The Fashion Advocate

52 million tons of fashion will be made this year, 87% will be landfilled or incinerated, 70% is made in modern slave labour conditions. The Rana Plaza Collapse (fast fashion manufacturing building in Bangladesh) killed 1134 garment industry workers, permanently injured thousands, and orphaned thousands of children. Fast fashion is responsible for modern slave labour, pollution, and poverty. 83% of the world’s water contains microplastic fibres because 68% of fashion is made with polyester (plastic) and every time we wash our clothes, microplastic fibres shed into the waterways. Fashion is soon to usurp oil as the world’s most polluting industry.

The Fashion Advocate is solving the human rights issues and environmental degradation that fast fashion is responsible for – through creating a better alternative, through education, awareness, and opportunity. Our blog offers educational content on the impact of fashion, allowing consumers to learn and thus make informed buying choices. Our print magazine delves into the human side of fashion, sharing inspiring stories from ethical and sustainable brands, thus reigniting the personal connection with clothing. Our online store stocks ethical and sustainable independent Australian fashion, made by conscious and transparent designers who share our values, and we use plastic-free home-compostable eco-friendly packaging.

We support 28 designers who utilize local manufacturing and closed-loop supply chains and 2 designers who manufacture offshore in ethical conditions, supporting disadvantaged women and getting them out of the sex trade. We donate $2 from every order to support domestic violence victims in Australia. We have eliminated plastic from all packaging. We sell biodegradable and natural fashion made with plant-based dyes and low-waste production methods, decreasing our community carbon omissions, and also fashion which is made from innovative recycled waste to decrease ocean plastics. We ONLY sell fashion made in ethical conditions paying living wages to empower global women.

The Fashion Advocate is not just an online store; we are a community of changemakers who advocate for better, speaking for those who cannot speak themselves. Women and children garment makers in India earn as little as 19cents an hour and the average is 39cents. Of a $10 shirt sold in Australia, these women only make 40 cents, but they are chained to a life of poverty that they cannot break free from, until consumers and companies change their supply chains and make ethical production changes. This is what The Fashion Advocate champions, and what every one of our designers and their own communities fights for – to change the entire fashion industry and make ethical fashion the norm, not the niche. We represent the Australian fashion identity; a country of passionate changemakers who take responsibility for their impact and footprint, socially and environmentally. When we work together, we can move mountains, as a community, that’s what we’re doing. Through social media, through our runway events, through our digital channels – we work tirelessly as a community to educate and inspire consumers to think ethically and sustainably about their shopping choices. We make it easy; one online location for every wardrobe need.