Sustainability is a broad and complex term. Even more complex, is the way Marrisa Wilson feels about dubbing her eponymous fashion brand a sustainable one. The deeper one dives into seeking sustainable solutions, the more muddled those solutions may feel. To combat this feeling of overwhelm, independent designers such as Wilson, Bamidele Aleshe, and Stella Huang look to their production processes and the audiences they serve to push towards a more sustainable future.
“I believe that the best way that I can be sustainable in my day-to-day practices is to be as efficient as possible,” begins the Los Angeles-based designer. To Wilson, this means a small production cycle, small material stocks, and made to order pieces are the norm. With a small team, not only does ordering copious amounts of material feel wasteful, it’s also not feasible. “With all of the global stressors right now, I have to be thoughtful about every move that I make.”
Wilson first became interested in sustainability in high school, where she learned about recycled materials, yarn, and fair trade. The more she learned, the more she realized how layered a goal of sustainability is in a largely industrialized world. She offers the use of polyester as an example: “We’ve had innovation, and then with that innovation comes waste. We didn’t have a polyester problem before we started using polyester in clothes,” she explains.
“We’re in this period where we have innovative advancements; we’re living in it, we’re producing it, and then we’re getting to the end of these cycles [and realize] we don’t have anywhere to put this stuff, it’s not biodegradable.” With this in mind, she attempts to source the most sustainable materials available to her, while remaining within her typical price point.
Wilson channels her energy into individual appointments with clients, where conversations around intention and utility serve to shape responsible consumption and guide her production needs. She finds it much more valuable to discuss the why behind a particular fashion choice, both for brand success and lower-waste consumption habits. She observes how her community is in an exploratory period with their own identities and society at large.
These appointments serve as a place for experimentation, thoughtful collaboration, and deeper understanding into what purpose the clothing serves in our lives and our wardrobes. From a trend perspective, she notes that in her practice and across the industry, people are slower to decide what they spend their money on, what that action may contribute to, and whether it feels worth it, morally, creatively, and fiscally.
Through this lens, Wilson encourages a reorientation of values and frameworks which can support realistic sustainable habits. “Because if you just try and go at this giant monster of a system, it’s going to feel disheartening. If we’re looking at our local communities, our more immediate environments, there’s plenty that you can find. You can just bring your life down into a smaller scale,” Wilson shared.
Bamidele “Bami” Aleshe, the Los Angeles-based designer and researcher behind the independent brand BAMIDELE operates from a standpoint of only creating what is necessary. “I see BAMIDELE as a studio practice in itself, where research and product development are the focus. A lot of the brand ethos comes from my personal experience working in the biomedical research and sciences field,” he states.
To Aleshe who is also a color manager at SKIMS, the beauty in fashion, and the beauty in the natural world, are one and the same. He expresses that there is so much beauty in our everyday world, especially from the field of genetics where he was working before dedicating himself to his design work. Aleshe adds that the beauty is often at times not perceived by the human eye.
Aleshe’s designs are inspired by the structures of nature, such as geometric shapes of cells. He explains how finding the beauty in microscopic life within ourselves and our natural world grounded his perspective in the connection we all share with creation as a whole. For this reason, he aims to do his part in not creating excess, and moving forward with creation that feels as purposeful as possible.
One distinct way he aims to do create purposeful work is by merging his curiosity for science and creation for what he calls a more “upstream” course of material development. On example includes using yarn spun from algae fibers. For a forthcoming project, he has spent quite some time researching the fabric and working directly with the people, based in Portugal, who produce it. Algae fibers not only align with his brand ethos of bringing awareness to the creativity of nature, but also provide skin health benefits, and their harvesting process is low-waste and regenerative, according to a report by Smithsonian magazine.
Aleshe’s vision for success is removed from the large-scale metrics of capitalism. He believes the audience he creates is in alignment with his fashion interests, which include looking to fashion as a tool for research and connection. He looks to many of his unique designs as conversation starters, or takeaways from an engagement in an experience or idea that he is developing.
“As designers we may feel a lot of pride in our designs but I think knowing that there’s no need to mass produce everything that you work on is important,” Aleshe shared. “I try to reduce my production to very small ranges because I think that creates the most impact. I like being able to speak to customers individually and understand what their needs are and what they resonate with.”
Affection Blvd., helmed by designer Stella Huang in Hong Kong, operates through a “slow fashion” production model. According to Huang, that means, taking the time to thoughtfully design and produce each piece, ensuring that every item is meaningful and serves a purpose for our customers. To her, it’s a deliberate approach that she says rejects the fast-paced cycles of traditional fashion seasons. “Instead of rushing to meet deadlines or launching new products solely for the sake of releasing something, slow fashion prioritizes intention and quality over quantity,” the designer explained.
By operating outside of the fast-churning fashion market with multi-year collections, Huang takes necessary time to be innovative and conscientious with her label’s designs and production. To Huang, sustainability is an ongoing “commitment to making responsible choices.” While this commitment can be difficult to achieve with limited resources, prioritizing natural and deadstock fabrics and yarns whenever possible is at the center of Affection Blvd.’s goals as the brand grows, and ensures it remains on the path to minimize their waste and global impact.
Huang shares how sustainability is at the core of Affection Blvd.’s existence. “It is a celebration of love in all its forms. Including love for this planet and everything it holds. Our brand embodies the beauty of sentimental connections and living a meaningful life.”
This love is embedded from the slow design and transparent messaging, to the partners they choose to create with. Alignment in suppliers, factories, and audiences is non negotiable, as Huang dreams of creating pieces that are appreciated for each stitch and seam, as well as the knowledge of how it all came to fruition.
The designers’ unanimously held belief is that purpose-filled decisions on both sides of the buyer-seller axis will lead the way. By being as intentional and transparent as possible, in their production choices, organic growth, and brand storytelling, they can shift their relationship with consumers, and further, shift their consumers’ relationships with consumption overall.
Designing from a place of curiosity and community, void of excess, shapes the ecosystem of their design worlds and attracts like-minded fashion conoisseurs who strive to engage thoughtfully. With these intentions, consumers will walk away with pieces they put thought into purchasing, confidently know how they were made, and inspire them to share with others in their communities.
Through these practices and communal connections, Wilson, Aleshe, and Huang are noticing the upward trend of intentional shopping, second-hand and vintage sourcing, and deeper due diligence from people about what they are putting on their bodies. As greenwashing and fleeting sustainable trends may complicate the airways, they believe consumers overall will lean further into a more inquisitive buying process, for personal reasons and as Huang directly outlines, out of necessity. All of this fueled by the example set by designers, who are creating the products in the first place.
As the three designers push forward amidst a rapidly digitized world, tariffs, and democratic threats galore, they remain grounded in their hopes and intentions. Wilson is excited for the possibilities that may emerge from the hyper-local sphere, particularly in regions like Guyana, where the clothing production process is still at a place to expand with intentional practices, rather than looking to correct existing systems. Aleshe seeks to dive deeper into research that leads him to artisans and materials prioritizing longevity and holistic benefits. Huang emphasizes the interest in building relationships with factories and consumers that are just as passionate about sustainability, working together to set an example of what can be possible.
