How a Sustainable Baddie Approaches a Style Challenge
Guests You'll Want to Go Thrifting With: Jazmine Brown, Sustainable Baddie
I’m Emily Stochl, a vintage & secondhand fashion reporter 🎤 and this is Pre-Loved!
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It’s hard to believe, but I’ve known Head-Baddie, Founder & CEO, Jazmine Brown, for six years! She joined me on Pre-Loved Podcast way back in November 2019, and, even then, she discussed giving yourself grace on your slow fashion journey.
These many years later, it’s hard to think about sustainable fashion without the bright light Jaz shines over it! In today’s letter, we spoke about:
Loving fashion, and shaping it into something better through accessible, inclusive and optimistic conversations.
How things have shifted in the sustainable fashion space, and where the industry conversations could stand to dig-in a little deeper.
and, how to approach a shopping or styling challenge for lasting impact…
…Welcome to “Guests You’ll Want To Go Thrifting With!” 🎤 with Jazmine Brown:
Can you tell me about some of the sustainable fashion moments that shaped you?
Going back to, like, my origin story…!
I grew up really loving fashion, and was unintentionally sustainable because I didn't grow up with a lot of money, so I wasn’t buying things all the time. I was very much a DIY-er and thrifter for a long time.
When I got to college, I got my first job and I was like, “oh my gosh, I finally have money to spend on clothes!” I was a fashion major, and I went really hard into fast fashion — just really trying to dive into the industry, because I love clothes and getting dressed.
But, I quickly learned that the fashion industry is actually really terrible for the planet and people, and my conscious just could not fit with that moving forward.
“I knew if I wanted to be a part of fashion, I wanted to be a part of changing it for the better.
Which, I didn't feel was impossible! I've always been kind of optimistic in that way…”
One thing led to another, and I accidentally became a full-time content creator, sharing everything I learned! But, I quickly recognized I'm just one person with one perspective. I don't know everything happening in the world, I don't have all the resources and tools… but there's plenty of people out there who do!
There wasn't really a homebase where people were talking about sustainable fashion in a fun, trendy, accessible way. So, I created , and it's basically a hub for all things playful, accessible, inclusive, optimistic sustainable conversations and people!
And it goes beyond myself. I'm happy to not talk about myself all the time!
I relate to that a lot! And also, that you’re someone who both loves fashion and wants to change the space for the better. Can you talk about why that is?
Because if you love fashion, you have a role to make in making it better! If you truly love something, you want the best for it, you know?
That’s how I feel about fashion, and the trajectory it's on. Beyond the ethical and moral obligation, which I feel we should all have towards others and the planet. This industry won't exist — there will be no clothes or getting dressed on a dead planet! — none of it will be possible. There won't be art, and creativity, and the ability to express yourself, on the path that we're on.
I love fashion, so I want to see it be sustained. Truly loving something involves shaping it, you know?
What’s a lesson you’ve learned along the way and how did it change the way you thought about sustainability or personal style?
When I first learned about sustainability, the conversations around it felt very one-note, a lot more minimalistic, and black-and-white. Even a little bit sad, you know?
And there also weren’t diverse people being shown prominently in the space. Luckily I found a handful who really inspired me, like Aja Barber and Dominque Drakeford — and I felt, like, ‘surely there's not just one way this has to look?’
So, when I entered the sustainable fashion space, I thought: “what would Little Jaz need to hear?” And I thought about what I would have been drawn to, and needed to see, in order to get these lessons sooner. I leaned into that, and my own personal voice!
Since then, I've been discovering that I love more playful and eclectic style, and putting together things that shouldn’t go together. Life is more fun in that way!
“If you love fashion, you have a role to make in making it better! If you truly love something, you want the best for it… truly loving something involves shaping it.”
That's how life should be, anyway: being able to be curious, and have fun, and enjoy yourself… even if you're fighting for things, you know? It doesn't have to be, like, one or the other. It’s all part of the fight. Otherwise, you won't be sustained.
Along those lines, Sustainable Baddie promotes fun and optimistic sustainable fashion and living. How are you feeling about the state of sustainable fashion lately?
I feel like there was a peak in the conversation in 2020, and with it, a rise of a lot of ethical fashion influencers. Today it’s not as much in the conversation, but I think that has a lot to do with the state of the world is at and how we treat social justice conversations.
But, what I do think is interesting is, even though [sustainable fashion] might not be a “hot” topic, I do feel like it's more mainstream. If people hear the word ‘sustainable fashion,’ something comes to mind. It's not a brand new, never-thought-about-that topic, you know?
An encouraging thing recently was how Teen Vogue made their “Last Stop” pledge to make sustainability the forefront of their content — which is huge! That's really encouraging to me. It's almost like it's gone from being a fringe topic that was trendy for awhile, to more central.
But, I feel like it's at a place where it can definitely grow deeper and become even more accessible and normalized.
In terms of growing deeper, what do you think are some of the deeper conversations that the industry should be primed to have this year?
Everything? Everything! I think the next step is materials. People are just starting to get their head around secondhand clothing, so then it's like, well, polyester, do you know what polyester is? It's in everything! It's actually really bad! Let's phase it out.
I can see that conversation becoming more more popular because people are like, “why am I paying $500 for this polyester thing?!”
And then moving beyond that, I think people are getting exhausted from capitalism. We need to be tying that back, roping all those things together. That’s where we should be headed.
At the New Year, we saw lots of chat about Low Buys & No Buys, how do you recommend the sustainable baddies approach goals like these?
Haha, I actually made a video about this, where I said I failed the 75 Hard Challenge — which, I basically did.
The biggest thing I learned is taking the challenge in chunks: first, challenging yourself to actually get dressed with what you already have. Then, maybe a period where you don't buy new. And then just exploring from there!
I think challenges are really exciting. We're always so afraid to do hard things, but it's like, “life is already gonna be hard.” And sometimes doing things that are difficult makes you feel better.
Regularly challenging yourself to do different things is not only is good for the planet and people, but also for yourself and your relationship to yourself. It's good to push ourselves, even if we learn something different than we expected to learn.
Consumer blackouts have been a big topic. What can boycotts teach us about making change?
I have conflicting feelings about it, actually, where I think — back to the challenges — it's like, if you go really hard once, that's not the same as like doing a little bit and sustaining it, you know?
So I feel like, I approve of economic blackouts if we can sustain it, as opposed to just one day. I'm thinking about how Starbucks, McDonald's, and Target stocks have begun to plummet — that didn't happen just in one day. People are boycotting them, making a stand until things change, or leaving them for good.
I know it can be exhausting, but that's how things actually do change. Like the Montgomery Bus Boycotts during the Civil Rights movement took over a year of people boycotting for things to finally change.
Since you mentioned the bus boycotts, I think of the carpools organized to get each other to work during them. How do we build the community that makes it possible to boycott something for a year?
Start with the classics like Buy Nothing Groups, or skipping Starbucks and going to your local coffee shop. That pushes you to seek community in the midst of it all.
Then, see what talents you're able to offer to others. Recently, I had some old tech I didn't need anymore, and one of my friends was in a place where they needed it, but they told me they didn’t want to support Apple or buy anything new, and I was like, “oh my gosh, I actually have an extra you can have if you want!” so it worked out great.
Little bits of community-building like that, where, if you see a need, try to fill it, and if you have a need, communicate it to others.
Where are you looking to source style inspiration lately?
I’m trying to be more intentional with how I feel in clothes, and what I actually want to wear. I realized I was pushing myself to get dressed in all these funky things because I felt like I had to, but I got burnt out and needed a moment to breathe.
I've been creating more space and time to be bored. So, when I am bored, I'm like, “hmm, I want to play dress up a little bit!” And then I start experimenting and putting these things together. I even did that yesterday, and I ended up finding this old sheer skirt that I thrifted ages ago, and I layered a jean skirt on top of it. And I was like, “I've never done that before!” It was fun.
“Regularly challenging yourself to do different things is not only is good for the planet and people, but also for yourself and your relationship to yourself…
It's good to push ourselves, even if we learn something different than we expected to learn.”
But, on the opposite side — I feel like Pinterest gets a bad rep for being like, too repetitive and people think ‘you can’t find your personal style on Pinterest.’ But I don't think that’s true! I think there's a reason why Pinterest is so popular. It's a good starting point to see what you like.
One of my friends, Rian Phin, said: it's not about copying an outfit play-by-play, it's seeing what about the outfit is speaking to you. What does it feel like? What silhouettes are you liking? What colors? I've been doing more of that, analyzing what I’m drawn to.
I love what you said about making space for yourself to be bored. Can you tell me more about that?
I've been applying this to creativity in general! I've become a more creative person because I've been forcing myself to be bored throughout the day. It clears my mind, and allows it to shuffle through things. I'm constantly bombarded by so much coming in, just being bored feels like the clouds clearing from the sky!
What’s your go-to secondhand shopping style? What does that ritual of secondhand shopping look like for you?
I’m definitely an IRL-thrifter, more than anything — I have the aspiration to be an online thrifter! But, I’ve been thrifting in-person my whole life, and I love a good deal. I love to put on a podcast or music, and just spend hours in a thrift store perusing everything.
I think it’s exciting that I can’t search up exactly what I want, but I have to keep my eyes out for it! There's something so therapeutic about sifting through stuff — the art of touching, and feeling, and sifting just like feels so nice to me that I miss it when I'm online shopping.
What’s a fashion item that is really core to your personal style?
I think it's my red glasses I've been wearing — I've worn them non-stop!
I did a secondhand photo shoot with one of my friends, and I tried them on because I had lost a pair of blue-light glasses. I was like, “oh, I really miss them!” And she said, “well if you want these secondhand glasses, you can you can have them!” And I was like, “oh, you're kidding me!!!” They just fit me perfectly, and they go with everything.
I feel bad because I'm like, a glasses-appropriator, I don't technically need glasses. Haha! But, ever since I started experimenting with them, I realized how naked I feel on the top half of my face if I'm not wearing glasses, or a hat, or a scarf, or something in my hair. And they're like 1980s vintage glasses. Very cutie!
What’s next at Sustainable Baddie?
We always have events happening! We have lots of resources online, but we also try to make sure we're meeting with community in-person, as well. Let’s hang out! 👋
Thanks for reading Pre-Loved! You can find me across the internet on Instagram, TikTok, and Threads! 💛 - Emily