I saw this quote and immediately thought about fashion.
Because responsibility in this industry cannot only belong to the sustainability team.
It belongs to the designer choosing materials.
The buyer setting timelines.
The merchandiser reading the numbers.
The marketer shaping desire.
The sourcing team building supplier relationships.
The educator teaching the next generation.
The founder deciding what growth means.
The consumer asking what they really need.
Every choice may not change the whole system on its own, but every role touches the system somewhere.
That is why our manifesto comes back to one simple belief:
Every fashion job is a responsible fashion job.
Not because everyone needs to become a sustainability expert overnight, but because everyone has influence. Everyone has a place where they can ask better questions, slow down a harmful pattern, support a better decision, or make care part of the work.
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the places you can.
In fashion, that might mean starting exactly where you are.
📷: @brendhashtag
I always like seeing denim brands that keep things simple, but clearly think about the details.
@jeanericajeans was founded on easy, premium denim that doesn’t feel too trend-led while always designing consciously.
They use a Material Matrix to decide which fabrics they want to keep using, improve, or phase out, which I think is actually a really useful way to talk about progress without making it sound perfect.
I like this because it’s not overly complicated, it’s just better choices, made piece by piece.
And honestly, that’s usually what I’m looking for in denim. Good fabric. Good fit. Good people behind it. A little less chaos in the system :)
What does smart design look like in 2026?
In Simply Diligent’s latest article, @virginiaroll reflects on #MilanDesignWeek as both an extraordinary design event and a revealing snapshot of the industry’s contradictions.
Milan opens itself up in a way few cities do. Palaces, abandoned buildings, monasteries, courtyards, and former military sites become spaces for material research, craft, experimentation, and spectacle.
As fashion continues to take up more space at Design Week, it also asks a bigger question: what do we want design to do?
Some projects create a mood. Some tell a story. Some push material thinking forward. Some offer real proposals for how we might live, dress, build, repair, and produce differently.
The projects that stayed with us were the ones that proposed a different relationship with materials, bodies, waste, place, and time. Adaptive weaving that could move with different bodies. Textile waste turned into furniture through Davide Balda’s Archeo Materico. Algae and biopolymers by Beatrice Spadea. Claudy Jongstra’s biodynamic, farm-based textile practice. Frans Dijkmeijer’s archive of slow, precise weaving experiments.
Maybe smart design in 2026 is not about choosing between beauty and function.
Maybe it is about asking beauty to carry more meaning.
Read Virginia’s full reflection on Milan Design Week on Simply Diligent.
This mill has a flower competition 🌼
After visiting @usgroup1975 Group in Lahore, I kept thinking about what it looks like when a mill takes responsibility seriously, not just in theory, but in the everyday details.
The spaces were calm, bright, and intentional, the kind that quietly signal what a company believes people deserve. There was a sense of continuity too, with people who had stayed for years, even decades, carrying a kind of pride that you don’t often feel in an industry known for turnover.
What stayed with me wasn’t just the machinery but their mindset. It’s a different picture of what a denim mill can be.
If you’re curious about where denim is heading next, come see them at @kingpins_show !👖
Wool isn’t outdated, it’s been designed out of the system. Traditional shepherding systems that support ecosystems and landscapes are disappearing. Did you know that it is often discarded or burned by farmers when its low market value doesn't cover shearing costs, its use of poor quality, or processors have full warehouses, leading to waste? Luckily, movements like the Wool March are working to reconnect farmers, land, and designers. Our new article explores why designing wool back into our systems matters now more than ever. Find it at the link in bio.
Wool is one of the few fibres that grows back every year. Made of natural keratin, it’s renewable and biodegradable. When produced through regenerative systems, it has the potential to support biodiversity, soil health, and balanced ecosystems. Of course, it also has the downsides of animal welfare and climate impact.
Our new articles unpack both the opportunities and challenges behind it, read more via the link in bio.
Wool is our favourite summer fibre.
Yes - we said summer - but hear us out!
Thanks to its natural crimp and breathability, wool regulates temperature, wicks moisture, and keeps you cool without trapping heat. Finer fibres like merino work as lightweight base layers better than synthetics, even as swimwear. Our new article explores why wool might be the most misunderstood fibre in your wardrobe.
Check it out at the link in bio.
We have always been big supporters of natural fibres, localism, and degrowth, but in this specific historic time, it is even more obvious that the fashion industry needs to change. There is no reason for petrol to be so closely linked to the fashion industry in all its stages. Fashion can exist separately from the environmental and social distruction that the fossil fuel and its related conflicts bring.
Go to our Resources page to read our in-depth report - Plastic Fashion 101 (link in bio)
Material math is the moment you stop pretending you don’t notice.
Lately I keep seeing the same thing happen. The price tag feels disconnected from the product, and people are getting way more honest about what they’re actually buying.
Because a piece can look perfect on a screen yet feel like static, heat, cling, or regret in real life. And once your body clocks that mismatch, the spell breaks.
This essay is about “wellness dressing” and why materials are having a comeback, not as a lecture, but as a nervous system check in. What does it feel like at hour six, not hour one? Does the fiber match the story? Does it age well, or fall apart after a few washes?
Your nervous system has entered the fitting room.
Read it on Substack. Link in bio.
Your nervous system has entered the fitting room.
And not to be dramatic but it has a lot of opinions.
My latest article is about why people are starting to care about materials again, not in a niche way, and not as a sustainability guilt trip, but because bodies keep receipts. The price tag has started feeling disconnected from the product, and more of us are noticing the gap: a piece can look perfect online and still feel like static, heat, cling, or regret in real life.
I call it material math.
Does the fiber match the price and the story? Does it feel good at hour six, not hour one? Does it age with dignity, or fall apart after three washes?
If you’ve been craving fashion that feels less frantic and more grounded, this is that conversation.
What’s one fabric you’re done pretending you like?
Film from Vietnam remembering what life looks like when everything, from food to craft to care, comes from the same land.
Check out our article on Substack or reel-cap to learn more about our experience chasing indigo for 5 days in a remote mountain village!
Film by @____aisling , @ateaspoonofyouth , and @virginiaroll
Five days, one dye, and a new way of seeing fashion.
We traded our laptops for dye vats and bamboo fields and spent the week making things with our hands and actually feeling connected to the land they came from.
Our indigo retreat film is finally here, and the full story is up on Substack (link in bio).
Come read it, meet the family who welcomed us in, and see how indigo shifted things for us.
