Sustainable Fashion - guest post by Emily Fee of Belle Belier
I’m really excited to have Emily Fee write a guest blog post for Worthy Figures! We connected through the vendor pop up market scene in Charlotte, and I really love her commitment to sustainable fashion. I asked her to share with you gals! Enjoy!
Emily and her daughter twirling at the confetti hearts wall in Charlotte.
Emily Fee is a Charlotte blogger, influencer, mother, & sustainable brand owner. Below she discusses why sustainable fashion is so important to her.
When I moved to Charlotte from Canada two years ago, I noticed there was a lack of information or general interest in sustainable fashion. To most, sustainable fashion is unattainable because of the cost, and it's not marketed to the everyday girl. My partner Eleanor and I wanted to change that here in Charlotte. We want to make Charlotte known for sustainable fashion and the leaders in conscious consumers.
The fashion industry is the second largest polluting industry in the world. The fashion industry is overproducing, and the general consumer is over consuming. "Fast Fashion" is the current approach to design, create, market and sell for cheap (all of which products don't last and the garments are thrown out and added to our already overflowing landfills). 15.1 million textile clothing waste was produced in 2013 alone! 2013 was the year I became a mother, and I started to realize that I need to protect the earth my child was going to live in; thus birthed the idea of starting a sustainable brand.
With Belle Bélier (pronounced Bell Bell-YAY) our goal is to create beautiful and stylish sustainable pieces for the everyday consumer. We work with local designers to salvage their scrap materials from going to the landfill. I design, hand-make, and deliver each and every product you buy from bellebelier.com right here in Charlotte. We make our tassel necklaces, wrap bracelets, chokers, and headbands with you in mind. We want our pieces to be able to transition with every outfit you wear in every season. I hope that Belle Bélier is able to show you that small changes can reduce waste in the large fashion industry and maybe inspiring other brands to do the same.