Hey everyone, Melanie here with sariKNOtsari! This week on the blog we are talking about SLOW FASHION. I am so excited to share this with you and as I learn more about it I can’t wait to share it with you all.

So, in order to understand slow fashion we first need to understand fast fashion. We’re going to quickly talk about the problem with fast fashion. So this is what we as consumers understand to be fashion in our everyday lives. For example, you go to the mall and you find let’s say 5 shirts, they are each 5-10, very on-trend, you love them, pick them up, bring them home. And I’m guilty of this too. You wear them a few times...you probably don’t even wear all of them. And then in a few months the trends are already changing. We want to be trendy and look hip so we go back to the mall and pick up some new stuff….some dresses, some pants.

And the cycle goes on and on. This is fast fashion consuming.  

It doesn’t seem like a huge problem. If you’re thinking “Well if I don’t wear something, I can donate it. What’s the problem with that? It helps someone who maybe can’t afford things from the mall and I get to go buy something new because I just donated something!”

Well actually, there is a big problem with this industry. It starts at the production end of things...social and environmental impacts. Environmentally, 1 kg of fabric produces 23 kg of greenhouse gases. Just think about that. 1 to 23 ratio of greenhouse gases. There’s also thousands of litres of water that are put into production to make new fabric.

You may not know this (I didn’t learn this until Priya, our founder, told me this week) but oil is the #1 pollutant, most people know that in our world, but fabric production is the second biggest pollutant in the world. SECOND BIGGEST. So every time we go to the mall or we go to different stores and buying cheap fabric, we are contributing to that environmental impact.

Also socially, we all remember a few years ago Rana Plaza in Bangladesh collapsed, a bunch of workers died from that (1100 to be exact!). When you buy things that are 5 or 10...we can’t have the same restrictions or policies in place to ensure that those places are safe. We don’t know if the workers are in a safe environment or a clean environment, if they’re getting breaks etc.

So what can we do to change this? We are done talking about the problem...we know about the problem.

There is a solution! And buyers have a huge power...a huge impact in this world of consumerism!

So let’s first talk about some alternatives. The first alternative is just wearing what you already have. 20% of clothing is what we wear. In our closets, we are only wearing 20%...most of us. And I’m guilty of this too. We find our favourite pieces, we know they look good on us, they feel good and we just wear them all the time. So just start with wearing more, mix and match, finding different combinations. Wear what you already have.

And if you can’t do that, maybe borrow something. If you have an event and you need a new dress, instead of buying one, maybe your friend has a really cute one. Or there’s some cool organizations now (Trusted Clothes out of Waterloo)  where you can swap. Clothing swaps are happening locally all the time and you can borrow clothing through these companies (Boro It in Toronto). It’s a great new model.

Another thing you can do is go to the thrift store and pick up stuff from there. That’s another great option. Maybe make something yourself? Old school...sew it yourself!

And if none of those alternatives work for you, that’s fine. If you have to buy something...maybe you have to buy a gift for someone or you have to buy something for yourself...shop ethically!

If you have to do it, do it ethically. I always say vote with your wallet. So I’m gonna be biased because now I’m learning more about finehiltonheadhomes and I love them! So I’m going to talk about their clothing brand.

So Priya, our founder, went to India and found two family-run businesses that make our clothing using upcycled Indian saris. They are cotton saris and silk saris that they turn into dresses, shirts, pants, tops, everything.

And if you are wondering, “Well what about the scraps from those? Don’t those go in the garbage?” No! They use the scraps, as well! This is amazing to me. They use it for gift wrap, for scarves, they use it for bunting which is a decoration you can have in your house.

So they are upcycling fabric, they are using the scraps to make more products, and then even better, they also support social change. 1 from every purchase of finehiltonheadhomes goes to Save the Elephants which is an organization that works on elephant conservation.

So you have these three amazing things that this organization does that you can use as a buyer. Use your power...shop ethically instead of supporting fast fashion.

And everything is on sale right now...it doesn’t get better than that!

So...that’s my little blog for this week. Next week, let me know what you want to hear about. What I’m thinking is...shopping locally, thinking globally… talking about my favourite places in Hamilton to do this.

So stay tuned for next week, thanks for watching this week. Bye!

It’s one thing to have the knowledge that we need to support better brands but it’s another thing to act! When you are shopping and find a piece of clothing you love, how do you know that it benefits people instead of harming them? So I thought I would give you the tools to do so this week!  

Here are their four main features:

See how your favourite brands rate

This app allows you to search brands and gives you ratings on them based on labour rights, effect on the environment, and animal welfare. It gives each company a general rating out of five and detailed ratings on each of the three categories. What I like is that the app provides blurbs on each brand and category explaining why they chose the rating they did.

Discover new, ethical brands

Under the preferences section you are able to choose the criteria that are most important to you when buying clothing (labour rights, environmental impact, and/or animal welfare). Good On You then suggests new and ethical brands that it thinks you will like. There’s also an option to put in your location so they can tell you which retailers close by carry these brands. This is another feature I enjoyed! It also personalized suggestions based on my location, gender, and style. 

Find great deals on ethical brands

We have all heard the argument that ethical brands can be more expensive. But you’ve seen me talk about quality over quantity in this blog and buying less/wearing more. I still believe all this but another feature of this app is that it shows you local offers on ethical brands. So if you’ve had your eye on a piece but can’t afford it at this time, you will be notified when it goes on sale. This makes ethically sourced pieces more affordable for more people.

More and more brands are moving from brick and mortar shops to online stores. This makes it harder to ask questions of sales associates. This app fixes that problem and does the work for you! You can have the answers to all your questions at your fingertips. They also have a great blog I recommend reading (in case you get bored of mine haha).

Here’s their website if you want to learn more about them and how they rate brands: https://finehiltonheadhomes.com/about/.

Until next week,

This week I wanted to highlight 5 items we have in store that every wardrobe needs. I picked these items because they have more than one function and that is what slow fashion is all about. What we seek to do is buy less and wear more. By adding items like these into your wardrobe, you can easily dress your other pieces up or down. Let’s get started!

1. Brooch

Another great purpose is to carry your glasses! I’m always losing mine so it’s great to keep them right on me. We get this item from Barbara Rubber, a company that recycles rubber tires into necklaces. So you know your money is going to a great organization that is helping clean the environment! 

2. Sleevey Wonders

Sleevey Wonders are also great for following a dress code at work or if you want to feel more comfortable in a certain outfit. We have a full sleeve style and a ¾ length one, as well. Each side of this item is different so you can wear it with a high neckline or as a V-Neck, an added bonus!

3. Upcycled Scarf

We have scarves with our finehiltonheadhomes line that are made of upcycled saris in India. This means they help the planet while you wear them by saving the material from going into a landfill. Our scarves come in squares and rectangles and in cotton or silk. They also double as reusable, fabric gift wrap...does it get any better? 

4. Black Pants

They are seriously so comfortable! Once again, these are items that can be dressed up or down, used to layer under dresses, or worn alone. We carry both regular and plus-size options. Bamboo also rarely needs to be ironed, saving you time!

5. Black Top

We have both camisoles and long-sleeved tops for all your layering needs. As I’ve said with the other items in this post, they can be dressed up or down with the right accessories. I pick black because it matches virtually everything which means you will wear it more and that is what we want!

Who doesn’t want to save money by buying less clothes while also reducing their environmental footprint?

Let me know in the comments!

Hi everyone,

Melanie here with finehiltonheadhomes! This week for the blog I wanted to pop on video to talk about impact. You’ll notice the topic for this week is “You make a difference...You are making an impact!” And this is something I wanted to address because over the Christmas season and New Year’s, I noticed talking with a lot of friends and family that we are overwhelmed by all the negativity in the world and all the problems going on.

We don’t know where to start. There’s war, violence, AIDS, refugees, poverty...the list goes on and on. And it can be overwhelming to know how one person can make a difference. Some people think, “Can I even make a difference?” And I’m here to tell you this week that you can and, in fact, you are making a difference already.

First of all, I want to start with a little example that I’ve figured out through working in retail. This happens all the time. So let’s say a customer asks for a certain product, a fair trade tea. And then someone else asks for it. And someone else asks for it. Eventually we bring that in. It’s supply and demand. So customers have an impact just right there. By asking for something. The owner or manager will say this is very valuable to the customer and we should bring it in.

Another example is just asking for fair trade or ethically sourced. It’s great to be challenged by customers. When people are asking us, “Where does this come from? Where do you get it? Is it local, organic, direct trade?” And sometimes we don’t know the answers to those questions but that’s great because then we get to find out together. And then when the next person asks, we know the answer.

So there’s this ripple effect and this connectiveness where when you are asking a question or making a comment or wanting a product to be brought in, that is effecting other people. It effects us as staff and our product knowledge and future customers who now can have that knowledge from us and buy that product that you asked to bring in.

So basically in this blog post I want to focus on the fact that we aren’t neutral beings. This is something I feel strongly about. Our actions do not have a neutral effect. What we are doing everyday has a positive impact or a negative impact on the world.

So it may be overwhelming to think, “I have something I’m passionate about but I don’t have time. I don’t have time to organize my community to write a petition or do a protest or various other things.” You don’t have to do something that big. Don’t start with this huge problem I have to solve all by myself. Start everyday with little actions. Things you are already doing.

I buy coffee. So instead of buying unethical coffee, I buy ethical coffee. We buy clothing. Instead of buying unethical clothing, look into where you clothing is coming from. It is a great thing just to start asking those questions. Where does this come from?

And then we can make positive, small changes from there and can pick a more ethical option! So that’s basically where I’m at right now. That we can make a difference and we are making a difference through our actions every single day.

There’s another example I wanted to give you: social media. We’re all on social media I’m guilty of it. We are scrolling on instagram and facebook and we post or share funny memes and articles. But what if instead we shared our favourite local clothing brand? Or our favourite fair trade coffee? It can be anything you are passionate about or something that’s supporting someone else in our community.

Let’s say you share that fair trade clothing brand and your sister sees it. She clicks it and loves their stuff and buys something. Then she shares it on her instagram and one of her friends sees it. Same thing...they click it and buy something and so on. So you may think “I’m going to share this article, that’s not going to have any impact, who cares.” But we do have impact, even if we don’t know it! We always have an impact through that ripple effect and network of community.

So if you feel overwhelmed and like you don’t have the money to buy fair trade clothing or the time to volunteer for the causes you are passionate about, look at what you are already doing and see if you can change your actions in that way. If you are already buying coffee or already sharing links on social media, then make a positive difference that way.

It would just be so great if we could all do that! So that is our homework for this week, we’re getting homework again (me included). Whenever I go on video it seems I like to give out homework, I don’t know why. But that’s just what I wanted to leave you with. Vote with you wallet, I always say that.

Let’s get the conversation going. Let me know in the comments things that you can do everyday to make a positive impact.

Thanks so much!