by Angela Mao

Ayesha Barenblat is the founder of Remake, an organization devoted to fighting fast fashion. She is a social entrepreneur who has led a movement to promote social justice and sustainability in the fashion industry. Her work and passion for improving the lives of women who make our clothes led her to found Remake to ignite a conscious consumer movement.  

SUSTAIN: Tell me about your story in general. What made you interested in sustainable fashion? 

AYESHA: So I am a first generation Pakistani-American and I think for me really connecting on the human right side of sustainable fashion and really seeing myself and my community in the narrative of garment makers was my first reason to why I cared so much. I went to UC Berkeley, where I was getting a degree in public policy. There, I realized that so many of the corporate responsibility classes that I was taking talked a lot about this sustainable fashion from a brand standpoint, but much less in terms of whether or not sustainable fashion was thinking about people on our planet. That's really where I got really interested in thinking about the intersectionality between climate justice and female empowerment when it comes to sustainable fashion.

SUSTAIN: Why did you decide to start Remake? 

AYESHA: Well, I have been doing work with sustainable fashion for a number of years.. I had worked with brands. I had worked more on the policy side. And one of the things that I realized was there's a seat absent at the table, which is all of us. Everyday shoppers and women who really cared about sustainable fashion, but there weren’t any actionable ways to be a part of the system. As a solution, I founded Remake really as a way for people to embrace a sustainable fashion lifestyle: one that does better for people and our planet.

SUSTAIN: So around what age did you start to actively switch into a sustainable lifestyle or start buying sustainable fashion? 

AYESHA: I think it's an interesting question because sustainable fashion in the early years when I was a poor college student was quite unaffordable. And that's why I like to think more of fashion lifestyle rather than you know, “buying sustainable fashion”. And so, you know, I've been thinking about consignment and thrifting and mending and taking good care of my clothes when I was in college. There are few pieces that I love from sustainable brands, but I often think that we can't buy our way out of this crisis/ So it's more about shopping in my sister's closet or thinking about the local consignment vintage stores. I was also doing some Rent the Runway. So it's just a way of keeping clothes in generation longer, but I've probably been on this journey for some 15 years at this point. 

SUSTAIN: For a lot of youth, they face challenges with switching over to sustainable fashion. One prominent reason is because (besides buying second hand) a lot of sustainable clothing brands are expensive. If possible, can you explain why this is so and how companies can work to make their clothes more affordable? 

AYESHA: Yeah, absolutely. For young people, my first bit of advice would be to pledge to Remake’s No New Clothes Challenge. You can go to our website to take the pledge. It shows how us as a community is able to save money, but also from a carbon wastewater standpoint. I also think of it as sort of a fashion diet. And if you're going to unsubscribe from all the fast fashion mailing lists, you basically clean out your closet for 90 days because that's how long it takes to break a habit. Then maybe you could reset your relationship with clothes. You know, I think part of the reason why sustainable fashion is more expensive is because fast fashion has been focused on a race to the bottom and when it comes to you know, $5, $10 t-shirt prices, it really represents the exploitation embedded in their workers to make a living wage. We have to think of our clothes not as disposable but as durable. And so if we are wearing something for more than 5 to10 washes in the long run the hope is that sustainable pieces last longer and so you're buying less. But I also think that over time as we get more demand that the price of sustainable fashion will go down. My hope is that particularly when it comes to vintage and consignment ways and exchanging clothes, there's going to be other options again. So even if it's at a particularly affordable price point, you know, a particular fashion brand that this other ways for young people to show up in the movement.

SUSTAIN: Some of the least sustainable brands out there (Urban Outfitters and Forever 21) are also some of the trendiest brands for Gen Z and Millennials. In a way, that’s a major obstacle to teenagers looking for sustainable options. What are some effective methods to address this? 

AYESHA: I really appreciate you bringing that up because for too long sustainable fashion hasn't been considered “cute.” Your generation is not going to wear Eileen Fisher. And so absolutely we have to be thinking about design and Urban Outfitters and these companies do a much better job with that. However, I do think that with Gen Z, there has been more studies around interesting hyper customization. What do my clothes say about me rather than just following trends? I think that there are options to find amazing, interesting things when you are thrifting, when you are swapping clothing. You can really embrace a wardrobe that says more about your individuality. The other thing I tell Gen Z is wear  your values. If you care about women's empowerment, don't buy from them, especially now that they haven't been paying for contracts and left workers high and dry.

SUSTAIN: Among parents, there is a certain stigma against buying secondhand. What advice do you have for a young person experiencing such issues? 

AYESHA: I really appreciate the question and I  completely understand the stigma. There's a sense of “If I have made it, I should be buying new”. One piece of advice would be sit down and watch Made in Cambodia with your parents or Made in Mexico and then have a conversation around it. The other way to have this conversation is around climate justice. Fast fashion is really an issue for the future; we need to have a healthy planet and when it comes to a lot of fast fashion, it's built to fall apart. So I would really talk about this in terms of sustaining your future. I think it would go a long way. 

SUSTAIN: Mass consumerism is embedded in our culture, not just in fashion. In your opinion, how can we change that? 

AYESHA: In many ways in the US, sustainable fashion and sustainable food is considered “counterculture,”  right? I think the best way to address it is to really make it something special that other people are going to want to join. Preaching or a holier-than-thou attitude is ineffective compared to showing people the appeals of a sustainable wardrobe. 

SUSTAIN: What would you say to a young person who is on the fence about switching to sustainable fashion? 

AYESHA: I would say that as someone who's been doing this for a long time, it has been so incredible to be able to look at my closet and realize that it has changed for the better. . When I put sustainable materials on my body, it feels different. It's about being patient and taking some of those baby steps. You know, like eating your vegetables but over time I think sustainable fashion is a way to just have a lot of joy.