INTERVIEW #163 LAUREN BRAVO

Name: Lauren Bravo

Occupation: Journalist and author

Based in: London

Website: laurenbravo.co.uk

Instagram: @laurenbravo

Hi Lauren! Welcome to A Sustainable Closet! Can you please tell us more about yourself and your relationship with clothes?

It’s great to be here! I’m an author and a fashion and lifestyle journalist, a reformed fast fashion addict and a devoted secondhand shopper. In 2019 I gave up buying new clothes for a year, and the result was my book How To Break Up With Fast Fashion: A Guilt-free Guide for Changing the Way You Shop – for Good, which is an accessible and (hopefully?) funny guide to ditching a toxic relationship with fashion and forging more sustainable habits, for the good of the planet, the people who make our clothes, and your style. These days I’ve scaled back my shopping habits and almost everything I wear is secondhand, from decades-old vintage pieces to last season’s stuff thrifted on Vinted. I’ve volunteered in a London charity shop (my happy place) for five years, which inspired my debut novel, Preloved, a love story about things.

How come you started to get interested in sustainability and fashion?

I grew up wearing a lot of secondhand clothes and always loved vintage in my teens. Still, then during my twenties I got seduced by the convenience of fast fashion and found myself buying more and more and more – but never feeling like I had anything to wear. As a fashion journalist during the last decade, it just became harder and harder to ignore the truth: that the industry is one of the most polluting on the planet, that the sheer volume of waste is choking our natural resources, and that garment workers and communities are routinely exploited so that we can buy a cheap dress. But at the same time, I’ve always been interested in the psychology of fashion and why so many of us (especially women) feel compelled to keep on shopping. I watched The True Cost documentary and had my epiphany, but back then ‘sustainable’ fashion still felt very exclusive and limiting; it was only for a certain type of person, with a certain budget, a certain body and a fondness for neutral tones, baggy silhouettes and hemp. So I decided that instead of becoming anti-fashion, I wanted to write for imperfect fashion lovers like myself and find a way to make sustainability feel more achievable, inclusive and joyful.

You are the author of the book Preloved, what made you write the book?

I had always wanted to write fiction, and I felt that a British charity shop was a perfect setting as they’re so bursting with untold stories. Every secondhand item has a history woven into its seams – even the most innocuous object gathering dust on a thrift shop shelf will have been bought for a reason and given away for a reason; often they’re a visual record of the way we live, the fickle transience of fashion trends and the different phases that makeup people’s lives. Plus people volunteer in charity shops for so many different reasons, and often they act as a kind of refuge and sanctuary for people who feel like their lives have wandered off course, so I wanted to explore that too, with my protagonist, Gwen, and the characters she meets in the shop. Just as it can be hard to know what to hold onto in our wardrobes and what to let go, we sometimes let people slip out of our lives for the wrong reasons.

What are your best tips to break up with fast fashion?

Always start with the clothes you already own. As Fashion Revolution’s mantra goes, the most sustainable item is the one already in your wardrobe – but so often we’re so focused on the constant pursuit of newness that we forget what we already have (and that’s how we end up with five near-identical black jumpers), or we’ve lost the knack of styling clothes to keep our outfits feeling fresh. In my book How To Break Up With Fast Fashion, I recommend starting with a huge edit of your clothes so you can rediscover old pieces, find new ways of styling them and get a clear picture of just how many clothes you already have (I bet it’s: a lot). Sometimes that can scratch the shopping itch for a few weeks! I also recommend curating your digital life – unsubscribe from all those marketing emails that nag you into buying clothes you don’t need, and unfollow all the influencers who never wear the same outfit twice.

What can those of us who are already into reuse and responsible consumption do to inspire our friends and people in our network?

Make it feel positive! I think so often sustainability is sold as a big personal sacrifice when it can be liberating and joyful. There is nothing like having someone compliment your outfit and getting to tell them the whole story behind it, who made it, where you found it, where the fabric came from – it’s so much more satisfying than “thanks, it’s Zara.” So I think we need to emphasise that joy and help friends examine whether their current shopping habits are making them happy. Take them thrifting, share small brands or finds on secondhand apps that you think they would like, get together and swap clothes with each other, or have dress-up sessions like we used to as teenagers – show them that sustainable fashion isn’t about being perfect, it’s about community and paying it forward. And ‘responsible’ consumption looks different for everyone.

Do you have any other book recommendations for those who want to learn more about the fashion industry?

Lucy Seigle is a brilliant journalist who has been educating the public about fashion for many years – I recommend all of her books and articles. Aja Barber’s Consumed is a much-needed wake-up call to the way fashion, capitalism and colonialism all intertwine, Orsola De Castro’s Loved Clothes Last is a beautiful and practical reminder that clothes should be a long-term commitment – and Sophie Benson’s Sustainable Wardrobe is a really savvy and gorgeous guide with sewing projects to help you take back control of your own style.

Where can we get your book?

Anywhere that sells books! But I’d love people to buy my books from your local independent bookshop, or Bookshop.org.

Anything else you want to share?

My new novel, Probably Nothing, will be out in June 2024, and it’s available to preorder now!