The do not buy and do not buy from lists
Greetings friends,
I had a realization this week! A few weeks ago I shared the list of brands that are working to be more sustainable and ethical. While I try to focus on making suggestions for how to be more sustainable in a proactive, positive way, I realized that there is a lot of value in knowing which brands to rule out when shopping. The problem is that the list of brands that are actively greenwashing, not using sustainable practices, and not treating their workers fairly is disappointingly long and will take me a while to compile. In the meantime, I have three suggestions.
Do not buy fast fashion. The major villains here include SHEIN (this is a NEVER buy brand!), H&M, Zara (sadly!), and similar retailers. When in doubt if a retailer is part of the fast fashion industry, don’t buy. If the price seems too good to be true or if you can purchase through Amazon, the answer is most likely: not sustainable.
Use the Good on You app and search by brand name. Their list is pretty comprehensive and they break down the brand’s performance against the benchmarks of people, planet, and animals.
Create a ‘do not buy’ list for yourself. This list should include types of clothing you don’t like or need (for me, this is grey cardigans because I have too many), brands that don’t fit your body, and brands that do not align with your style values. I do this for my clients as part of the style transformation package and it is so so valuable!
The three suggestions above will instantly make shopping harder for you – it is true. This is a good thing. Yes, I promise, it is! Making shopping even the slightest bit harder for ourselves forces us (in a gentle way) to be more intentional with our purchases.
Let’s buy less and buy smarter this season and next year!
xo Kevin