We believe small steps lead to great change. You don’t have to be perfect or undergo a radical transformation to be considered “sustainable”, so don’t be too harsh on yourself. After all, activism is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. — The Good In Fashion
Last January, we hosted an intimate influencer swap party and invited the team from The Good In Fashion to lead a Sustainable Trivia segment for our guests. We had a ball of fun swapping sustainable fun facts and exchanging wardrobe styles. Check out quick highlights from Wake Up And Swap party here!
So who's exactly the team behind The Good In Fashion and what is their campaign mission to Redefine Fashion Goals?
Read along, as they spill the tea on what it takes to build a pool of trusty resource for sustainable fashion goers!
Hi, tell us more about The Good In Fashion and introduce the team members!
TEAM TGIF: The Good In Fashion was born out of our love for fashion and the environment. We're a group of final-year NTU WKWSCI students who've started a non-profit environmental campaign that aims to spread awareness on the negative impacts of fast fashion as well as how Singaporeans can prolong the lifespan of clothes by buying better (buying second-hand and swapping) and discarding better (donating and reselling).
Our team consists of the 4 of us: Belle, Chao Jing, Elizabeth and Li Xuan.
Belle and Chao Jing are the people persons of the team. Spearheading partner outreach and media relations, they are often seen reaching out to new partners, seeking new opportunities and finding a way to make things happen. In their free time, Belle enjoys editing videos while Chao Jing loves moving her body through dance.
Elizabeth and Li Xuan are the creatives of the team. Responsible for most creative collateral such as videos and infographics, this power duo has added aesthetic life to our campaign with their skills. When they're not producing something for TGIF, Elizabeth can be found enjoying a refreshing tipple while Li Xuan enjoys time spent with friends and flowers.
You guys have a really creative brand name, who came up with TGIF? TEAM TGIF: Belle did! As a bit of a wordsmith, Belle came up with a couple of names before reaching TGIF.
Belle: I was in a creative rut because all the names I came up with were either not all agreed upon or was already used. As such, I started to think from another angle. That's when I started using common acronyms like LOL and TGIF to come up with names. When I landed on The Good In Fashion from the TGIF acronym, it was clear that this was a good name that everyone agreed on.
Your campaign's tagline is to "redefine fashion goals". Can you tell us what it encapsulates? TEAM TGIF: We wanted to combine looking fashionably good with doing good for the earth. Many people think that once they go down the sustainable fashion route, they have to compromise on looking fashionable due to the decreased variety of clothes choices and the amount purchased. But that is not the case.
By choosing to be more sustainable, it simply means buying and discarding clothes better, and we've chosen to encourage Singaporeans to redefine these goals by choosing to buy second-hand or swap, donate or resell clothes. There are so many ways to be sustainable, and everyone's journeys look different.
What are some of the challenges faced while building the brand? TEAM TGIF: At the start, we reached out to many partners and held many meetings to get opinion leaders acquainted with our campaign. As we were starting a campaign for the very first time, a lot of tasks were also very fresh to us, and it was difficult to figure out how to perform them initially. Many hours were pumped into solving challenges and meeting stakeholder expectations, but we have learnt a great deal from those experiences. We faced a key challenge of drawing people to our booth during our roadshows, and thus had to evaluate the tactics along the way so as to incentivise people to participate in the activities we had planned.
What is the team up to these days?
TEAM TGIF: As this is part of our final year campaign, we are currently evaluating the effectiveness of our campaign, which launched officially in December last year. Afterwards, we plan to sustain the campaign by continuing to produce fun content and hold exciting events. As of now, we are also planning something under Fashion Revolution Week in Singapore this coming April - stay tuned!
In the meantime, we recently came up with an online "fashion collection", Thread Lightly, and we highly recommend you take some time to view it here: https://www.thegoodinfashion.com/threadlightly.
It'd be an interesting experience, we promise! 🙂
What is one poor habit you've swapped out from your life for something better?
Elizabeth: The first thing that comes to mind has got to be the over-purchase of new clothing. With so many fast fashion outlets out there, it’s easy to buy mindlessly. Nowadays, however, I’m a lot more conscious of the clothing I buy. Before I get anything, I stop myself and ask: do I really need this? Do I already have something that’s like this? So, I’ve been buying a lot less. And if I do need new clothing, I look to second-hand shops first, which is a more sustainable option.
Li Xuan: I started to search for clothes on Carousell instead of buying brand new from stores. Just recently I needed a pair of black bike shorts tights and I found one on Carousell in good condition and for a way cheaper price. Almost anything can be found on Carousell and I don't have to compromise on style just because I'm sustainable.
What are your views on Singaporeans’ receptiveness toward Climate Action?
TEAM TGIF: While Singaporeans' receptiveness toward Climate Action has drawn some criticism, we, on the other hand, are of the opinion that there has massive improvement as compared to how it was years ago. Although we are still slowly becoming open to climate action, many groups like ours have stepped up and we do witness favourable responses such as people reaching out to us and informing us of the difference our cause has made in their lives. This is only the beginning, and we are hopeful that more and more Singaporeans will soon join this cause.
How can one stay woke in this era of Climate Emergency?
TEAM TGIF: It can be pretty overwhelming, especially as someone who’s pretty new to the whole sustainable fashion gig — but the one thing we would say is to do some research. Keep yourself updated and educated on existing issues and the ways in which you can do your part to combat them. There’s a lot of good resources out there from organisations like Fashion Revolution and Zerrin which are really useful and informative.
In addition, we believe small steps lead to great change. You don’t have to be perfect or undergo a radical transformation to be considered “sustainable”, so don’t be too harsh on yourself. After all, activism is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.
The Good in Fashion (https://www.thegoodinfashion.com/) is a non-profit environmental campaign that aims to encourage young Singaporean adults to prolong the lifespan of clothes by buying and discarding clothes better. These behaviours include donating, reselling, buying second-hand and swapping clothes. The initiative was born out of a collective passion for both fashion and sustainability by four students from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University.
Nobody's a stranger here, follow THE GOOD IN FASHION on Instagram @thegoodinfashion