Table of contents for The Fashion Edition in The Goodnewspaper

In the same way that art, music, books, technology, sports, and any other manifestation of culture and creativity can be a vehicle to make the world a better place, fashion is an extension of our selves and our values. Fashion — whether you opt for comfort, style, or a little bit of both — speaks on our behalf and gives us yet another opportunity to identify ourselves to the outside world. There are graphic tees and logos that catch our attention, sure, but even smaller details and accessories have been connected to the social movements of our time. A sea of pink knitted hats at the 2017 Women’s March. The hand-sewn and accessorized cloth masks of the early pandemic days. An “I dissent” enamel pin reminiscent of Supreme Court Justice…

For years, neighbors Mauren Castro and Marta Sosa stayed home to care for their children as their husbands fished for the household in Costa de Pajaros, a small village in Costa Rica. Then, in 2022, they took on new roles and joined Piel Marina, a cooperative of women who turn fish skins into sustainable fashion. At first, Castro was skeptical. “We said, ‘How can a skin, which is something that gets smelly, which is waste, be the raw material for women to be able to get ahead?’” Castro told Agence France-Presse. But after three years at Piel Marina, Castro knows just how far fish skin can go when it’s not destined for the dumpster. Sporting rubber gloves, she and Sosa led a demonstration, gently rubbing the scales and flesh off…

Ten years ago, eco-activist Wendy Ward purchased a bedsheet from Sainsbury’s, the second largest retailer in the United Kingdom. After a decade of use, it presented a problem for Ward: it was too damaged to donate, it was not compost-friendly, and it wasn’t absorbent enough to re-purpose as cleaning cloths. “The only action I can personally take,” Ward wrote in a letter, which was mailed with the bedsheet to Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts, “is to put it into my general waste bin. I don’t want to do this, as in Sheffield all general waste is incinerated as ‘energy recovery.’” “So,” she continued, “as Sainsbury’s is responsible for designing and manufacturing this product, making decisions to use polycotton with no consideration for what could be done once it reaches the end…

Living with cerebral palsy, Elliot Caswell has often found it difficult to shop for clothes that are easy to put on with his disability. “It’s been a struggle,” Caswell told the BBC. “I would need my parents, friends and family, and my carers to help me out to put clothes on.” But when United Kingdom-based department store Primark released a clothing line with adaptive features for adults with disabilities, well, “it’s life-changing stuff,” he said. It helps that Caswell is a model for the new line, too. “He was fantastic on the campaign shoot,” the collection’s designer, Victoria Jenkins, said. “We’re going to see more and more of Elliot, and I have every intention of sending him down the runway for London Fashion Week.” The new items include features like…

Throughout much of the United States, models and fashion workers have long been exploited by the industry in which they work. From grueling hours to pay inequality, their work as contractors has made it difficult to access basic labor rights for far too long. Plus-size model Iskra Lawrence has publicly shared the challenges she has faced, even as a white, higher-paid model for brands like Aerie and American Eagle. “What sucked was, unfortunately, being in a larger body, I often got paid a lot less than other models,” she said in an interview in September of 2025. “In your contract, when you sign with an agent, there is a clause that says you’re not meant to talk about money. There [are] times when I’ve gotten to set, not knowing how…

Fast fashion has a major impact on the planet, but an often overlooked piece of the puzzle is the impact the industry has on the people who actually make the clothes, shoes, and accessories that so many of us purchase. Clothing is the third-largest manufacturing industry, and it’s estimated that only 2% of garment workers worldwide earn a livable wage; the other 98% are often paid meager wages and sometimes not paid at all for their labor, according to Fashion Revolution. Most garment workers work long hours in dangerously crowded, often toxic spaces, trying to keep up with the demands of manufacturers and brands who sell labor-intensive products for the price of a latte. While these larger systems need major change, as consumers, we also bear some responsibility to ensure…

Remake is an online community of fashion lovers, women’s rights advocates, and environmentalists working to change the industry’s harmful practices. From “5-minute actions” and “No New Clothes” challenges, to policy advocacy work and more, Remake urges followers to “wear your values.” remake.world Slow Factory is a platform that advances climate-positive movements through the lens of human rights, science, technology, and fashion. The organization creates opportunities for marginalized designers through fellowships, upcycling programs, skills training, and more. slowfactory.earth Fashion Revolution was founded after the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, which killed over 1,000 garment workers in Bangladesh. Since then, the organization has become the world’s largest fashion activism movement, working to mobilize everyday citizens to challenge brands and policymakers to do better. fashionrevolution.org…

In 2022, Cameron Boyland stepped out into the middle of Times Square, shoulder to shoulder with more than 75 others who were all dressed to the nines for a plus-size male model campaign called “The Bigger Picture.” Every year since, the fashionable flash mob has taken place semi-annually in the throes of New York Fashion Week — and that’s by design. “You don’t see us on the runways at New York Fashion Week; we’re rarely featured in major editorials,” Boyland told Vogue in June. “That’s why I created The Bigger Picture. We aren’t waiting for permission — we’re creating our own campaigns, events, and platforms.” Tired of being overlooked by an industry infamous for its narrow beauty standards, Boyland has taken matters into his own hands. Beyond The Bigger Picture’s…

GOOD Donate unwanted clothes to a wide net of charities in your community through the Give Back Box. Pick a donation route and request a free shipping label online. givebackbox.shop BETTER Send your gently used sneakers to Sneakers4Good to give them a second life in your community — and around the globe. Request a “Sneaker Recycling Kit” and free shipping label online. sneakers4good.com/start BEST Host a clothing swap. Invite friends and family to bring five to 10 clothing items that they no longer wear and swap them among one another. Guests will leave with new pieces and a more intentional closet. clothingswap.com…

GOOD Shop thoughtfully. Resist fast fashion items, which are made from synthetic materials like polyester, nylon, and acrylic. Not only are they prone to damage, but they are often not biodegradable. BETTER Read “Visible Mending” by Arounna Khounnoraj to learn how to mend glaring holes, tame unraveling threads, and affix missing buttons. Simple stitches can lengthen the life of your clothes considerably. BEST Learn how to repurpose your wardrobe. When damage goes beyond repair, give the garment a second life by turning old t-shirts and toeless socks into cleaning rags or stuffing, or sew it into something new, like a quilt. allfreesewing.com…

As a graduate student at Central Michigan University, Kaleigh Slot pioneered a body of innovative research that could help protect elderly women at risk of severe injuries from slips and falls. In her work, she examined the use of medical alert systems in post-fall scenarios, which enable users to wear a necklace or keep a device in their pockets to call for help in the event of a major fall. But Slot wondered: “How do we mitigate these injuries before they occur?” So, she designed a handful of discreetly padded designs that have built-in emergency call devices. The pieces were specifically designed to appeal to elderly women, combining style and utility by providing layers of cushion to the wearer. The idea is that the padding will soften falls and reduce…

When victims of sexual assault visit medical centers or police stations after being attacked, their clothes are often confiscated for DNA evidence, leaving already vulnerable people with nothing but a hospital gown and shoes. In California, the Grateful Garment Project exists to restore a level of comfort and dignity in the immediate aftermath of these traumatic events. The nonprofit has a closet full of donated clothing, toiletries, snacks, and other essentials that it gives to clients in their time of need. Chanel Miller, author of the book “Know My Name,” and a survivor of campus assault, benefited from the resources of GGP after she was attacked at Stanford University. She said she still has the sweatshirt she was given as a reminder that “there is good in the world.” “Even…

“Human Footprint” is a docuseries that follows biologist Shane Campbell- Staton around the world as he explores the impact humans have on economies, ecosystems, and more. Episodes like “Dressed to Kill” take a deep dive into the impact of our fashion choices. pbs.org/show/human-footprint “Resilience” is a short documentary produced by Betty Yu that follows the filmmaker’s mother. In it, she tells the story of countless Chinese immigrants who rally against sweatshop conditions in hopes of a better life. video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/resilience-garment-workers “The True Cost” is a full-length documentary that explores the human and environmental costs of the clothing we make, pulling back the curtain on factories in countries around the world, and even on the biggest runways. truecostmovie.com…

The only thing Terina Nicole Hill may love more than designing clothes is teaching other people how to design them, too. In addition to founding The Fashion Design Center of South Jersey, Hill is a full-time fashion design teacher at Camden’s Creative Arts High School with 20 years of experience under her belt. “She’s taught us this many times, fashion is not just for the look,” one of her students, Kauthar Sumayyah Calvente, told the digital news outlet NJ.com. “We need to be mindful as humans who need to protect this earth.” Outside of the classroom, Hill founded her own clothing boutique, the Sustainable Style Studio, and then Eco-Fashion Lab, where she leads lessons on leathercrafting, jean upcycling, block-printing, African jewelry-making, and much more. Once a month, Hill also opens…

We’ve all seen the photos: Mountains of clothes in a landfill, a flip-flop sandal floating in the ocean, the plastic packaging of a SheIn haul settling on a tree branch or the side of a road. The impact of fast fashion — and let’s be honest, fashion in general — is all around us. The fashion industry is responsible for approximately 10% of global carbon emissions, which could jump even higher if trends continue, according to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change. And still, people continue to shop. Adated, but still illustrative, study from McKinsey Sustainability in 2016 found that people bought 60% more garments in 2014 than they did in 2000 — and they only kept the clothes for half as long. While a significant part of this…

Over 300 million people worldwide can’t afford shoes — and yet, over 300 million shoes are thrown away each year in the United States alone. Over 30 to 40 years, those shoes slowly leach dyes and adhesives into soil and groundwater as they sit in overcrowded landfills. “Most people throw away their athletic shoes and sneakers after 8-12 months of wear without ever considering recycling them,” Sneakers4Good, a global recycling program, wrote in a mission statement. “Since sneakers are not biodegradable, this can have drastic consequences for the environment.” Looking to meet a need — and counter environmental waste at the same time — Sneakers4Good began a national program to recycle gently used shoes to people in need. “Our Sneakers4Good program was built for the running community with sustainability in…

Billie Eilish is well aware of the toll that the music industry has on the environment. For years, the Grammy Award-winning musician and her mother, Maggie Baird, have found innovative ways to reduce the carbon footprint that inevitably comes with world tours and best-selling albums, from creating vinyls out of recycled plastics to performing on solar-powered stages. In July, Eilish and Baird turned their attention to another facet of waste in the music industry: unsold concert merch. Together with Universal Music Group’s merchandise arm, Bravado, they spearheaded an initiative to take a decade’s worth of “deadstock” — roughly 400,000 T-shirts — and transform them into something new. In an interview with Fast Company, Bravado president Matt Young said that, until recently, the merch had gone “forgotten,” gathering dust in a…

One design firm in Kenya wants to make it even easier for Blind and visually impaired shoppers to style their clothes. Hisi Studio started as Angela Wanjiku’s senior project at the University of Nairobi, where she studied textile design. Now, she has a full-fledged label, where textile artists sew beaded Braille patterns and phrases onto shirts and skirts. In addition to Braille designs, each garment comes with a QR code tag that describes the clothing and care instructions for visually impaired wearers. It utilizes tools like Google Talkback on mobile devices, which reads the information from the scanned QR code back to the user. And some designs are made specifically to help improve the everyday lives of people who wear them. A leather belt bag featured in Hisi Studio’s first…

GOOD Read “The Intersection of Fashion and Disability” by Kate Annett-Hitchcock. The book provides historical context and highlights figures, events, and movements that will leave you with a deeper understanding of disability and style. BETTER Donate to the Runway of Dreams Foundation, an organization that helps create adaptive fashion runway shows, launch careers of disabled models, and fund research and development of adaptive design. runwayofdreams.org BEST Shop with a purpose! Use your dollars to uplift small businesses that prioritize making clothes for all. The platform Phoria has a whole library of size- and gender-inclusive brands. phoriafits.com…

01 The Grateful Garment Project accepts monetary wishlist, clothing, and other in-kind donations to stock their closets for survivors of sexual assault and human trafficking. gratefulgarment.org/donate 02 Point of Pride offers free binders and shapewear to transgender people and maintains a global list of agencies where trans folks can stock their closets (and allies can donate, too). pointofpride.org/blog/free-clothing-resources-for-trans-folks 03 Dress for Success accepts monetary, gift card, store credit, and gently used clothing donations to help unemployed women get the resources they need to find work and build confidence. dressforsuccess.org…

“Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism” by Aja Barber is a two-part nonfiction book about the injustices of the textile industry. It examines the uncomfortable history of slavery and racism, as well as our current-day reality of wealth inequality, while also gently inviting readers to imagine a better way. “Slave to Fashion” by Safia Minney is a book of interviews with the men, women, and children all around the world who have been forced into slavery to make the clothes we buy and wear every day. The book also provides best practices for brands and designers in the fashion industry to be part of a slavery-free future. “Loved Clothes Last” by Orsola de Castro confronts the reality that many of us buy and discard clothes…

Brooks Bell and Sarah Beran’s fashion brand Worldclass bears a rather cheeky slogan: “A great ass is a terrible thing to waste.” At first glance, it’s merely a humorous tagline, but it holds an important double meaning for Bell and Beran. Despite hailing from different corners of the country — Bell from North Carolina and Beran from California — the founders met and bonded over a shared diagnosis of late-stage colon cancer. Both of them were in their 30s when they started registering symptoms, and despite skepticism from their doctors, both women advocated for themselves and pushed for colonoscopies. It was a measure that ultimately saved their lives, and Bell and Beran wanted to spread that message loud and clear. “The stigma is ridiculous,” Beran told Raleigh Magazine. “I want…

When 2025 kicked off, the West Coast was ablaze. Entire neighborhoods were incinerated by the Palisades and Eaton wildfires that swept through Southern California in early January. According to ABC News, over 24 days the fires impacted 37,000 acres, destroyed 16,000 structures, and displaced 180,000 people. And while a home burns down around them, people aren’t prioritizing packing a suitcase. That’s why Seconds Market stepped up. On January 8, the secondhand clothing organization — which is based in Los Angeles — took on a Herculean task: Using their platform to connect clothing donations with Californians in need. “Have spare clothes lying around? A Poshmark or Depop pile? We’ll connect you with someone who needs them,” The account posted to social media. “Whether it’s a box, or just one or two…

The fashion world is often built around flash-in-the-pan trends. But today, a growing number of designers, models, and activists are hoping to create longer-lasting movements by using the runway to elevate marginalized models, showcase sustainability, and even bedazzle a few adoptable dogs in the process. Jack Eyers has been breaking records for a decade straight. In 2015, he made history as the first disabled man to walk in New York Fashion Week. Three years later, Eyers became the first amputee to be crowned in the Mr. England beauty pageant. And in 2024, the model-turned-athlete won a silver medal for paracanoeing in his first Paralympic Games. Eyers, who had an above-the-knee amputation at 16 years old due to proximal femoral focal deficiency, said he’s come a long way from the kid…