Celebrating Fair Sustainable Fashion Earth Day and Every Day
Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal, a time when we get to watch Mother Nature wake up and warm up from her chilly winter repose. It’s against this beautiful backdrop of snow melting, rain falling, and flowers blooming that we will celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd. The theme for Earth Day 2023 is, “Invest In Our Planet,” and if you visit earthday.org, you’ll see that one of the main environmental focuses this year is sustainable fashion.
We increasingly live in a world of fast fashion where materials are wasted, the Earth is stripped of its resources, and workers are exploited. As a result, fashion has become one of the world’s most polluting industries with an emphasis on cheap, disposable goods that encourage wasteful consumption and mindless purchasing. Sustainable fashion, on the other hand, focuses on ecological and social responsibility as well as fair trade practices, worker protections, and a living wage.
At Mala and Mantra, sustainability has always been one of our brand pillars. From day one, our mission has been to design with intention, create consciously, and deliver high-quality, sustainable fashion that nurtures the soul. We achieve our mission by making sure every piece in our collection is handcrafted by a fair trade cooperative of gifted women artisans in the Philippines. This partnership enables these women to enjoy fair wages, a safe work environment, and a sustainable way to support themselves, their families, and their community.
Consumers are starting to pay more attention to their clothing and accessories purchases, and more brands like Mala and Mantra are speaking out about the importance of sustainable practices. When I started this business, I knew that I wanted to find a way to give back to the community and artisans in my family’s homeland of the Philippines. I’ve personally seen the difference that meaningful work and good wages can make in the lives of these women, and in the future, we hope to expand our operations to benefit even more talented women in even more communities around the globe.
Our efforts to make a difference through sustainable fashion wouldn’t be possible without you! The Mala and Mantra community is full of amazing people like you who choose fair trade, social responsibility and sustainability with every mindful purchase they make. We thank you so much for sharing our values and our vision, and we look forward to all of the ways we can continue to invest in the Earth and the people with whom we share it.
As someone who is personally interested in upcycling and recycling my own fashion purchases I do my best to donate clothing to local charities who help the homeless in our community and recycle clothing and textiles to other charities who can use them. I recently discovered a company from watching an episode of Shark Tank called Retold Recycle who recycles textiles and clothing so it doesn't end up in a landfill. They send you a bag to send in your items and they take care of distributing it to thrift stores, charity stores, recycling centers, and manufacturing companies who recycle textiles. Nothing goes to waste and I love that they have created a network of partners who all share the same mission and incentive for not having anything to go to a landfill. Here's a link to their website if you would like into their program. In honor of Earth Day I'm going to order one of their bags and maybe coordinate with a Spring Closet cleaning!
https://www.retoldrecycling.com/
Happy Earth Day to you all!
JPC
