CONSCIOUS CONVERSATIONS WITH RAY
Don’t beat yourself up for not doing everything perfectly…Start with one aspect of your life or one room in your house and slowly change your products or habits. It takes time and it certainly doesn’t happen overnight.
1. When did your journey with sustainability begin? Tell us about how/why you became committed to living a more sustainable life-style?
I’m not sure it ever ‘began’ as such because I’ve always cared about the environment and loved nature for as long as I can remember. My parents are from BC in Canada and I was lucky enough to go there every summer and that’s where my love for the outdoors stems from. Canadians care a lot about the environment, I think because they’re slightly more connected with nature. There is a very strong emphasis on ‘leaving no trace’ and respecting Mother Earth which has really stuck with me.
2. And in terms of fashion and sustainability - what's been your journey with it so far?
Similarly this also stems from my parents. From a young age they taught me about the importance of loving your clothes and how to care for them. I haven’t always been a mindful shopper. I went through a phase of buying lots of shitty new outfits when I felt down about myself. I would go shopping out of boredom thinking that would make me feel better rather than addressing underlying problems. I think it reached tipping point when I watched the True Cost, an incredibly moving film about fast fashion and the awful Ranaplaza accident where over a thousand garment workers in Bangladesh were killed. These things all started to add up in my head – the combined devastating environmental and social impacts of fast fashion. Last September I took part in Oxfam’s #SecondHandSeptember and haven’t bought any new clothes since (it’s not always easy and I still get lots of lovely second hand things).
3. Do you have a sustainable love story? What's your favourite find?
Such a hard question as I love all my clothes dearly. I would say most recently it has to be some white trackies that I got from a clothes swap pre lock down. My style isn’t very adventurous and I would never have bought them. That’s what I love about getting things second hand, it gives you a bit more freedom to try different things.
4. You're keen to make sustainability mainstream, what are some of your main areas of focus in doing this?
I think to make it mainstream you need to make it desirable. It needs to be the thing people want to do without being aware that they’re doing it. Our vision at Hubbub is to create a world where everyone is an environmentalist whether they realise it or not. Sustainable options need to be accessible and by accessible I mean affordable, available and most importantly they need to be as functional/practical/stylish as what that person is already using or doing. Not everyone has time to knit their own yoghurt as my dad says. We’ve seen vegan options flood the market recently (Gregg’s vegan sausage roll is prime example of what I’m talking about here) but we still have a long way to go in making sustainable fashion accessible. You have the fast fashion brands and then at the other end of the spectrum the really expensive sustainable clothing brands that very few people can afford- there isn’t a great deal in between.
5. What are your top tips for someone trying to live more sustainably (fashion and life)?
Don’t beat yourself up for not doing everything perfectly. You don’t need to live your whole life sustainably just do your bit whatever that might be. Start with one aspect of your life or one room in your house and slowly change your products or habits. It takes time and it certainly doesn’t happen overnight. I have days when I get takeaway, I get in an uber or I can’t find my menstrual cup and BOYYY do I eat a lot of cheese but it’s about doing what you can and most importantly being honest and open about what you can’t and where you have room to improve. I’ve seen such a shift just in the last few years and people are starting to accept that we can’t go on as business as usual and things need to change. Speak to your friends, family, neighbours, colleagues, hinge dates, whoever will bloody listen. For change to happen it starts with having conversations with the people around you.
