I am 20 years old and at the age where I want to make a difference in the world. I find that the frustration of not knowing where or how to make a difference in the world is one of my main drives in life — and what keeps my drive active is never forgetting my love of fashion.
My passion for the fashion industry is something I have identified with through my entire life. I remember being very young and sneaking into my mother’s closet to get to her clothes … only to cut them up to make outfits for my dolls. What was going through my head was, “I don’t like the clothes on my dolls, so can I change them?”
That statement is one that I still identify with today — I am not satisfied with the way that the fashion industry is, so how can I change it? Because change is something the industry desperately needs now.
One company that has recognized that need for change is Shinola, a Detroit-based luxury leather goods company. Shinola’s design director, Greg Verras, is aware that the industry is not the most responsible in terms of its environmental impact, and wants to do his part in contributing a change for the better through his platform.
In 2021, Shinola launched an unconventional watch collection called “Sea Creatures,” a collaboration between the company and Tide Ocean Material, that features the first upcycled ocean-bound plastic watch. The watchband is composed of these recycled, saved waste plastics — but thanks to Verras’ stellar design work, wearers don’t see a difference between the band and one made from traditional materials. This innovative collection is the first of many at Shinola thanks to Verras’ creativity.
When talking about the future of the company’s visions, Verras described plans to reuse industrial materials of all sorts in designs — including products made from discarded industrial items from automobiles and other metals found in the brand’s Motor City home base. Verras shared that the ideas are still in the early stages, but will be powerful in giving Shinola yet another road to pave sustainability into the future of fashion.
Shinola’s steps into the sustainable fashion industry is a leap in the right direction, as this move brings to light the waste issues in oceans. For example, there is currently an island of plastic and non-biodegradable waste floating between California and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean — an accumulation that is about the size of Texas. We as a society have produced a surplus of waste for far too long, and the problem is something that should not have gone this far. We need to love what we already have produced while also getting into the habit of reusing. The Sea Creatures collection has opened the door for using and repurposing what we would consider waste. It may sound easy, but it is difficult, as we are years deep into the cycle of creating new and throwing away.
In my 20 years on this earth, my love of fashion has grown each year, from that little girl cutting clothes in her mother’s closet to a student enrolled at LIM College. Fashion is more than a hobby for me; it is my career path, and on that path, I want to be a change-maker. I experienced my wake-up call when I enrolled in my first sustainability class at LIM College, where I was educated on the concept of fast fashion and its danger to the environment and the concept of prioritizing quantity and not quality. As the years have progressed, fashion has gotten cheaper and the trends have multiplied. The fact that Shinola is doing the opposite of fast fashion — and creating timeless, classic, unisex pieces made from long- lasting materials — can save the planet.
Hearing Verras’ ideas to spark change in an industry that is so stuck in a wasteful cycle is incredibly motivating. By espousing companies like Shinola Tide Ocean Material, I am optimistic that the industry will follow in a positive domino effect of change. I am hoping that this little girl going into her mom’s closet to cut up her clothes can, like Verras and Shinola, help turn the tide in the fashion industry to be more sustainable.
