November 28, 2022 - Arguably no industry has a hijacked Hall Pass doing more wrong by Humanity and Planet without abatement than Fashion. As we once again check the box on annual Sustainability Day (October 26th this year 2022), it’s high time we unpack and understand altruistic “Sustainability” shares culpability within the continuance of the problem.

Why? In the history of Greenwashing, this one word may be the most overused & misused. Sustainability, while a benevolent beacon, is ambiguous to define, impossible to model and equally impossible to measure. Do this experiment: Pull three people aside one by one to define, and you will have three different vague answers. Worse, its ambiguity gives permission to fringe fashion purveyors to adopt the thinnest veneer of a practice, and propagate Sustainability as a loose blanket eco-statement without scrutiny.

A fast recap of the sobering facts: Fashion’s industry is responsible for 38% of the microplastics in the Ocean, seeping into our waterways and fish, toxifying our bodies, as studies as far back as 2019 show that humans ingest the equivalent of a credit card of plastic a week. Fashion is a spiraling ecological disaster where 11.3 million tons of textile waste are dumped annually, leaching in landfills to plague the Planet for centuries, and our hyper-focus on a race to the bottom of price over value feeds this beast unshackled.

None of the aforementioned is new news. Neither is the de facto rally cry to adopt “Sustainability” as the solution.“Sustainable” translates to “to be maintained for a very long time”. Sustainability is at best just maintainability, and it is irrefutable that maintaining the status quo is not going to get us out of the mess we have gotten ourselves into as humans with our Planet. Because let's face it: Humanity en masse will not get on board fast enough to reverse the curse of a polluting industry, despite the choice actions of a conscious collective.

So how do we unf*ck arguably the World’s most extractive, over-consumed toxic industry? Through a command fashion challenge of Regeneration. What is Regenerative Fashion? Ethically-sourced natural materials, within a regenerative model that gives back in impact more than it takes to create. This is not a leap. Business can go further than doing less harm. Business can drive profits, with ethics in their supply chain, while participating as a collective force for social good.

Fashion For Benefit One Golden Thread, for example, weaves its fabric from European Regenerative Beech Tree Fibers. From one Beech Tree, 108 garments (at least) are performed; for every piece sold, 1 tree is planted. Thus, a regenerative impact of 1 to 108x, back to nature.

Fashion will never be a perfect industry. Any pursuit of perfection can be the thief of progress. There is a high standard of companies devoted to ethical practices such as Stella McCartney, Yes And, Lunya, & One Golden Thread. Yet, the entire industry must be commanded by consumers to dive into a shared devotion through Regeneration. If natural fabric and fibers with biodegradable properties is the material standard, planting trees is the fastest way to address the climate crisis. A regenerative spirit also inspires what is right in fashion, mindful consumption to own fewer things that we love more, built with craft quality to last for life over seasons, thus re-establishing the relationship of value over price to illuminate the true cost of fast fashion.

Second spoiler alert: Despite our human ways, regardless of what we do, or not do, our Planet will survive. The more relevant inquiry for self-reflection: How bad can we stand it? Or how good do we want it? We see an industry that can pivot from polluting to purposeful, call itself up rather than out, to conspire to inspire, achieving a now golden age through Regenerosity.

Words cast spells. Let’s choose our spellings wisely. It’s time to park Sustainability in the ambiguity bin, and follow the threads of brilliance of Regenerative models in Agriculture and Food Systems to call forward the final frontier: Regenerative Fashion.

A LOVE NOTE POEM FOR THE NEW (RE) GENERATION

How did we get here: A race to the bottom on Price?

To buy another item without thinking “Who made those clothes?”, with what materials, we don’t think once, let alone twice.

And if this feels like another “here we go again activist rant” that’s pedantic…

Open the green washed box to witness humanity scurrying about, akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

And yet if we try on a new fit with wide opened eyes, we will see a renewed prize.

To Unf*ck fast fashion… is owning fewer things we love more, built to last in.

A dirty secret about fashion; That item you are told will make you feel like gold? I’m here to tell you that’s an old story you are being sold.

Try on instead this new inflection: you already are golden, because your gold resides inside, the threads are simply codes, a mirrored reflection.

We’ve entered a higher life season, a reason to see that it’s time to thrive and come alive and realize that we are all one tribe.

And I’m not talking about us I’m talking about nature and one as us. What is your nature calling?

Sustainable Fashion it’s time we redefine, can you see the sublime, a new possibility of Regenerosity?

Ethically sourced from nature, and plant trees which also benefit the seas. It’s all interconnected. And we see that we move from planetary dis ease to ease, to receive a renewed inner and shared peace.

Regeneration is the Pivot Party for all, a global movement for all who wish to answer the call.

Jeff Scult, Fashion Proactivist | Founder & Designer, One Golden Thread