Student-Led Initiatives Fuel SDSU’s Sustainable Fashion Movement
Students gather to shop in San Diego State University’s Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union during the annual Fashion Club market on Dec. 6, 2023.
Student vendors selling vintage and handmade clothing fill San Diego State University’s Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union as the annual Fashion Club market commences, displaying just one of the many sustainable fashion initiatives at the university.
As concerns about the environmental impact of fast fashion continue to grow, SDSU students are leading a sustainable fashion movement on campus. From free clothing swaps and sustainable fashion shows to student-owned vintage shops, these initiatives aim to educate students on the harms of fast fashion and inspire students to form sustainable habits of consumption.
SDSU’s Fashion Club is at the forefront of the sustainable fashion movement. Kelsey Pickett, an SDSU student and the social media manager of Fashion Club, discussed how the club provides a safe space for creative expression with sustainability as one of the club’s core values.
“The fashion shows and markets that we host all reuse or repurpose clothing, and a lot of our designers do upcycling or thrift-and-sell,” Pickett said.
The Fashion Club’s Instagram page, @sdsufashionclub, holds information about past and upcoming events. One of the Fashion Club’s posts outlines their most recent Give and Take Event, in which students could bring in clothing they no longer wear, and take other participants' clothing for free. The infographic stated that this event encourages SDSU students to “help support sustainable fashion.”
Additional posts on the Fashion Club’s Instagram include photos and videos from their other events, such as student-designed fashion shows, DIY events for repurposing clothing or accessories and photoshoots featuring vintage clothing.
Along with the events hosted by clubs, individual student vendors also play a role in the sustainable fashion movement at SDSU.
Morgan Linglet, a second-year SDSU student, started his second-hand clothing store out of his dorm room and now sells his clothes weekly on campus and at various vintage markets in San Diego.
The name of his shop, 0.5 Collectives, was inspired by a genuine love for second-hand clothing and his motto of “expanding minds through the art of vintage,” Linglet said.
For Linglet, his business isn’t just about sustainable fashion, but also about storytelling and unique creative expression.
“Every piece of vintage in my booth has its own story,” said Linglet. “When you step into my booth, you’re taking a chance to open your mind to a new kind of niche of fashion that’s more creative and unique, and straying away from fast fashion.”
Linglet also said that while the ability to cultivate a unique personal style is an incentive for buying second-hand clothes, it is the negative environmental effects of fast fashion that make sustainable options so important.
According to reports from the Center for Biological Diversity, the fast fashion industry depends on the exploitation of resources to mass-produce clothes at unprecedented rates. Consumers purchase and discard this clothing at a rapid pace, both to keep up with ever-changing trends and because the cheap quality of the clothing gives it a shorter lifespan, the report states.
“The fashion industry as a whole is responsible for consuming 79 trillion liters of water per year, producing over 92 million tons of solid waste per year, and contributing up to an estimated 20% of global wastewater and 10% of CO2 emissions,” the Center for Biological Diversity reports.
Heather Honea, the SDSU department of marketing chair, whose research focuses on sustainable business and consumer psychology, discussed possible solutions to the environmental concerns of fast fashion. Honea said that fast fashion's key environmental issues should be addressed through a circular fashion approach, where consumers embrace second-hand markets, clothing rentals and upcycling to minimize waste and environmental harm.
Honea said that while making consumers feel guilty for participating in fast fashion can be a motivator for promoting sustainable clothes, advertisers should also pair that guilt with positive solutions.
“The richest experience for people is when they feel guilty about doing something, and then they find the really exciting thing that is the antidote for it,” Honea said, “I think that’s where things like thrifting have real opportunity.”
Student-led initiatives such as the Fashion Club’s events or vintage resellers like Linglet are doing exactly that- providing a positive solution by promoting sustainable clothing habits on the SDSU campus.
Amidst the environmental challenges that the world of fashion faces, SDSU students are providing hope for a greener future.
Linglet said, “It's going to take a big group, and all of us as a collective to move forward and, like, close that chapter of fast fashion, and reopen a new one that includes sustainability and sustainable clothing.”