My familiarity with the sustainable lifestyle and fashion industry has recently increased after watching a video posted by a creator, Arden Rose, on her YouTube channel. The movement towards a more eco-friendly and longer-lasting way of living has become more and more prominent in the last few years.

I personally was always surrounded by a conversation about environmentally-friendly and conscious choices. Stores such as H&M have begun to feature clothing lines such as H&M Conscious. Including advertisements highlighting the positive impact of sustainable clothing, introducing the campaign to recycle clothing, and the changes in tags throughout the store to specify the clothing that is part of this unique line has drawn attention to this store, and others, in the progress towards sustainability.

What I found to be the most interesting, starting with Arden's video and then from my own research afterward, was the varying degrees with which clothing is judged to be sustainable. Different environmental and conservational organizations rate different brands, products, and materials differently from one another. The greatest struggle that I have seen so far has been the development of my own personal judgment. What do I deem to be the most accurate source of standardization of sustainability and who is influenced by which other organization for their ranking?

It is in the process of this exploration that I have concluded that I am just barely scratching the surface of my exploration into the world of sustainability. What I have started to do is purge my closet of any clothing that I have not worn in a long time or that I have found just does not fit me anymore. These clothes I then take in bags to H&M and recycle, I trade with my friends to get a new wardrobe without spending any money, or I donate.

If you might be interested in exploring sustainability, or if I've just piqued your interest, go ahead and start with Arden's video above. That's where I first started becoming more interested in making changes that could, in the long-term, really help keep our planet happy and healthy.