A Sustainable Shopping Guide: Quarantine Edition
Graphic by Bailey Richards. Images via Outdoor Voices and Levi’s.
Let me set the quaranscene.
It’s roughly 11:13 p.m. Friday night. Two minutes ago, you wished for quarantine to end before fall quarter goes online and everyone drops out. You just finished watching another episode of “Little Fires Everywhere” and have already had a group Zoom with your friends.
If we’re handling quarantine similarly, this is where you pull your computer up onto your lap and question what is left for you to do online. More often than not, the answer is shopping.
I find myself on Shein comparing $10 animal print swimsuits and having to stop myself. Here is where I have a familiar internal battle between price and reality. A cheap swimsuit is great, yes, but doing my part to act sustainably is better. I remember that in the time we’ve been in quarantine carbon dioxide emissions have dropped around the world, along with greenhouse gas pollution. It’s a tragic silver lining to the current situation of the globe, but a reminder to all that by eliminating our demand for production, we can still have a powerful impact on climate change and pollution.
There’s no such thing as “eco-friendly clothing.” All garments have at least some negative impact on the environment, but there are brands working diligently to help make a difference and mend that gap.
Before I delve into the ways we can maintain sustainable shopping practices and support small businesses during impulsive quarantine shopping sprees, I want to acknowledge the privilege attached to this. I understand that regardless of COVID-19, shopping sustainably and from small businesses that avoid mass production is typically more expensive and impossible for many individuals. COVID-19 has only accentuated the immense economic inequality present across the United States, and, of course, across the globe. Although it is my hope that this will soon change, producing sustainably is itself more costly, and as a result many of the brands I will mention are not necessarily accessible to all individuals. It is a privileged choice to convert to sustainable shopping, to any extent, so while I encourage everyone to give it a shot if they can, there should be no guilt associated with the inability to do so. There are many other ways to lead a sustainable life without the price tag.
I’m the first to admit that not only is remembering to shop sustainably difficult, but finding affordable, versatile and actually sustainable brands for what you need is even harder. Here are some platforms and brands I’ve found to stay sustainable during the pandemic.
For online vintage endeavors, apps like Depop and Instagram virtual stores like @babesonlegs and @zigzag.goods can serve as the perfect alternative to your weekend thrifting excursions. Most importantly, these platforms are a great way to establish a new thrifting practice during quarantine.
Depop feels like walking into your favorite thrift store, except the gems you’d typically search hours to find are right at the tip of your fingers. Someone, somewhere, will likely have exactly what you need far below the retail cost. On Depop, sellers thrift for you, sell their own clothes and ship your purchases to you.
Now for more specific purchase recommendations.
Spice Up Your Recently Sorted Underwear Drawer: Parade has bright, comfortable, sexy and sustainable lingerie. The company’s core fabric, Replay, is 85% recycled polyamide and all its materials are Oeko-Tex certified, meaning they are free of harmful chemicals that pollute both our skin and our waters. All packaging is also compostable.
Image via Parade
New Fun Comfy Zip Up Hoodie/Sweatpants Combo to Wear for Three Days Straight: Alternative Apparel focuses on using organic cotton and recycled materials. Specifically shop from the Alternative Eco section. It’s an amazing source of affordable loungewear that is both soft and sustainable!
Image via Alternative Apparel
Perfect Pair of Quarantine Jeans to Remind You What Your Butt Looks Like In Pants: Levi’s and Everlane are absolutely my favorite brands for pants. Beyond their sustainable practices, my 501 Levi’s Bootcut Classics and Everlane Wide Leg Chinos are the most flattering pants I own. The Levi’s were an absolute steal that I found at my favorite vintage store in New York City, L Train Vintage, which I miss walking into every day on my way home from the subway dearly. They can also be found on Depop for discounted prices.
Levi’s focuses on the finishing processes to remove water wherever possible with its Water<Less collection, which uses up to 96% less water to make, while Everlane uses denim substitute material and ethical production practices to minimize the negative environmental impact of denim production.
Beyond pants, Everlane also has mastered the art of chic sustainable style from bright jumpsuits to summer sandals.
Your Post-Quarantine Pop-Out Dress: Reformation has been 100% carbon-neutral since 2015, putting sustainability at the core of everything it does in its production and distribution process. Reformation invests in green-building infrastructure to minimize our waste, water and energy footprints and works to provide on-the-job training and opportunities for growth.
Beyond manufacturing sustainably, Reformation invests in programs that replace the resources they’ve spent, which is where offsets come in. They partner with the Brazilian Rosewood Amazon Conservation Project and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) Water Restoration Program to help replace some of the resources used.
Image via Reformation
New Athletic Wear for Your Online Workout Classes! Or Walks! Or Just To Relax In!: Outdoor Voices (OV) has the absolute best active wear; their workout sets have inspired me to work out more just so I can have an excuse to wear them.
Not only does OV emphasize its usage of sustainable materials and processes with longevity and circularity in mind, but it also offers a 20% student discount.
No brand is perfect, and OV continues to work to expand its sustainability initiatives through partnerships with Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). It’s also committed to using packaging that’s both recycled and recyclable.
Image via Outdoor Voices
I’ve also found myself and many of my friends taking our extra time at home to search through our old clothes, finding things we no longer wear deep in our closets and wanting to sell them. I encourage you all to buy from each other and sell your own findings, or even just exchange them. A virtual clothing swap! This is an awesome way to give yourself an activity for an afternoon, to make some money or to gain some new clothes. And all this while simultaneously acting sustainably!
These are strange, uncomfortable and generally upsetting times. It is easy to get bogged down in the negatives, and it is important to allow yourself the space to be angry, or confused, or just sad about the state of the world around us, but from this place of frustration I have found it powerful to create change within myself. We as individuals are far from in control of those around us, but we can control how our bodies exist in relation to the outside world. In this way, we gain power. Power that enables us to change our choices, and to become more aware of our actions both internally and externally. Personally for me this has manifested in the decision to be more conscious of my contributions to climate change, and to hopefully inspire more people to do the same.