LIVE LIFE IN
Sustainable Style ISSUE 4: APRIL 2021
EXPLORING Sustainable
Style
sustainability in style
A NOTE FROM
Katie
Hello Sustainably Stylish friends!
It’s hard to believe that we’re already in April and launching Issue 4 of this magazine! This month we align our magazine theme with the roots of our mission- life in Sustainable Style. For those who aren’t aware, Sustainability in Style began as a series of clothing swaps at USC. It evolved in 2013 to an online blog where I documented my ‘Wardrobe Workout’ journey, taking a year off from shopping to put the contents of my closet to the rotational-wear test. During this time the words ‘Sustainable Style’ were used with focus on clothing, self-expression, and consumption. Over the years of blogging the term Sustainable Style shifted from being clothing focused, to investigate ways of living more mindfully (of people and planet) in your own personal style! In around 2018-2019, around the time I was completing my Masters, Sustainability in Style got a complete overhaul. Graduating from personal blog to a full support system to simplify sustainability for people who choose to live life sustainably on their own values-based terms. I don’t do personal blog posts here anymore as there are enough people sharing their personal journey to sustainable living all over the internet. However, the content that was created during these times of personal blogging is just as important as many of the new tools we have available. Which is why, this Fashion Revolution fuelled month, we explore sustainable style, from our beginnings in fashion to our present-day focus of action. A life lived in Sustainable Style draws from the past, critically assesses the present, and takes action with view to the future. Let’s explore in Sustainable Style together this April! Sustainably yours, Katie
OUR TOOLKIT BREATHE GROW MAKE PLAY READ SHARE STRETCH STYLE
Have you seen our eightpart toolkit for reducing eco-overwhelm? We’ve included the eight themes throughout this magazine (look for stars that match the colours) to help you identify what tools you might want to consider harnessing. Make notes (on your free Kiss Eco Overwhelm Goodbye downloadable worksheet on the website) of the tools you choose to use and how they impact on your key stressors. 1
Contents
Welcome........................................................................................................ 1 Catch Up on Last Month's Content....................................................... 3 Community Expansion ............................................................................ 4 Take Action Resources............................................................................ 5 Our April Theme........................................................................................ 6 Why Sustainable Style?........................................................................... 7 Sustainable Style in Action.................................................................... 8 This Month's Resources........................................................................... 13 Fashion Revolution: Take Action .......................................................... 15 A to Z of Conscious Fashion Download.............................................. 17 Join Us at a Yoga and Lifestyle Festival............................................. 21 Dates for Your Planner............................................................................ 23 Next Months Theme ............................................................................... 24
TOOLS FOR ALLYSHIP These tools have been collected as part of our Book Club online support content for ‘Me and White Supremacy’ by Layla Saad. We decided these tools were far too useful to hide away and shared them as a post to assist others in gaining a better understanding of their personal biases.
TAKE THE
CHALLENGE
MINDFUL READING
Last month our Mindful Reading challenge inspired some of you to take a break from the news and media choosing to allow your headlines to come from kindnews resources. We’re letting you know that these resources are available for free for you to download at any time. Tell your friends and family (after all, that is the kind-news way)!
CATCH UP
What You Loved Last Month
Last month we ditched the theme for a simple focus on being mindful. From mindfully consuming news and media to gaining an understanding about how to be an ally to BIPOC. These are some of your standout favourites from last month’s issue.
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WE ARE EXPANDING OUR
Community
Normally we use this space to share ways that our community have been taking action using our tools and resources. This issue we’ve chosen to do something a little different with an exciting announcement about the expansion of our community. As we move (mindfully) towards the release of our Time is a Nonrenewable Resource self-coaching sustainability planner we are proud to announce that we will be partnering with Rainforest Rescue. For each unit sold we will be making a donation on your behalf to this action group that have been working since 1999 to conserve, protect, and revegetate rainforests across Australia and subsequently internationally. This partnership is one that we are really proud of and can’t wait to keep you updated on the wonderful work that your contribution will be supporting.
Click to learn about Rainforest Rescue
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HAVE YOU SEEN OUR
Take Action
RESOURCES?
The internet offers endless opportunities to read, learn, and grow and there is so much content on the world wide web that exploring it can be overwhelming. We’ve been online for around eight years now, so our content archive is extensive. To help simplify your reading experience, we’ve been streamlining and categorising it in the ‘Take Action’ tab on our website. Each month our themes are updated to include and align with our magazine offerings. We hope that this helps you to take action in sustainable style on issues you really care about (without the eco-overwhelm)
TAKE ACTION
TAKE THE QUIZ
VALUES Motivators
It would be nice if you could do all-the-things-all-the-time to save the world, animals, and people but the reality is that you can’t. We’ve taken the eco-overwhelm out of working out what you really care about with our Values Motivators Quiz. Find out which one of our four categories inspires you most and start taking action in mindful, achievable, and targeted steps.
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EXPLORING Sustainable
Style
Our April Theme Whether you’re living off-the-grid in a self-built tiny home or inhabit a suburban home in an estate, we all have our role to play in making the world a more sustainable place. This month’s theme explores how we can take-action in a values based way to carve a more sustainable future for people and planet without overloading ourselves to the point of eco-overwhelm. There are two focuses for this month’s theme. Firstly, we look at how to live life in sustainable style from a values-based approach (with some examples of how people are doing this). Following on from this we head back to the roots of Sustainability in Style’s mission to look at sustainable fashion and style just in time for Fashion Revolution month. 6
style [stī(-ə)l]
noun
a: a distinctive manner or custom of behaving or conducting oneself b: fashionable elegance c: beauty, grace, or ease of manner or ~Merriam-Webster
WHY SUSTAINABLE
STYLE?
Much to our computers autocorrect dismay we use the phrase ‘Live Life in Sustainable Style’ on our platforms and resources. While our autocorrect always wants to add an A to the mix (i.e. Live Life in a Sustainable Style) we resist the correction. We believe there isn’t A way to live in Sustainable Style, there are many! We each have the option to develop our own distinct manner or way of conducting our lives that’s in alignment with our values and beneficial to people and planet. While ‘style’ is often associated with fashion and clothing (and where we began our sustainability adventure) the idea of carrying yourself through your sustainable living journey in your own fashion, with ease, and taking mindful time to reflect and enjoy the beauty of life, seemed truly sustainable to us! Click here to keep exploring Sustainable Style. 7
Sustainable Style
IN ACTION
Living life in Sustainable Style can mean living off the grid in a self-built tiny home (like our friend Emily did), but it can also mean taking action in your suburban neighbourhood. These examples, one is new and the others are from our archives, share how individual approaches create a rich tapestry of collective sustainable action.
The Tiny Home In a very popular interview that we ran in 2017, our Sustainably Stylish friend Emily opened the doors to her home and her heart with the inspiring tale of building a tiny home and the incredible work she was doing with Followings to build an educational centre in Busubi. Emily has since moved on to the next stage of her sustainable living journey in another country, but the snapshot of her life in 2017 continues to inspire others to let their values be their guide
Read the interview 8
Penguin Protector
Here’s a question that very few of us have the opportunity to ponder. What do you do if penguins nest in your yard? While we are unlikely to face this problem, Daniella’s visitors prompted her little family to take action to help their penguin residents thrive! Again, this story ran in 2017 and there’s been a lot of changes in Daniella’s life since then but there’s nothing like rehashing a story about penguin protection to brighten your day!
Read the interview
Piecing Together a Better Future For many Sustainability in Style readers, navigating parenting during changeable times is a challenge. Guiding young people through these social, economic, political and environmental changes, threats, and opportunities can result in confusing conversations or sleepless nights. Mother of three Alison Foley found that a beachside game of trashure hunting (hunting for trash on the beach) sparked the beginnings of an environmental education program to inspire and support young people. She was kind enough to take time out from her busy schedule to share her journey and some tips on how to inspire the young people in your life.
Read the interview
DO THE BEST YOU CAN UNTIL YOU KNOW BETTER.
THEN WHEN YOU KNOW BETTER, DO BETTER. Maya Angelou
The Shell Each of our Take Action themes has its own natural symbol. Using symbology and storytelling has been harnessed by Indigenous groups for generations and has since been researched as an effective tool for committing knowledge to long term memory. For our Sustainable Style theme, we’ve drawn our inspiration from the ocean. When we wonder the beach we often come across seashells, perhaps without much thought as to where the originated. Shells are actually the creation of mollusks, squishy animals (think slugs or snails) that don’t have a backbone. To protect their bodies, they create a shell through secretions on their outer body...Keep Reading here
MEDITATIVE MORNINGS This month’s Breathe meditation offers you a mindful start to the day. Join us for a short meditation that presents opportunities to reflect on success, foster gratitude, and set an intention for the day ahead. Launching Monday 26th.
LET'S
MEDITATE
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Make
CHOCOLATE
Your Way
Over Easter, we posted a Make video that demonstrated how we do zero-waste chocolate. The recipe is gluten and dairy-free and can be customised to suit your tastebuds and geographical location (which seems weird but is an important consideration due to the melt-factor of most of these types of recipes). You can have fun getting chocolatey here.
Shh...
I'VE BEEN EXPERIMENTING WITH TIK TOK Hello, Katie here! I don’t often hijack this magazine for a first-person story (outside of the ‘Note from Katie’ space) but it was essential for this little update. Having researched social media for my Masters, ‘grown up’ online sharing through Sustainability in Style, and as a current member of the academic teaching team of Digital Media for Fashion. I’ve seen just how hard it has become for people to get their messages heard in online spaces. With algorithms that favour sensationalist and divisive content (i.e. clickbait) it can be a challenge to be seen, even if you pay for advertising, specifically on Facebook platforms. With this in mind I’ve been experimenting with some ‘silly’ videos on TikTok (not owned by Facebook) to see how this medium tracks. If I think it’s a viable way to share these messages I will broadly publicise. In the meantime, let’s keep it between ourselves (and feel free to go laugh with or at me). 14
TAKE ACTION
In Sustainable Style Since 2014 we here at Sustainability in Style have been participating in Fashion Revolution week. #FashRev happens every year in the week surrounding the 24th of April, the date of the anniversary of the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse.
Fashion Revolution Week starts April Nineteenth
The fourth largest industrial disaster in history, the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh was home to garment factories manufacturing for brands from across the globe. Despite numerous warnings that the building was structurally unsound, garment workers were send to work to meet manufacturing timelines. When the building collapsed, more than 1100 people died and another 2500 were injured. Fashion Revolution began as a simple call-toaction where participants were invited to turn their clothing inside out and ask #WhoMadeMyClothes of brands. A social media movement aimed at increasing transparency within global supply chains. Growing from strength-tostrength with each year that passes, Fashion Revolution has been the catalyst for fashion industry change for people and planet!
HEAD TO THE
WEBSITE
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SUSTAINABLE STYLE
ToolKit
We’ve worked our way through our extensive web-archive to find some Fashion Revolution week themed resources for you!
MAKE
PLAY
You can follow the growth of our 'Who Made My Clothes?' journey through our post archive. There’s been so many successes along the way!
Turn an old pair of shorts or pant legs into a (minimal sewing required) produce bag with this simple Make DIY.
Why were people sent to work in a structurally unsound building? Press play on a documentary shares firsthand accounts of the Rana Plaza disaster.
READ
SHARE
STRETCH
STYLE
We often see images of the people who make our consumer goods online, but their personal accounts are rarely shared. Hear from them through ‘Voices from the Global Economy’
During 2017 we started trend #garmentgratitude. During this time, you shared with us the story of your clothing and why you care about what you wear about! Read them here.
BREATHE Being at the forefront of change for the fashion industry can be hard work! Take a break from you campaigning with this mediation for changemakers.
GROW
If you have been reading our magazines you will have seen this DIY before (it’s a favorite on Pinterest). Learn how to turn your old clothes into a yoga bolster!
Sustainability in Style began its online journey with Katie’s yearlong Wardrobe Workout style journey. This will be given a makeover soon but you can read the archives here.
UNLESS SOMEONE LIKE YOU CARES A WHOLE AWFUL LOT, NOTHING IS EVER GOING TO GET BETTER. IT'S NOT! Dr. Seuss
A to Z
OF FASHION MARKETING TERMINOLOGY In 2017 we released an A to Z of terms for conscious fashionistas that we believe didn’t get enough screen time compared to other posts! We think it might have been waiting for our fabulous 2021 audience of conscious consumers looking to learn more so we made it into a download. Here are 26 terms to help you navigate fashion marketing in Sustainable Style.
Download Your Copy Today
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PRESS PLAY
Delight your ears this New Year with some Sustainably Stylish tunes. These playlists have been compiled to help you kick back and relax, combat compassion fatigue, expand your listening base to be inclusive of First Nation artists, and to inspire action. We love hearing about your favourite tune. Please send us your suggestions so we can add them to our playlists.
Head to Our Spotify And Press Play
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YouSUSTAINABILITY r Personal
COACH PROGRESS UPDATE
The Time is a Nonrenewable Resource self-coaching planner is getting closer to launch date! It’s been a slow and mindful journey, where we’ve learned just how challenging it can be to find all the right elements for minimal-waste sustainable shipping. This month we are celebrating having (finally) sourced perfect recycled newspaper padded mailing bags that are made right here in Australia! The challenge was finding the exact right fit to avoid having to stuff the bags with additional padding to keep the planner from moving around. At the moment we are waiting on our eco-stickers to affix the access code for online self-coaching course content to the planner. Once these arrive we will be ready to launch online!
COME JOIN US FOR A
PLANNING WORKSHOP at the Lighten Up Yoga and Lifestyle
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Dates for Your r e n n a Pl
Dates of note for the month of May
MAY 1ST
MAY 1ST
MAY 3RD
MAY 9TH
MAY 3RD
Supermarket Free Month
Mindful In May
World Press Freedom Day
Mothers Day
World Press Freedom Day
MAY 16TH
MAY 17TH
MAY 22ND
MAY 23RD
MAY 26TH
World Telecommunication & Information Society Day,
International Day for Biological Diversity
World Turtle Day
National Sorry Day
Lighten Up Yoga and Wellness Festival
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ARE YOU ON OUR LIST? Sign up to our E(co) Newsletter for gifts delivered to your inbox. You receive the ‘Prompts to Inspire’ downloadable with your welcome email. Then, each month you will receive an email loaded with tips, tricks, tools and ideas for the month ahead and your copy of this magazine. All for FREE!!!
NEXT MONTH'S THEME
Simplifying Sustainability
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