Don’t be a hater

To me, Fe-line is about women sharing ideas, making friends and learning something new. Oh, and having fun along the way. In general, this is my attitude towards feminism in general, and I suppose I could go as far as to say my attitude towards life. Have fun, make friends, learn something new and try to do a bit of good.

However, we are all aware that not everyone has this opinion, from the mean girl down the street, the woman who sneers at you when you don’t quite manage that last mile on the treadmill or the frenemy who loves to remind you that you’re the only single one at the party. From the people we see every day, to the people we read about in the paper – trolling, celebrity spats, whatever – sometimes people can be unkind.

As you are aware, I write about ethical fashion, beauty and lifestyle. It’s something I care about and hope I can inspire others to care about too. Although I try to make ethical choices where possible, I don’t expect others to always follow my lead nor do I force anyone to do so. However, I recently received a spate of criticism about my interests, because I was wearing a dress from ASOS. ‘ASOS isn’t ethical’, I was told. I am aware of this and although they do in fact have a whole section dedicated to ethical clothing, this was a standard ASOS dress – fabulous in my opinion because it has zebras on. My entire ethical fashion premise was subsequently picked apart and I was condemned a hypocrite and fraudster.

One of the most unethical things to do with my wardrobe now I am trying to be eco and socially conscious, would be to throw out everything and start from scratch. Why would I waste clothes I care about, that I love, that suit me very well? Why would I set myself up to have to purchase a whole new wardrobe when I have neither the time, inclination nor money to do so? Furthermore, ethical fashion is not about creating extra demand for clothes that we do not need. That would result in greater resource use which damages our planet. It’s about creating ethical choices for when there is a need for an item, say a new dress; not to ignite unnecessary spending on items we don’t need.

This was all repeated to said prosecutors, and was thankfully received well. Case dismissed. The incident did however leave me feeling very uncomfortable and frankly rather upset. Why has a stranger come to me to pick apart my decisions, that in no way infringe on their rights, choices or fun, and tried to make me look bad? I am lucky, that within the ethical fashion community people like this are very rare; as we are all bonded over our similar interests and objectives, we tend to all become friends rather quickly. In some ways, that is like the women I have encountered thanks to Fe-line; women I am proud to be associated with and happy to work alongside.

Ethical fashion is about widening choices, trying to make a difference, and giving women (and men) the opportunity to use their style to make changes for the better. It aims to educate, support and enlighten people about their style choices, and present them with the information with which to make better choices, should they wish. Somewhat like the purpose of Feline.

All in all, if you are interested in ethical fashion – whether you think you’d like to incorporate it into your wardrobe, or simply read up on it – then please do get involved (Google Sass Brown, or Wear No Evil to start with!) and remember, you have the right and privilege of being who you want to be, and no one, NO ONE, can take that away from you, regardless of the colour of your shoes, or whether you like dresses from ASOS with Zebras on.