DIY or DYE

story by Charlotte Zombro & Lexie Barker, photos by Lauren Allen & Renata Lima, design by Faith Johnson

For years, consumerism has been on the rise, especially in the fashion industry. With nearly every social media platform offering in-app shopping services complete with digital payment services, you never even have to leave your feed to make a purchase, let alone your couch. You have the world at your fingertips, and with the click of a button you can buy the cheapest, trendiest clothes you’ve ever seen, wrapped in more plastic than you’d know what to do with. 

However, whether it is due to a desire to save money, a love for the planet or simply because social media is beginning to trend this way, we as consumers are beginning to lean away from that model. PULSE is happy to report that sustainability is like, totally in right now.

Slow and Sustainable Wins the Race
Sustainability is not just about where you buy your clothes; it is a process that is set in motion long before you purchase an item, and one that you become an integral part of until you no longer own that material.

Andrea Eklund is a program coordinator and a professor of Apparel, Textiles and Merchandising (ATM) department at CWU. “We actually call it social responsibility, not just sustainability and the apparel industry. It’s not just about the clothing. It’s about the people on the planet too, and also the economics of it.”

When it comes to overseas companies with mysteriously low prices and a rapidly rotating inventory, the ecological impact is about as you’d expect. Tatum Mohegan, a senior in CWU’s ATM department, says, “Not only is it carbon emissions, it's also really bad for our water, the dyeing process, and unethical labor. There's just so much that goes into it,” she explains, “I don't think people really can wrap their minds around it, I still have a hard time thinking [about it] sometimes.”

While cheap clothes may appeal to a small budget, consider whether you’ll have the budget to buy that exact same shirt again in two months. According to senior ATM major Meli Rivera Garcia, that’s exactly what you’ll have to do if you shop fast fashion. “It seems convenient at   first, it's affordable, it's easily accessible,” says Rivera Garcia, “but I think that in the long run, it really shows. Your garments don't last as long, and then you end up buying more.”

The fashion industry is preying on our society’s collective weakness: looking good and spending money. Eklund and fellow ATM professor Astrid Vidalon Shields believes that fast fashion on the rise affects not just consumers, with low quality fabrics that quickly fall apart over time, but the planet as well. “We’re so bombarded with so much information for a product, that we basically are dehumanizing things. We don’t see anymore, we don’t value… who is behind what things are made. We’re just consuming mindlessly,” Vidalon Shields says. “We don’t think about how the fibers were produced, what were the working conditions?” 

Another senior in the ATM department, Audrey Young, seems to agree. “Our whole economy is built on this model of consume, consume, consume. And so fast fashion really just reflects that in the most extreme way,” she says. “We're putting out as many different styles as quickly as possible, that's really not sustainable.” 

Young also spills a few dirty secrets of the trade, saying, “That's what the fashion industry doesn't want you to know, is that the model that we are using currently will not be sustainable in the future, and eventually it's gonna hit a limit.” 

Despite how gloomy this might sound, not all hope is lost. There are many designers and business owners who maintain both personal and professional standards for sustainability right here in Ellensburg. 

As the owner of Evolve, located on 323 N Pearl Street, Hildi Youngblood sources most of their products from India. She emphasizes the importance of upcycling clothing, researching companies and being aware of the people behind the pieces that are sold in the shop. “I travel there. I work with folks that make the clothing and the jewelry, and then also the accessories that I import in,” says Youngblood. They sell garments from upcycled Sari pieces that are made into skirts, dresses and tops, as well leather scraps to make bags.

Another local store encourages sustainability in more ways than one. Yarn Folk is a shop located just down the street from Evolve at 304 N Pearl Street. Owned by Ann Miner, Yarn Folk is a store supplying everything you might need for crafts such as knitting, crochet and various other kinds of needlework. 

Not only does Miner sell yarn and hooks to make your own projects, she also offers kits and patterns that outline how to make various items. With kits for crafters of various skill levels, Yarn Folk is a good place for those curious about DIY clothing and accessories, as well as sustainable fashion.

“One of the things I really like about knit and crochet is that you have a fair bit of control over how much waste is produced,” says Miner. Not only do the kits at Yarn Folk have suggestions for how much yarn you will need so as not to waste material, but Miner also makes an effort to be sustainable in other aspects of her business. “Where you have the most control is in terms of what you choose to use as opposed to what's going to happen with the waste later,” says Miner. “When it comes to my packaging… my mailers are post recycled. They are also recyclable, but I don't have control over that process.”

The process Miner is talking about is the process of whatever you as the consumer choose to do with the materials once they are in your hands. You are the next and potentially the last stop for things like packaging, clothing and textiles; you are these items’ last hope at a long, happy life outside of a landfill. So how can you incorporate sustainability into your wardrobe?

Loving the Planet, and Your Wardrobe
Knowing what is in the clothing you already own or want to purchase is crucial in maintaining the condition of your wardrobe. Eklund emphasizes the importance of prolonging the longevity of wardrobes, with the most important step being conscious of fabric content when it comes to buying a new piece. Choosing wool, cotton and linen over acrylic or polyester and spending a little extra for that higher quality. 

Although buying new clothing made out of those materials can be a little more expensive compared to the cheaper, synthetic materials on the market, saving up for those pieces may be worth it in the long run. Youngblood explains how students can shop on a budget, one of the ways being to save up for a high quality piece that may be on the pricier side. “I think saving for that one piece that is going to be worn a lot, and then you can pair it with all of your other things,” Youngblood says. “It might be a little bit more expensive, but it’ll be durable and last longer.”

However, the most sustainable way to interact with fashion doesn’t require purchasing any new items, provided you are already comfortable with the size of your current wardrobe. Rivera Garcia outlined his perspective on sustainability as the act of working with what already exists. “Sustainability isn't inaccessible. Being resourceful with what you already have and things that already exist, that's still sustainability. That's like the premise of sustainability,” he says.

Other students agreed with this idea that the number one most sustainable thing you can do with your style is to greatly reduce the purchasing of fashion items. Young says, “Thrifting is the best way to get things that you need, but ultimately the best thing that we can do as consumers to combat fast fashion is to just not buy.”

In order to be able to refrain from buying, you have to ensure that what you have in your closet right now will last. Eklund recommends keeping a close eye on how you take care of your garments and putting any sewing skills to use; spot rinsing a stain, wearing a piece multiple times before washing, reading the care labels and mending a hole instead of throwing it away or donating it where it will most likely end up in a landfill.

“We have really harsh laundry detergent with a lot of chemicals and dyes and perfumes…And that also comes back around to the environment, and that’s because all that stuff has to be washed out. Where does that water go?” Eklund says.  “That’s how we wear out our clothes, it’s actually [from] washing them. We’re quite bad with washing things.” Eklund goes on to explain that she reminds her students that every time they wash and dry something, when they take out the lint tray to empty it, it is actually threads of the clothes. “That’s your garment getting thinner and thinner and wearing it out,” she says. “The more we can air dry things, [the] better.” 

It is so easy to turn to fast fashion and retail therapy the second your wardrobe starts feeling a little drab. While the allure of something new to spruce up your outfits may be tempting, the sweater you haven’t looked at in two years hides in the back of your closet like a diamond in the rough. 

Mohagen suggests looking at your closet with a new light.  “There's this new trend to shop your closet and reimagine different outfits,” Mohagen says. She emphasizes that even old clothes can be new to you, so long as you approach the process with the right mindset. “Sometimes I'll get stuck, I'll feel uninspired, but I have so many clothes. I'm like, ‘girl, you don't need to go shopping,’” she explains. “So thinking of different outfits to get out of my funk is kind of good too.”

If you already have a little bit of sewing expertise, making alterations is a great way to breathe new life into a garment you might not get as much wear out of. Young gives some insight into how designers might look at their own closets, with the intent to personalize and revitalize. “Take a look at pieces that you already own, and if it's something that you don't love, what could you change about it,” she says. “Can you cut off the bottom and make it a crop top? Can you tie a belt around your dress so that it has a waistline? There's so many different things that we can do."

D-I-Why Not?
Putting time into hobbies such as sewing, knitting, embroidery, crochet and many more can be so beneficial to both the journey towards loving your wardrobe and the movement towards sustainability. Not only do these skills give you the ability to upcycle and refresh your wardrobe easier, but with time they allow you to cut out the middle man entirely and begin to make your own clothing by hand.

Miner highlights that not only is putting time into a crochet or knit piece an enjoyable activity, but making your own clothing and accessories gives you a freedom that is unreachable with mainstream retail outlets. “I like the activity, I like making things. So that's definitely an aspect of it,” Miner says, “but you're also able to dial in exactly what you want, as opposed to picking from a range of things that somebody else has decided, ‘this is what we want this season.’”

When venturing into DIY work with fabrics, another opportunity for a more sustainable approach presents itself. Using repurposed materials is an excellent way to create a completely new garment out of something that has likely already lived its full life span.

Mohagen mentions that she gets a lot of her fabric stock from visiting fabric sales. These sales are often comprised of community donations, other sewers giving up their materials so they can find a new use in someone else’s piece. “I'm all about fabric sales,” she says. It's tables full of fabric. You can go through and they sell it per pound, which, if you know fabric normally, it's like $13 a yard, but you can get it for like $2 a pound.”

If you want to start living your Project Runway fantasy but don’t know where to start, Mohagen recommends turning to Youtube. Its vast archive of free tutorials, patterns and fashion advice videos make the website a one stop shop for all different skill levels. “They literally have everything,” Mohagen says. “They'll teach you how to draft a basic bodice, or if you wanna start patterning, that's a great resource. Even thrift flips and stuff like that, I always love to watch those on YouTube.”

While you ideally want to limit the amount of clothes you’re purchasing as a whole, there is no denying that clothing eventually wears out. Shirts will get stained, soles will rub away and seams will rip in the most unfortunate of places, and sometimes they won’t be salvageable. Or maybe you can save part of a garment, but you need to turn that top into a scarf, and now you’re out of a shirt. This is where thrifting comes in.

In With The Old
At secondhand stores such as Goodwill, Value Village, Salvation Army and others, you can purchase pre-loved items of clothing and accessories, as well as furniture and housewares, at a discounted price. The goods in these stores are individually priced by employees after donation based on criteria such as condition, brand and quality. Many stores also have tag sales based on a weekly rotation, so that once an item has been on the sales floor for a week it might be discounted to $1.

While thrift stores are a great place to find material for other DIY projects or fixer upper garments to refurbish, they can also be hotbeds for style inspiration. Mohagen thrifts both her sewing materials and new-old pieces to wear as is and style with the rest of her wardrobe. “I think our goodwill here in Ellensburg is honestly so under hyped,” she says, “They have such good stuff and, and it's so fun.”

There are plenty of tips and strategies out there for finding gems at the thrift store, but the most common theme is the same: intentionality. Just like any shopping you do with sustainability in mind, avoid frivolous purchases that you will realistically never wear. While thrift shopping is markedly better than shopping fast fashion, it is still encouraged to really hunt for something you truly need and love, rather than a temporary want.

Whether it's for repurposing or wearing off the rack, Young prefers to be purposeful about her purchases. “Because I love to shop, one thing that I'll do is I have a rule when I'm shopping…” she says, “that I will not buy something unless it's a love,” as opposed to merely ‘liking’ a garment. Mohagen echoes this sentiment, adding to make sure you’re making the piece work for your closet, not the other way around. “I also think it's important to also be like, ‘okay, how often will I wear this? Is this gonna be something I reach for? How can it be styled with clothes I already have?’,” Mohagen says.

Thrifting may take time. You may walk away with nothing, you may walk away with four pairs of shorts that don’t fit, you might walk away with a fun trinket instead of any garment at all– but that is part of moving away from the rapid paced, on demand world of fast fashion. How much is a little bit of time compared to the pride that comes with being invested in your clothing?

The Award for Best Dressed Goes To…
Regardless of your style, your budget, your skill level or your knowledge about sustainability, there is a way out there for you to love how you dress while also being proud of how that look was attained. Actively practicing sustainability is hard to do in this culture of rapid trends and short shelf lives, making your own clothing or shopping secondhand is an act of nonconformity that should be celebrated.

For her line in the ATM department’s Spring fashion show, Young used mostly second hand materials, even borrowing zippers and buttons from the theatre department. “A lot of the real final fabrics that I'm going to be using are thrifted or gifted… which is really exciting,” Young explains. “It's something I can be really proud of. I am really proud to say that only two of my fabrics for my whole line are bought new.”

There is no time like the present to get into the practice of sustainable fashion, because shopping responsibly is one trend that should never go out of style.