WHAT IS A CONSCIOUS LIFESTYLE?

We found this on Sutton + Grove's website and it struck a cord that we wanted to share. Straight from their website here is some amazing and simplified ideas about living a conscious life. Check out what they had to say about this great alternative lifestyle:

A Conscious Life is a life that is carefully lived with an awareness and care for one’s surroundings. This includes people near and far, the environment and even our fashion choices.

• How we spend our money.
• How we spend our time.
• What we support.
• How we think.

All of these areas in our lives are shaped by how much we care and where we are at ethically. Conscious living is connected to ethics, as many topics such as recycling, buying fair trade, caring about the environment, giving back and supporting conscious fashion are usually not legal issues but moral issues.

What is Ethical Fashion? 

Ethical Fashion means that the business is transparent about its supply chain, uses materials that are organic, zero-waste or mindful in nature and treats all workers in the supply chain fairly and ethically. Ethical fashion brands often are known for some of the following: featuring artisans with traditional skill sets, providing cruelty-free products, using certified and (or) safe factories, avoiding all sweatshop labor, etc. In summary, you know a fashion label is ethical if they don’t exploit people for their own financial success. Transparency is key to being considered an ethical fashion brand.

What Is Sustainable Fashion?

Sustainable Fashion is made with a minimal footprint on the planet. This means that there is less waste, pollution, and resources used in a garment’s manufacturing process. A sustainable fashion piece often uses organic and natural textiles and materials, non-toxic dyes and recycled materials. In summary, you know a piece of clothing is sustainable if it’s made with the environment in mind.

What is Slow/Fast Fashion?

The Slow Fashion movement prioritizes quality design, creating and buying apparel for longevity. It slows down the production process, encourages fair trade and fair wages and is environmentally conscious in design and implementation. Slow fashion is a response to fast fashion.

Fast Fashion is fashion that is produced as fast as possible in order to get new trends to the market in the cheapest way possible. Fast fashion encourages consumers to buy a lot of cheap items, discard them when they go out of style and buy more new cheap clothes.  In 1985 the average person bought around 30 clothing items per year and today we buy more than double that amount per year. Here are a few facts on Fast Fashion.

• Americans on average throw away over 13 million tons of textiles a year.

• We Millennials have over 4 times the amount of clothes in our wardrobes than our parents had and because of constantly changing seasonal fashion trends the average American throws away an average of 65 pounds of clothing a year. That’s insane!

• Did you know that the people who are making our clothes are often taken advantage of and paid poorly thanks to a profit at any cost mentality by large western companies and corporations? The truth is we are exploiting people globally to put cheap clothes on the racks and it matters what you and I do about it! This is assuming your role and taking on a social responsibility! What you do, how you think and what you buy matters.

It will cost you more to buy ethical or sustainable fashion. Choosing a t-shirt that is made ethically or sustainably may cost you 5$-$10 more today but make no mistake, you are supporting global change. You are putting a demand on the industry. Money talks, that is the reality of our world. Where you put that money matters. However, it’s not just our purchasing habits that need to change but also how we see ourselves and how we view the world around us.

Social Responsibility 

Social Responsibility suggests that every person should operate their life with an awareness towards the interests and well-being of society as a whole. By embracing social responsibility we take ownership of our choices, how we spend our money, what we support and how we take care of what we already own. This is a conscious lifestyle, being mindful of what we possess and it’s effect on other people and the environment.