Conscious Consumerism

The fashion industry is the world’s second most polluting industry after oil. The global textile production utilizes 25 percent of the world’s chemicals.

At a recent TrunkShow event, a lady walked up to me to view my clothing line. Like any new founder of a company I was enthused to tell her about the work I do – sustainable, ethical yet CHIC clothing enabling artisans world-over who practice time-honored fabric making skills. She looked at me smugly and said – “I don’t care about sustainability”… I smiled at her politely and said: “BUT I DO.” 🙂

Here I was standing in THE most expensive zip code in the country, land of the liberal elites, the birthplace of technology, purveyor of disruption but genuinely baffled by the hypocrisy of the mindset.

Conscious consumerism is about shopping smarter not harder. It requires effort to check the provenance of a product. It is about owning quality pieces that are made with ethical and sustainable practices; pieces that last the test of time, that define who you are and your lifestyle. It’s not an uppity lifestyle; it’s one my husband and I have chosen for ourselves by making other sacrifices.

Yes, I am a fashionista at heart; now and then I pick up an occasional piece that I can’t resist :), but I am a far cry from being a victim to logos and brands. I choose not to let mindless fashion define who I am. Instead, I buy pieces that represent my lifestyle and for what I stand.

Quoting another lifestyle blogger Hannah “Middle-class to wealthy Americans consume far more resources than the rest of the world’s population. Honestly, I think changing the fashion industry starts with the global 1% because the global 1% is the problem. We’re the ones consuming the majority of the cheap goods that contribute to the exploitation of people and the planet. We’re the ones who can afford to pay more for an item to ensure that fair wages are paid, and don’t. I’m okay with my blog and my advocacy speaking mainly to people like me because we’re the ones who need to change our habits the most.”

Namrita Chettiar was founded on those principles, and I call myself a disruptor of mindless fashion, a purveyor of high standards and an elitist of sorts.