Is it shallow to care about trends right now?

Not if you’re willing to ask yourself some hard questions, says The Kit’s editor-at-large

There is so much going on right now: anti-racism work, the pandemic, climate change, political division. It’s a lot to take in, obviously. And I’m feeling weird about gearing up for fall like I normally would, like checking out fall trends and seeing how to update my wardrobe. I guess I’m wondering if it’s sort of inappropriate to be thinking about fun fashion things when the world is the way it is. — Esther, Toronto

This might sound harsh, but I’m glad you’re feeling conflicted — I’m certainly feeling that way — and I’m glad you’re a little uneasy about how you’ve been contributing to the world.

I don’t have any special insight into whether you’ve been naughty or nice (that’s likely a question only Santa can answer), but I know that trying to edge just a little closer toward the light should always be part of the human experience. While taking on that kind of introspection is often rooted in pain and discomfort, the expression of the resulting growth can ultimately be joyful — and yes, it can be fashionable.

“We should be digging deeper to find our values, if they are hiding,” says designer and entrepreneur George Sully, when I called him to talk through your dilemma. A successful footwear designer who has shaped many Toronto companies, Sully was working on dropping a collection of shoes, boxes piled up around him, watching the Black Lives Matter movement unfurl this spring with a swelling sense of responsibility.

He thought: “I better do something because if I don’t, I’m just sitting on the sidelines like everyone else.” So that night, he came up with a name — the Black Designers of Canada — for what would be a database of creators like himself, a historical record to prove to consumers and retailers alike that there is a wealth of Black creatives living and working in Canada who have been brushed under the rug by the system. The next day, he created a landing page and put out a call to designers.

“I may not have had a specific plan at first, but I knew it was the right thing to do and that I’d figure it out from there.”

That’s the most powerful attitude I can think of: accepting that you will never have all the answers and getting to work anyway to figure it out the best you can. Because yes, it’s hard to know how to live in a world where pain is all around us and missteps are inevitable, but it’s worse to let that paralyze you. Instead, says Sully, “just do you and add a dash of whatever you can afford to take on.”

So don’t feel silly for loving fashion if it brings you joy, but use it as a springboard to amplify your values. “Start by being a little bit more mindful and thoughtful in your purchases, and try to take a look at how or where things are made,” he says. “Having been in the industry for this long, I’ve learned that it’s next to impossible to figure out exactly where or how something is made or how deep the values go — and going down that rabbit hole is confusing.”

But you can start with something simple: say, buying non-leather products (one of Sully’s brands, House of Hayla, is entirely vegan for example), or buying from Black- or Indigenous-owned businesses, to support social equity here in Canada. Or both! The delightful consequence for all fashion lovers is that taking a few moments to discover new brands will lead you down a different rabbit hole: one filled with talent and beautiful design.

Because while there might not be even remotely fair representation of Black or Indigenous designers on most retail shelves at the moment (non-profit organizations like the 15 Percent Pledge are currently lobbying retailers to stock their racks with at least 15 per cent Black-owned businesses to better reflect the communities they serve), it’s not because the foundation of genius doesn’t exist. (That’s like saying the sun doesn’t exist just because the clouds are hiding it.)

“People thought I was going to hang myself on this, at first; that I might only get10 designers,” says Sully, who has had a retailer shy away from working with him because they were too “scared” about what stocking a Black-owned brand would bring into their store. (Yes, someone actually said that.) “But there are 160 amazing designers on the database right now and more being added all the time. We’ve just never been counted before. Suddenly, it’s easy to find us.”

So if you’re wondering how to merge your love of fashion with the questions about morality and the state of the world you’re wrestling with, start by showing retailers what stocking Black-owned brands will bring into their stores: shoppers who want to wear beautiful clothes in a world that is at least a stitch more equitable. It’s really not enough, and change should have happened long ago, and you won’t get it right every time, and you can only buy what you can afford, but it’s a start. And in a capitalist society, we wield our power in part through how we decide to spend our hard-earned money — and that flex has a human impact every time.

“Designers have been telling me that they’ve been getting an outpouring of love,” says Sully. “They say it means everything because they were just about to quit because the burden of fighting against the system alone is exhausting.”

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