To the rest of the world, Fashion Week is the week when one’s city gets overtaken by photographers, celebrities, and out of the world outfits.
To me, Fashion Week is a time for my inner creativity to let loose. It is my time to show that fashion can be sustainable and trendy. To be able to look as chic as the next gal who gets a “brand new” wardrobe from fast fashion retailers every other week was the ultimate goal.
I approached this year’s Fashion week with one purpose: to put my money where my mouth is. This Fashion Week, I set out to prove how you can look stylish and trendy even when you are staying sustainable.
Let’s break it down, and let me walk you through how I put together these three NYFW looks. To keep myself sustainable, I only spent $15 buying one item that I know I will be wearing for years to come.
The Sustainable Practices
Let’s first talk about what sustainability looks like from the consumer’s perspective. Sustainable fashion can mean you solely wear clothing from brands such as Reformation or Eileen Fisher, renowned brands who tirelessly promote sustainability and ethical practices.I also interpret sustainable fashion as wearing quality clothing that you have made an investment on.
Sustainable fashion, at its core, is based on the desire to eliminate waste and protect the environment through a social responsibility framework. It is the antithesis of fast fashion and is a practice that places quality, timelessness, and ethics above profit.
As much as I would love to, it is hard for me to wear clothing solely from ethical brands such as Reformation. Personally, I lack the funds to buy clothing with that high of a price tag. Another reason why many consumers do not solely buy from ethical brands is because of the lack availability of clothing in the popular styles from the latest trends.
This is why I choose to practice sustainability through making investments on clothing. Quality clothing will last through the years (no more tearing and fading after a couple of washes). It will also be in a timeless style that I can re-wear for multiple occasions (i.e., a versatile top to be dressed up or dressed down).
The Trends
After several hours and a lot of research, I found one new trend for the Fall Fashion Week that was going to be huge. Blazers and other tailored clothing was going to make a big play. Tailored, crisp clothing are always in style, but coming back as a trend was a huge! I knew I had to take advantage.
There are some styles that I chose to feature but did not use as the foundation of my looks for Fashion Week. These include animal print, Western motifs, and belt bags. This was where my creativity came into play. I took the tailored clothing trend and paired it with these three trends that came back in style (as they typically do around this year), and created 3 amazing looks.
To keep with sustainable practices in fashion, it was important for me to wear only certain trends. These are the trends that were popular for the season, included pieces I already owned, or included pieces I would wear after again.
The four trends I chose were: tailoring, animal print, western vibes, and belt bags.
Blazers and tailored pieces always are a good investment, and animal print as an accessory is always chic for Fall. I grew up as a “self-proclaimed” country girl (my favorite pair of boots are still my cowboy boots). Belt bags are a new trend that I fell in love with ever since I found out how I can convert a crossbody into a belt bag.
Outfit 1
There are three components to this outfit: the button down top, Western-inspired booties, and “biker shorts”. To keep with the trend of tailored clothing, my mind immediately jumped to jackets and button down tops.
The top I selected is from Arielle Charnas of Something Navy’s first Nordstrom collaboration with Treasure and Bond. I purchased this top in a size Large (my usual size is XS) ages ago when the collection first launched. What I love about this button down is the fun sleeves details. Fashion Week is all about creativity. I thought the pop on the sleeves was perfect to give that extra “oomph” to this top.
Since then, I have worn this top a million times and in a million different ways. Basics with a fun twist have always been my guilty pleasure. They also make for the perfect addition to your close to dress up basic looks with something fun.
In order to give my waist some definition, I paired this with my one purchase this season: a leopard print belt from Express.
Animal print always comes into style during Fall, and they are a classic investment to make. I am personally not a huge fan of animal print, but it is a fun addition in the form of an accessory. Regular outfits become just a little bit more dressed up with that small pop of detail.
I also knew I wanted to have a juxtaposition of a button down with Western-inspired booties. I chose to feature the Western motifs in this look because I loved the idea of having something big-city mixed with something country. A button down and cowboy-like booties seemed like the perfect mix to me.
The last “trend” that I wanted to try out was the rave of biker shorts. Biker shorts have been all the hype for quite a couple of months now, and I knew it was going to make a big play during Fashion Week. However, I couldn’t bring myself to buy biker shorts. I knew that I didn’t like the look of biker shorts because they don’t flatter my legs and because I knew I would never wear them again.
Instead, I pulled out these pair of shorts from Victoria’s Secret Sport that is meant to be layered under your running shorts for compression. These were ones I have in my closet that I frequently use for workouts and cycling.
Outfit 2
Hands down, this was my favorite Fashion Week outfit out of the 3 that I put together.
I am not a huge fan of blazers, and this jacket was my version of a blazer. I love the cut of this jacket with how it accentuates your waistline with the cut and the zipper detail. The longer length also gives the jacket a distinctly more evening-time look to avoid looking like I am heading to a 9 to 5 job.
To keep in line with the tailored theme, I went with this pair of plaid tailored shorts. Plaid is a classic trend for Fall that will never go out of style, and plaid and tailoring often go hand in hand. The longer length of the shorts also pair perfectly with the theme of tailoring. Go with the longer length of shorts for a more conservative but still stylish look when going with the tailored trend.
Lace and over the knee boots wasn’t necessarily a trend for Fashion Week, but they are both such staples of our basic Fall wardrobes to not be included. I love the neutral colors of this look with the gray breaking up the black on the top and on the shoes with the white jacket to give the overall look a pop.
Lastly, I finished this look with gold accessories to bring some warmth and brightness to this look.
Outfit 3
This look never made it to Fashion Week because unforeseen circumstances prevented me from attending certain events. (Read: I found out I had to go to work when I previously thought otherwise).
This was a look that I found rather special because neither of these outfits really screamed as incorporating different Fashion Week trends. My process for putting together looks was to pull out any piece I wanted to wear and begin mixing and matching to find my perfect look. This ended up being a combination I loved because of the inverted V details on the skort. The form-fitting cut looked amazing against the puffy sleeves of the top.
When I put this together, many had ruled it out as a look that wasn’t worthy of Fashion Week. Although it never did end up to Fashion Week, it wasn’t because it wasn’t Fashion Week worthy in my mind. Sometimes, those are looks you have to wear. This outfit looks stylish because its inspired by trends such as statement sleeves, off the shoulder, and tailoring, and that is what is most amazing.
In the end, I don’t believe that Fashion is an exact science. Fashion is about the story behind the clothes and the feeling that it provokes. That is why I love this look and why it is so special to me.
In the end, sustainable fashion can be trendy
I recently attended an Everlane Transparency Talk with founder Michael Preysman and head of apparel Kimberley Smith to discuss the journey behind the ReNew collection and the future of sustainability. Michael said something poignant that stuck with me as he articulated so well what it was that I truly believe: change is drive by the government, businesses, and the consumer.
Change in sustainability can only happen if all three does their part. The consumer’s role in driving change to promote sustainability starts and ends with our conscious decision to rid ourselves of this “need” for fast fashion or this ideology that practicing sustainability can’t be trendy. These pieces are not from sustainable brands such as Everlane or Reformation, but I wear them in a sustainable way through only investing in pieces that are of good quality and of a style that I would re-wear often.
I hope this post was enlightening and helpful for all of you who want to be more sustainable but cannot afford to buy clothing solely from sustainable brands. Let me know down in the comments which look was your favorite and what you want to read more of from me in the future!
I am so grateful to have this platform to share my journey with you all! LOVE YOU!
If you enjoyed this post, check out my Beginner’s Guide to Sustainability!
