The Intersectionality Between Spirituality and Sustainable Fashion
Have you ever considered how your spiritual practices influence your shopping habits? No matter your religion or perspective on God, there can exist a deep connection with what you wear and what you believe in.
In a materialistic society, looking within your internal ideological and faith perspectives has the power to manifest within reality through external means. We all are well aware that appearances are important for the expression of who we feel and think we are. It allows us to form an identity that is reflective of what is important to us and the role we play in life.
However, it is also important to recognize there is no escaping that external media alters our perception of our life through Instagram posts from friends and influencers, celebrities, movies, and what we surround ourselves with on a daily basis. Termed material realism, what we see in our everyday lives can influence our internal values and shopping habits. Admit it, it is super easy to be seduced in buying a hoodie if your favorite YouTuber promotes it or when you are hanging out with friends during a nice, sunny weekend.
These external inputs really have the power to reduce our internal value systems and the sense of what is divine and holy. This is why it is important to stay in touch with your inner sense of faith and/or God to balance the rampant consumerism promoted in Western culture. Spirituality is really about being in tune with your internal self, where you tap into the essence of your soul and the source of human love, compassion, empathy, intuition, joy, care and interconnection.
Spirituality is open ended, freely around us and is revealed in the mystery of life. Everything is sacred because we are all a piece in the interconnection of it all. The physical and mystical aspects dance with each other to create the visible and invisible, the yin and yang and the material with the immaterial.
We should not detach ourselves from our inner selves to conform with societal norms. No matter what compass our heart is pointing to on God, we can all come together to have important conversations on issues affecting the world and to manifest a more beautiful and just world through our unique sense of spirituality. Everyone is on a personal journey with our own timeline while being deeply interconnected with the world. The things in our life are but conscious and unconscious expressions of that. It can be argued that we are all spiritual beings experiencing a human experience where our inner vibrational energy is manifesting our outer world.
Our inner vibrational energy is formed by our thoughts, feelings which are made a reality by our physical actions. To be attracted or interested in sustainable fashion is an indication of an inner self that is seeking connection, reflection, and humanness through a specific medium. We can design what our interior looks like through physical materials by designing our own dresses, buying vintage and by buying just from sustainable fashion brands.
That is why fashion is such an important medium since clothing can be sacred in creating truly meaningful lives. It psychologically helps us form our self identity, assimilate into society and help develop our emotional state of being. It is also able to hold powerful stories, memories and meaning to individuals that take time to respect the medium. All the while, clothing remains a loyal nonverbal communicator of what we hold important, what we want to look like and what we support in the world.
By specifically supporting sustainable fashion, we can become more conscious of our actions. It can help address social injustices caused by systemic structures which are causing pain and suffering to humans, animals and our Earth. This process DOES NOT have to be disconnected with our spirituality. It can actually be strengthened when your actions are in alignment with your spirituality.
Sustainable fashion and spirituality should NOT be
separate things that are perceived as disconnected
subject to generalization on how this should manifest since every person has a unique sense of style despite similar perspectives on spirituality
reduced to hippie-like clothing or worn dull colors to prove there is an intersection
Every journey and individual is unique and style should not be sacrificed to be intersectional.
In addition, sustainability and sustainable fashion can be seen as different languages in meeting God in our everyday life. Being more aware of what you buy and what clothing means to you are tools to cultivate inner purpose, creativity, community and peace. This practice of mindfulness, reflection and awareness can also cause a formation and/or deeper connection to spirituality, consciousness, and presence. These methods of connection are essential in midst of world chaos where competition pits us against each other.
Through these tools, all humans can flourish symbiotically on an individual basis for the collective good. With technology at the tips of our fingers, discovering sustainable fashion and sharing it with those we love has never been easier. It can help bridge the disconnection with others and with ourselves. Sustainable fashion is a beacon in which light can enter. It allows difficult questions such as:
What do I care about ?
Who am I?
How do I express myself?
What can I do to be a better human?
to be addressed in simple external mediums, such as shirts, jackets, pants and shoes. Through a deeper connection with the materials that we use as a second skin we become a part of its story. The clothing story is interwoven with the chapter of the land it was made from, the agriculture workers, the weavers, the dyers, the transporters, the wearers and the end of life cycle.
The intersection of spirituality and sustainable fashion is a also but a micro level example of the butterfly effect. The initial conditions of the decisions made in fast fashion brands executive board room meetings set forward large ripple effects on everyone in the world that were touched by one garment. Maybe we can hope that it takes just one executive/one consumer/one shirt to change the entire industry where exploitation is excused for profit maximization and cheap prices.
Sadly, no one else can convince you to make ethical changes to your behavior or to care. That is the magic of spirituality and sustainable fashion. Both are deeply interconnected but this transformation of self still needs to take hold on the interior basis. Through this transformation of self, life becomes more about what is in tune with bringing the greatest love and care. This heart-centered approach will be felt in the way we do business, approach missions and visions, set goals, and how we treat humans and Mother Earth.
Essentially, addressing problems in fast fashion indicates looking at the humans at the helm of the board room meetings. Their top-down power moves cause every human in the “ladder” to be touched by the ideals they uphold. These ideals are a formation of their values and feelings that become unhealthy actions. To feel healthy change in the fashion industry we need healthy actions from socially and spiritually conscious business people. It evokes them to live in terms of values that are experienced versus then measured. For example, valuing the experience of love and peace over seeing big numbers in a bank account.
But to be real, fast fashion brands do not voluntarily support conversations and practices that cannot be measured and uncontrolled. There are also little laws forcing brands to be socially responsible or to be ethical. To change the nature of fast fashion would mean a forced social awakening. Elizabeth Cline, a New York-based author, journalist, and expert on consumer culture, fast fashion, sustainability and labor rights. stated that
“The cancellation crisis has made it clear that the apparel industry can no longer be built around vocabulary labor and environmental standards by brands….. Putting supplier and worker voices in the center of all decision-making is an absolute must. True brand accountability and true protection for workers and factories are the only way forward”
This statement has come after fast fashion brands refused to pay for orders that have been fulfilled by factories and stopping new orders from going forward after the COVID-19 breakout. Their failure to regard the human effect of not paying garment workers their fairly earned check, firing everyone and then failing to provide them resources for health and financial security is a clear indication of apathy and corporate greed. It meant prioritizing shareholder security at the cost of developing countries' societal breakdowns.
In this light, fashion brands are NOT going to be conscience at their own will. Humanity will be forever deprived of goodness and love if there are waiting for a change of heart within business executives. In addition, fake love will never be never good enough. It is not enough for businesses to practice woke washing. This is when they market their brand as socially aware by investing a little bit of their hefty fortune into social causes or within sustainability efforts. It is essentially paying money to show that they care, which is alike a bad boyfriend trying to excuse their abusive behavior by buying flowers. It's a temporary solution to a toxic relationship that needs to be fixed with serious attention to the mental and emotional state of the being.
Going forward, to deepen the connection with our spirituality and sustainable fashion we need to hold ourselves and brands accountable. We must take the time to get to know ourselves, find our purpose and value love above all else. In this journey, we will then be able to do the work needed to fix issues in the fashion industry. This includes pushing for change that prioritizes purchasing orders that favor suppliers, establishing higher prices for factories AND consumers and guaranteeing a fair, living wage for workers. Placing the voices of workers and suppliers at the heart of the business allows us to meet on a human level essential for connection. In this manner, we can really grow to hope to create a more joyful and beautiful world.