“Every Garment Counts”: Why The Fashion Advocate Made the Decision to Stop Stocking Polyester

words CLAIRE GOLDSWORTHY photos SUPPLIED

Claire Goldsworthy, sustainable fashion activist and founder of beloved blog and online shop The Fashion Advocate, explains why the brand has ditched polyester for good this year.

When I launched The Fashion Advocate in 2014, I was convinced I could change the world. I was sitting front row at A.F. Vandevorst during Paris Fashion Week, and at that moment, something inside me changed.

Completely absorbed in the menagerie of photographers before me, I decided then and there that meaningful, slow, storytelling-fashion would be the one thing I would always pursue. I wrapped up my overseas travels after working in the fashion industry in Berlin, New York, Paris and Milan, and I moved my whole life from Brisbane to Melbourne. I launched The Fashion Advocate and penned my mission: to establish a passionate and powerful community of brands dedicated to the greater good.

There’s no such thing as ‘perfect’, but as a business owner with the power to create change and as an avid fashion lover myself, I can at least commit to trying.

What started as a blog post has grown into an online store and a like-minded tribe of people who use fashion as a force for good. We sell ethical and sustainable Australian and New Zealand fashion, beauty and lifestyle labels, but it’s not just about selling clothes. It’s about the bigger picture. Our community of brands creates positive social and environmental change every day, consciously designing and creatively thinking, always pursuing a better, more ethical and sustainable world.

Part of that pursuit is always challenging ourselves to do better, so we commit to one significant change every year. There’s no such thing as ‘perfect’, but as a business owner with the power to create change and as an avid fashion lover myself, I can at least commit to trying.

In 2019, we eliminated plastic from our shipping network, and throughout 2020, we began to phase out polyester fashion. Choosing to ditch polyester in support of a greener fashion future was an excruciating decision – it meant losing some of the brands who had been with me from the beginning – but I couldn’t pretend any longer. 

It doesn’t matter if a garment is made in ethical conditions by an independent label that gives to a charity with every sale. If a garment is made with polyester, it’s simply not sustainable. Knowing that fashion is responsible for 35% of the microplastic fibres found in the ocean (according to the 2018 Engineering Out Fashion Waste report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers) became too big of a responsibility to bear. I had to acknowledge that even though what we sold was ethical, some of it was polyester, and we were contributing to a global problem the fashion industry desperately needs to address.

When we’re all caught up in the trends, the new drops, the Insta buzz and the glitz and glam of fashion, it’s easy to think, “Just one polyester garment won’t hurt,” but it will, because at the end of the day it’s not just one of you buying just one garment.

Here’s the bigger picture…

Nearly 70 million barrels of oil are used each year to make the world’s polyester fibre. Oil is a non-renewable resource – once it’s gone, it’s gone. A single polyester garment can take up to 200 years to break down, shedding microplastics into the air just by being worn.

The production of synthetic fibres such as polyester emit gasses like nitrous oxide, which is 300 times more damaging to our environment than carbon dioxide.

One polyester shirt has a 5.5kg carbon footprint, compared to just 2.1kg for a cotton shirt.

Knowing all this, it didn’t matter which way we stitched the sales story together. A polyester dress ethically made by a transparent and vegan label that employs underprivileged women… is still a polyester dress. The facts are the facts about polyester. It’s not sustainable, it’s not environmentally friendly, it’s not natural, it doesn’t breathe and it harbours bacteria. Fashion can do better.

So, while the big companies are working away on more sustainable fabric solutions and better circular processes for our secondhand fashion, I decided we needed to play our part and stop selling polyester. I didn’t want to wait for someone else to come up with a solution to a problem I was contributing to, so we stopped contributing to the polyester problem at The Fashion Advocate.

I’m taking responsibility for The Fashion Advocate’s impact, good or bad, but our fashion impact is something we all have to take responsibility for. It might seem impossible to change a global problem, but there’s plenty you can do from home to have a positive fashion impact.

When we’re all caught up in the trends, the new drops, the Insta buzz and the glitz and glam of fashion, it’s easy to think, “Just one polyester garment won’t hurt,” but it will, because at the end of the day it’s not just one of you buying just one garment.

As a consumer, you can choose to buy only natural materials and avoid synthetic fabrics. If you already own polyester garments, wash them with a guppy bag or machine polyester filter to prevent plastic microfibres from entering our oceans through wastewater.

If you’re ready to part with any polyester garments you already own, hold a swap party with friends, try reselling them into the circular economy, find a local recycling program or donate them to an op-shop. Never throw polyester garments in the bin.

And, if you’re going to buy poly-based fashion like swimwear, only buy from brands who use regenerated, circular or recycled polyester. You’ll still need to wash with a guppy bag, but you’ll be helping to clean up an already existing plastic mess. Regenerated fibres like Econyl are made from post-consumer plastic waste, reducing plastic pollution and making use of existing resources.

We have the power to have a positive impact every time we shop, and when we shop ethically and sustainably, we have the power to create positive change on a global scale.

Every garment counts.