Making the Change to Sustainability

The Jaunty Lady Boutique has made a conscious choice to say goodbye to fast fashion & adopt the idea of “slow fashion” with a desire to promote sustainable and ethical fashion brands and encourage conscious consumerism. I want to promote intentionality, quality & diminish the disposable culture of clothing with products that will last for years to come! 

The term fast fashion is something that has been in my ear, on my timeline & in the news for several years. If you are unaware of the term, it means that clothes are made quickly with little (or no) consideration for our planet, the quality & the people making them. 

Towards the beginning of this year I took a deep dive into the world of fast fashion (basically all of the brands that I buy from) & began trying to find where the products I was buying were being made. Do you know where that top you are wearing came from? Because I don't or at least I didn't at the time and it didn't cross my mind a lot of the time because I was conditioned to believe this was a *good* wholesale brand and everyone else is buying it, so why wouldn't I jump on the bandwagon? I slowly began to question why we are buying these brands that everyone else is? Are they good or is just everyone else doing it? Even if this fast fashion brand is providing more quality products, what is their mission? It's hardly customer focused, they're striving for quantity over quality, which is inherently unsustainable. As I put more & more money into this business, my desire to buy more from these popular boutique wholesale brands began to wane and the *newness* took a toll on me. I release a collection and feel like people wanted more almost instantly and I don't blame you, we've been conditioned to believe that new stuff should be coming out almost DAILY. How can a person keep up with this & why would we want to? The options are TOO much, for anyone.

Fast fashion is so easily accessible with its attractive price tags. It is in such high demand that we don't know a culture and life without being able to drive to a big box store and grab something that is needed last minute, instead of slowing down to appreciate what we have, making our own things or even thinking about WHERE or WHO made these clothes we're wearing? What did THEY have to go through to make that top that you'll wear 4 times and then donate to Goodwill? There is a HUGE demand for the trendiest stuff with a cheap or "affordable" price tag and we aren't even thinking about what we're consuming because it's essentially *disposable* and we can just go buy another or order it on Amazon.

While slowing down and being mindful of the harmful effects the fashion industry has on the environment, I also want to bring awareness to the people who have been exploited and who work in poor conditions and get very little pay.

“No piece of clothing is worth risking the future of our planet or someone’s health. We need to radically transform the way clothing is made and the way garment workers are treated, and end fast fashion."

GreenAmerica.Org 

I hope to use my platform to share what I've learned with others & have it be a safe space where we can make changes in the right direction. This is not to say we can't indulge and buy cute clothes, I think simply being more mindful can make a HUGE impact, even on a small scale. 

The goals of The Jaunty Lady going forward will be to choose brands that practice sustainability, focus on smaller batches, minimize their waste, are fair trade & provide great fabrics and quality pieces that we can all enjoy for years to come! This change is not intended to make anyone feel shame or guilt. It’s a chance for us all to slowly change the ways of fast fashion to slowing down & being more intentional about our shopping behavior. 

You can expect to see more transparency & brand awareness in the coming months. I will share the brands of each & every product on our website as well as their sustainability efforts and what made them a great brand to bring to The Jaunty Lady so you can choose if that’s something you want to support! I am also working on launching handmade & small batch clothing made by The Jaunty Lady! I will be adding a “custom” tab to my website where you can customize misc. products that are made to order like tees, crewnecks, dusters/kimonos & home goods and I hope to occasionally bring in thrifted collections! 

The first in-person launch of our new sustainability & ethically focused brand will be at the Indiana Peony Festival on Saturday, May 20th! You can find more information on the Events tab on our website! This launch will consist of curated & peony inspired clothing items from sustainable brands & (hopefully) a few items made by me, handmade jewelry, as well as household accessories that promote a greener lifestyle! 

My goal is to keep the same “vibe” as before but in a more intentional way & I hope to release some new accessories and tees in the in-between time! This is a BIG change and something I am really excited about but it’s essentially starting over, so please be patient with me! While this is just a little insight into what we are changing, we still have SO MUCH more to share with you. I won't always get it right but I'm making a commitment to myself and to my business to adopt more sustainable practices towards a more transparent future in the fashion industry for the people working in it and for our planet. 

"When you know better, you do better."

Maya Angelou 

With that being said, I will be offering 60% off SITEWIDE until everything is gone. Discount will automatically be applied in the cart, no code needed. Although these clothes aren't what we have in mind going forward, we still picked them out with the understanding that we were providing you quality goods and still believe they are great pieces that can last you for years to come if taken care of properly! 

♥ Hannah