Former Harker English teacher Marjorie Hazeltine gave an informative workshop on sustainable fashion hosted by the Fashion Business Club and Green Team on Oct. 29.
Hazeltine debunked the misconception that the fashion industry solely focuses on profit and disregards environmental impact. A growing number of modern fashion companies are currently shifting towards sustainable practices, promoting the use of eco-friendly materials like organic linen and recycled and organic cotton.
“It’s nice to see that you can be trendy and dress well and then also care about the environment and do it in a sustainable way,” Fashion Business club officer Audrey Dagum (11) said. “A lot of people think that it’s either one or the other, that you can buy clothes but that’s bad for the environment, or you don’t buy clothes at all.”
However, creating a sustainable fashion industry requires overcoming certain obstacles. Each type of textile fiber has a different recycling process, making clothing recycling especially difficult and expensive. Hazeltine introduced attendees to the Responsible Textile Recovery Act, or SB 707, a Califiornia bill which works to address this issue by requiring apparel and textile producers to take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products. By creating a system of responsible textile disposal, SB 707 aims to minimize the environmental impact of fast fashion and textile waste.
“[SB 707] is forcing people to consider the end game of clothing at the beginning,” Hazeltine said. “If I were a company, I’d be like, ‘You know what, I’m not going to make a shirt out of this blend material because we don’t have a process for recycling it. Instead we’re gonna do 100% cotton or 100% polyester that we know we can recycle or chemically decompose.’”
With the growing prevalence of consumer culture, she invited participants to brainstorm potential sustainable business ideas surrounding the clothing industry. She encouraged students to buy from companies like Depop, a reliable online re-selling marketplace, and Nooworks, a sustainable and environmentally friendly apparel company.
Hazeltine emphasized the importance for each student to do their part and seek out ways to incorporate sustainable fashion practices into their daily routines.
“Over the last 10 years, I’ve been trying to explore and practice different ways of consuming clothes in ways that didn’t leave such a huge environmental footprint,” Hazeltine said. “Taking a pause from buying things, borrowing clothes from friends, going to thrift stores, hosting a swap party at your house — personal actions can make a big difference if it becomes a wide scale movement.”
In the past year, Hazeltine has visited the upper school multiple times to educate students on important environmental topics, including fast fashion textile waste and clothing sustainability.
“It was really nice to see Ms. Hazeline again because she was one of my favorite teachers from middle school,” attendee Stellan Lindh (10) said. “We did a project in her class about sustainability, and it was interesting to hear more of her perspective on it today, especially since fashion plays such a big role in everyday life.”