Welcome to This Stuff, a newsletter about loving fashion and other beautiful things while always minding its impact. This newsletter is free, but a paid option is available. Any subscription helps me keep it alive. Thank you for reading!
I should start by admitting that I have not dressed as a Taylor Swift Era (though I would be doing Evermore) or in a metallic Beyoncé-ready outfit. I haven't broken out my hot pink tube top to see Barbie, and no flat-brimmed hats or vests have been worn to watch Oppenheimer. Still, I have relished how people show up and out for these cultural moments.
It feels like we have had – excuse me for this – a renaissance. We are having fun with fashion, and we are expressing ourselves in all new ways. While the potential issues from a sustainability perspective are similar to the way Halloween is a wasteful landfill-bound polyester mess, most people are being very creative from what I've seen so far. This woman, for example, created a quick-change jumpsuit that changed from black to hot pink.
These themes are like permission to step outside what feels appropriate or comfortable every day and be yourself. What era are you? What Barbie are you? These are questions I want to ask myself every day. I don't feel the same each morning I walk to my closet, so why not reframe and change the theme when I feel like it?
Today, for example, I was scrolling on TikTok for too long and saw a video of the early 2000s band Play. They were so profoundly 2000s girlie pop, and the outfits reflected it. Each wore DIY-esque tops (think chopped crop tops and hacked-off sleeves) with flares and mini skirts. It inspired me to theme my outfit around things in my closet that I could respectfully take my scissors to.
Outside of just finding fun in getting dressed by doing this, it helped me look through my closet. Maybe theme-dressing your way through life is an easier hack to actually wearing things you own too. Next week might be 90s Julia Roberts-themed, and the exercise is to find something I already have to fit one of her roles.
Maybe it’s corny, but finding joy in clothing is important but difficult. Societal pressure, body insecurities, time, and price are just a few things that make getting dressed stressful. If there is a moment, or even one outfit, that can make you remember what clothes can be, then why not try and have some fun?
OK, now time for some sustainable fashion news.
U.K.-based labor rights advocacy group, Labour Behind the Label, launched a campaign aimed at Megan Rapinoe, asking the soccer player to encourage Nike to pay its garment workers. Megan Rapinoe is currently playing in the World Cup. (SOURCING JOURNAL)
Inditex, the owner of Zara, has accelerated its sustainability goals. Many of them include changing materials to recycled fabrics and lowering overall emissions. Notably, there are no goals for reducing production. (Business of Fashion)
Shein was hit with a RICO lawsuit after designers and artists claimed the brand copied their work. Shein has not responded, but the case is ongoing. (Teen Vogue)