By Victoria Pevzner ‘24, Arts and Entertainment Editor

The “Stop and Swap” Stand at Homecoming, Image Courtesy of Joy Yagid

With the increasing effects of climate change, we have seen a greater push for sustainability in an effort to protect our environment. While sustainability is often associated with environmental effects, it also provides solutions for social and economic issues in our world. Sustainability in fashion, a movement which has become prominent in recent years, has exhibited promising solutions to overcoming economic disparities and climate crises.

The sustainable fashion movement began as a result of the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh in 2013, a tragedy which resulted in over 1,000 casualties and even more injuries. Such factories exist across the world and have unethical working conditions: no ventilation, no water or food breaks, and a work wage of next to nothing. However, they continue to exist because of “fast fashion”,  which is when companies produce trendy clothing at a low cost. The practice is unethical and environmentally dangerous:  not only does it result in unacceptable working conditions, but much of the clothing produced  is of very poor quality and ends up in landfills very quickly.

As these issues were put into light, more people began to advocate for change in the fashion industry. This led to companies rethinking their design process to prioritize sustainability—prime examples of these brands are Stella McCartney, Maggie Marilyn, and Garcia Bello. Stella McCartney creates cruelty-free clothing (no fur or leather involved) and uses recycled textiles and materials that are Global Organic Textile certified — meaning the materials are thoroughly assessed for biodegradability and are obtained from corporations that do not practice discrimination or child labor. Maggie Marilyn is a brand whose mission revolves around reducing their carbon footprint and being a climate-positive business. The brand aims to transform the fashion industry into one that uses sustainable materials to create a circular system that recycles said materials.. Lastly, Garcia Bello’s production methods are based on upcycling, or utilizing materials that are donated from other companies. Rather than letting all the old clothing go to waste, Garcia Bello created a cyclical system of fashion production.

Sustainable fashion has also become a growing cause at Newark Academy. During the fall, students Svan Mura ‘24, Wesley Brock ‘24, Lucy Halstead ‘25, and Leon Sarkissian ‘25, formed “Stop and Swap”,  an initiative to reduce the clothing waste at Newark Academy. Svan Mura ‘24 explained that the idea of “Stop and Swap” started with an Instagram account, but then turned into a larger project with the help of Leon Sarkissian and Ms. Duszak, leading to a stand at Homecoming. “The week before [Homecoming] we collected donations from NA students and staff, and, the day of, we set up a tent stand with blankets and decorations and the clothes organized like a store–only nobody had to pay for anything,” Mura recounted. Overall, the initiative was successful. The team collected a large amount of clothing that was later given out to the attendees of Homecoming, and the remainder was donated to GreenDrop, a service that promotes recycling and repurposing clothing. “It was set up as a pop-up thrift store, but free for the entire NA community,” Mura said. She described the goal of the initiative as one that was to reduce clothing waste and raise awareness about “thrifting as a cheaper, more sustainable option to traditional fashion outlets.” When asked about what we as individuals can do to make more sustainable fashion choices, Mura stated that supporting the next “Stop and Swap,” shopping at thrift stores, buying clothes less frequently, fixing old clothes instead of throwing them out, and doing research about whether the brands you are buying from use sustainable materials are all great methods.

By practicing sustainable fashion, we can better preserve our planet and improve the lives of millions of people. This needs to come from everyone; before we can achieve sustainability on a global level, we first need to achieve it on an individual level. Svan Mura hopes that sustainable fashion is “a new normal that we’re just in the process of transitioning to.” While there is a lot of work that still needs to be done, by understanding sustainability and putting it to practice, we can aim to solve greater issues related to the environment and ethics.