New Ordinary People is taking on Fast Fashion

We live in a “Fast” world and even if from some aspects having what we need right away is useful and good, the direction the fashion industry took in at the end of the 80s is not so good. Fast fashion is one of the most concerning aspects of the clothing industry. It’s not only harmful to the environment but also to people who work in factories. It’s a cause and effect game and the effect is a land full of textile waste we don’t know what to do with.

Fortunately, consumers are always more aware of the problem and want to do something about it.

But even if sustainable brands are trying to take on the change by taking into consideration the environmental and social impact of their production, it’s still the wild west out there. The fact is that “sustainability” is a term often misused and leads to greenwashing.

What does sustainability in fashion really mean? Organic cotton isn’t necessarily sustainable and it definitely isn’t if we’d have to dress the whole Fast Fashion population. The thing we really need to address is the mindset shift in the consumers. Lead people to love their clothes.

And that’s something some sustainable brands are trying to do. Let’s take for example New Ordinary People, a newbie streetwear brand that’s literally built sustainable. They lead by example by choosing very well who they partner up with. They go people first in the country that’s most exploited from the textile industry: Bangladesh. By doing so they vote “NOP” for child labour, discrimination and bad working conditions; and YES for safe and healthy working conditions and freedom.

They’re also ecologically sustainable by using organically grown cotton and nature-friendly inks. This helps to eliminate the use of pesticides, unnatural fertilizers and other toxic chemicals. By doing so, you help preserve biodiversity and soil fertility for our next generations. Not to mention that the cotton is grown with controlled water usage.

This is usually enough for a brand to declare itself sustainable, but at NOP they like to be even pickier and take it to the next level: they use zero-waste packaging (so no plastic), eco-friendly delivery, plant a tree for each product and even their e-commerce goes on solar energy.

Pack it all up in streetwear style and here you go, a brand for the sustainable generation: New Ordinary People.

This kind of business model applied on a large scale would really remove a great quantity of social and environmental issues that we’re growingly facing. And even if sustainable products will never have the price tag in a “Fast Fashion style”, the brands don’t think it’s a problem because as they say at NOPs: “wearing good feels good”.