not necessarily contributing to that environmental footprint. 

You can also explore different creative stores like there's one here, a program here in Montreal that I love. I've been using it for a number of years now, called SHWAP Club, and the principle is that you bring your pieces: for example, you've worn a suit a number of times and you want to switch things up. You can bring your articles into this store and get credits for it. They are a little bit choosy as to which articles that they accept, but this is phenomenal in the sense that then when you go back to the store, you know that the pieces that they have accepted from others really meet this minimum standard and allow you to find some incredible finds. So, when you go in, every piece that they accept, you get a number of credits to then be able to go buy new pieces of gently-loved but those superior quality pieces. 

So we have done reduce, reuse, and in reuse, we've talked about secondhand shops, but there's another option and one that I think is phenomenal if you're in the corporate environment and you're expected to attend, maybe some fancier galas, Christmas dinners, those sorts of things. It’s the idea of renting. This is a really phenomenal way a) it's a lot better on your budget and then b) you know that it is really not going to be contributing to any waste or emissions as a result of you renting it. I went so far as actually renting my wedding dress a few years ago. It was absolutely my dream dress, it was a fraction of the cost, and instead of sitting under my bed right now kind of gathering dust, it has been passed on to other brides who can now wear it and also rent it for their wedding. 

There is reduce, we have reuse, and then we have recycle. 

On the recycling side, obviously if you have some gorgeous higher-end pieces that you think you can still get value from by selling, this is absolutely an avenue that you can pursue. Going online now allows us to do this in a way that is far easier than before. You don't have to go sell it in a kind of flea market outside or anything. You can sell it from the comfort of your house. Things like Facebook Marketplace is now option. If not, I know that there are a number of different websites available where you can sell and buy your pieces. 

You can also donate. Obviously, they're the classic opportunities for you to donate your clothing, but then there are also some options, like programs intended for those who maybe don't have the means yet but are looking to enter the workforce. So, for example, again here in Montreal, there is a program where you can donate your gently-worn suits and workwear to this program, and they help pass it out to men and women in need who are trying to enter the corporate world as well, and need that clothing, but might not just have the resources at the moment.

So, we really do have 3 great options in terms of reducing our impact and really kind of minimizing our footprint, all while embracing the idea of fashion. And I’m the first person to say that I love fashion. I mean, what I'm wearing right now is from SHWAP Club here in Montreal. But I really think that it's important to be aware that it is absolutely normal that we can't all be perfect in terms of our options, but we do have so many really interesting options for us to go explore for our clothing and at the same time we're going and then exploring those different opportunities supporting those ecopreneurs who are trying to find new ways to bring value to the market.

I hope you found this episode valuable. 

If you have other questions that you'd like me to tackle, please just give me a shout and I would be happy to include it on a future episode!