MEETING one of the friendliest humans here in the planet and so worthy to be called an “Eco Warrior,” whose advocacy is to promote sustainable fashion and natural fabrics, Mrs. Eco International 2019 Shiela Teodoro-DeForest.
Sustainable fashion is not throwing anything away especially clothes since this is one of the biggest pollutants of our environment, and the way they manufacture fast fashion is the worst pollutant specially synthetic fabrics produced here and abroad.
Because fast fashion is cheap, it’s a slightly an uphill battle versus the usage of natural fibers and natural materials because it slightly expensive but with quality but synthetic fabrics manufactured from China, Vietnam, etc. that the labor is cheap that they manufacture more synthetic fabrics, and this way it kills most of our atrisans due to the low cost and cheap labor that they don’t value the artistry.
Pre-loved items or locally known as “ukay” is one of her advocacy way back her younger years, she loves collecting and buying pre-loved items in thrift stores.
Everytime she visits Baguio and leaves, she never misses and always have an extra bag full of the pre-loved items then after putting them online.
Sustainability comes into wearing and celebrating vintage fabrics and fashion since it’s a responsibility in caring your own heritage and tradition especially in dressing up, since this is a sustainability source of farmers and producers to make use of natural fabrics lucky that there are still few of the few exhibitions here in the Philippines like Manila fame and atefino.
Manila Fame promotes the Philippines as a reliable sourcing destination for high-quality and design-oriented home, fashion, holiday, architectural and interior products. It supports local small- and medium-scale enterprises and artisan communities by working with local designers to create new product collections and providing a professionally managed platform to present export products to the global market.
ArteFino is a movement that instills Filipino pride in both the artist-entrepreneur and the consumer by bringing together and highlighting Filipino artisans—their artistry, craftsmanship, and ingenuity in combining tradition and innovation to produce pieces of art that have a story to tell.
This were the events she had recently joined and helped, she mentioned that each one of us is an eco-warrior, we can celebrate sustainable fashion by using and wearing pre –loved items and using natural fibers and supporting our local artisans.
DeForest would continue to advocate pre-loved outfit you can make it your own, cause if not we would all look alike, we could source out vintage pieces and style it and make it a truly unique style.