Friends, we are about to leap into a BIG week for sustainability and social justice. Monday, April 22 is Earth Day, and April 22-28 is Fashion Revolution Week!
There are lots of ways to honor both of these occasions. Here are a few ideas for both Earth Day and Fashion Revolution Week:
Read MoreIf you’ve gone clothes shopping lately, you may have noticed a new trend hitting the racks: snakeskin! This animal pattern is popping up everywhere. Unsure about how to wear it? I’ve teamed up with my favorite ethical fashion boutique, The Flourish Market, to show you a couple of different ways to style this versatile pattern! (And I’ve got a coupon link for 15% off your first order at The Flourish Market, too!)
Y’all have been asking me for outfit styling posts for a while now. While I often blog about fashion, I come at the topic from more of a social and environmental justice perspective. I don’t actually consider myself much of a fashion expert! So, I asked Katy, Chief of Style at The Flourish Market, to help show me (and y’all!) different ways to wear one of the latest trends in the fashion world, all while keeping it ethical! (You can read more here about why I choose to purchase ethically made clothing.)
Read MoreA guest post by Stephanie Capps
I am not a water conservationist. I don’t know the latest stats on rivers and watersheds. I can’t tell you much about where my water actually comes from or where it goes. I am just a regular person living a fairly normal life. But, I can say with certainty one thing: WE WASTE WATER.
Read MoreThis post was written for my church’s series on fasting. Each week of Lent, the church focuses on a different item for fasting (food, clothes, waste, etc.). During the week focused on clothing, church members are encouraged to fast from clothing in some shape or fashion. Examples include wearing only two outfits the entire week, cleaning out unused clothing and donating it, or fasting from buying new clothes for the duration of Lent. I personally encourage fasting from buying fast, exploitative fashion, not just during Lent, but as a lifelong goal. Read on to find out more!
We tend to envision fasting as a practice of recentering our hearts around God rather than some other object (in this case, clothing). We often treat clothing as an idol, coping mechanism, and giver of self-worth, when God should be those things instead. Working on our personal relationship with clothing and God is an important thing to do this week, but in this reflection I want to focus on a different aspect of fasting: A change in our hearts that results in social action.
I’m not going to lie: This reflection discusses difficult things, like the role we personally play in human trafficking. But if there’s any group willing to dig deep and not turn away from hard topics, it’s my church family. So let’s jump in!
In this guest post, ethical fashion enthusiast Elizabeth Langefeld shares about the challenges she has faced finding ethically made workwear and recommends 12 sources for polished, office-ready looks!
The great thing about being in a book club is reading books I never would have found otherwise. Even if the book isn’t memorable, the discussion is.
Three years ago at one such meeting, Laura brought up that she had looked at the Slavery Footprint website and was changing the way she was shopping. I had long been trying to purchase items made in the USA to support families in our country, and I was concerned about the origin of my clothes made elsewhere but unsure of how to combat the issue. How could I reconcile the values I hold as a Christian with the often abusive practices of manufacturing? It felt overwhelming, but worthwhile, to find garments where I could trust that those in the production line had been paid fairly and were working in safe conditions.
Laura pointed me to a few sources, which helped me find more sources, and now I can’t imagine ever going back to my “old way” of shopping. I actually feel better when I’m in clothing from companies that pay workers a living wage. I’ve found that while the price point is a little higher, I’m buying items I love and am therefore buying less overall. My clothing budget hasn’t really changed, thankfully!
I’ve been very fortunate to not find it difficult to source items I like that are ethically made. Unfortunately, though, selection seems to be limited in the workwear category. While we are in an increasingly casual society, many of us do still need to look nice at work! On a given day in higher education, I may meet with a dean, attend a conference, or network with alumni. I don’t work in an office that expects suits (thankfully!), but for every “casual Friday,” I’ve got plenty of days to look nice.
Read MoreDisclaimer: This post is NOT sponsored and is my unbiased, independent review.
When I learned recently that Athleta is now a Certified B Corporation, I freaked. out. I had actually never shopped at Athleta before and only vaguely knew what they were all about, but I was over the moon excited to finally have an ethical big box store at our local mall!
A couple of weeks before my trip to Belize, I realized that my wardrobe was a bit lacking in outdoorsy gear. I needed some athletic tops, and I also wanted to find some cute, quick-dry athletic pants that I could wear out into the jungle but also feel good about wearing to dinner later in the day.
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The CDC recently announced that the U.S. fertility rate has dropped, with women having on average 1.8 children each. This number is low enough for negative population growth. Many news outlets and opinion articles have portrayed this information in a negative light, to which I strongly object.
For example, CNN reports that the executive director of the American Public Health Association is “concerned” about these new statistics. A Medium subheading discusses who is to “blame” for the declining fertility rate before then going on to call out other news outlets for sensationalist headlines (for example, Insider’s “The U.S. Is in the Danger Zone for a ‘Demographic Time Bomb’”). This negative language assumes (incorrectly, in my opinion) that a drop in the U.S. fertility rate is a bad thing.
Here is why the declining U.S. fertility rate is a good thing, and why those of us who are of childbearing age should personally strive to continue to keep the birth rate low.
Read MoreSometimes, ethical and sustainable fashion means NOT buying new clothes.
I haven’t shared many outfit posts on the blog lately because I haven’t been shopping much! I purchased quite a few cold weather tops and sweaters last year, so I honestly haven’t needed to do much shopping as the weather has changed this year. But I have to confess: I have felt anxious about not having any great new ethical fashion finds to post here on Fairly Southern.
Disclaimer: This post is NOT sponsored and contains my unbiased opinions. If you use my 20% off discount link to place an order with Pact, I will receive Pact credits myself. Thanks for using the code and giving back to the person who is about to introduce you to an awesome brand!! 🙂
Fall weather finally arrived in North Carolina this week. I get cold as soon as the temperature drops below 73 degrees, so I have immediately begun to transition my wardrobe to sweaters and my plans inside to the couch. Even my hubby, who is a shorts and t-shirt guy all the way, has been pulling out sweatpants this week. Thankfully, it is pretty easy to find him ethically made loungewear these days! Read More
Preparing for trick-or-treaters who have food allergies doesn’t have to be scary! Read on for easy ways to have an allergy-friendly Halloween.
Has anyone else noticed how the number of kids with food allergies has skyrocketed over the past few decades? When I was in elementary school, I don’t remember a single child in my classes having a food allergy. Back then, our parents brought homemade cupcakes for school parties, and none of us had ever heard of the word “gluten.” But y’all, times have changed.
According to the CDC, the prevalence of food allergies in children increased 50% between 1997 and 2011. At least 1 in 13 children now has a food allergy.
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