A Talk on Fashion and Sustainability: Inside "The Fashionista Who Wised Up"

"The Fashionista Who Wised Up" is a talk on fashion and sustainability that starts in each of our wardrobes — and travels all the way to the factories on the other side of the world. It is personal, honest and thought-provoking, never preachy: the goal is to understand the rules of the game and choose differently.

The talk unfolds as a journey, step by step:

1. The personal story — a lifelong love of fashion, working as a fashion journalist at Yedioth Ahronoth, New York Fashion Week as a turning point, and leaving to research cheap fashion at Tel Aviv University's Porter School of Environmental Studies.
2. "What's in your wardrobe?" — a simple question to the audience that reveals how often we wear the same few clothes, what the rarely-worn part of the wardrobe is made of, and how little we know about what we wear.
3. Why we buy so much — cultural, social and psychological drivers: shopping as therapy, advertising, events, and how we respond to the chains' seasons instead of our own needs.
4. Fast fashion — what it is, how it erodes the value of clothing, and why "fashion on sale" has become the norm.
5. Who pays the price — the people in the supply chain, and the environmental cost: water, chemicals, pesticides and waste.
6. Our part too — washing and wearing habits, and what happens to clothes at the end of their life.
7. What to do differently — practical tips for a smarter wardrobe, including the 70/30 "bread and butter wardrobe" method.

Companies and organisations, municipalities, schools and universities, and events — anyone who gets dressed in the morning. It suits groups of 10 to 150 people and runs about an hour, and can be combined with a hands-on workshop or a clothing swap.

The talk is given in English or Hebrew, in person in Israel or online for audiences anywhere.

Michal Levi Arbel — a former fashion journalist at Yedioth Ahronoth, M.A. graduate of Tel Aviv University's Porter School of Environmental Studies, and co-author (with Shelly Gross) of the bestseller "Life Is Short, Don't Buy the Shoes" (Keter).