Why I Started Teaching Eco-Fashion

Note: This post hasn't been written with AI, not even corrected with AI. I'm tired of reading robots so I just wanted to share something real.

Yesterday, a student in my eco-fashion club asked me this direct question: "why did you start an eco-fashion club and why did you want to transform old clothes into new ones?"

Unfortunately (or fortunately) for that student, I didn't get the chance to give them a full answer as the sessions are always quite heated, with children asking for support/advice (I always try to keep a mental note of the next 3-5 children who have been calling my name while I'm helping one of them already!). So I ended up babbling something like: "Well, you know, I studied fashion design and I always liked to make things..."

The reality is that, even if it feels obvious to me now (I started in 2025), there's no short answer.

A mix of fashion background

I started transforming my clothes when I was in high school when I realised everyone was wearing whatever they wanted: I fell finally free to express myself. I was studying literature, languages and art. And, as the pressure grew to decide what I wanted to do as a career, I felt naturally attracted to fashion design.

My time at the Lycée de la Mode in Cholet (a fashion school in France) was amazing and I learned so much. I was thriving transforming my clothes using the new skills I was learning and the professional equipment I had access to. However, making clothes from scratch was less exciting (the precision, the calculations, the rules...) and a (fashion) world dominated by money and relationships quickly became less and less attractive.

While I didn't work in fashion after that, I kept making things during my free time. I kept making clothes for a while. Then I made jewellery. I painted a lot. Then I started writing and illustrating. And finally... the mid-life crisis kicked in!

And mid-life crisis

After over 10 years working in digital marketing, I decided I needed to do something creative. But what? I tried so many different creative projects already! I started to be aware of a growing fashion sustainable movement and I decided I wanted to be part of it, so I started sourcing second-hand denim jackets to paint on, combining fashion & art.

Incredibly satisfying, but too time-consuming and I was not solving a problem, just making something to sell. Then one day, as I was witnessing a young girl asking her mum to buy her a new skirt, it hit me: as a parent, you just want to make your child happy and buy the (pretty) things they want. But this consumerism will impact the rest of their lives. What if I could help it? With my knowledge and my passion for upcycling, what if I could teach the new generations to turn their old clothes into new ones?

Why sustainability matters

It's not just about teaching children how to sew. It's about giving them the skills and confidence to express themselves and reuse what they already have. I went to school assemblies to tell all the children how many clothes are produced by fast-fashion brands and how many are discarded every day in the world, how much water it takes to make a single cotton t-shirt, and where these millions of unwanted clothes end up. The facts are scary, the numbers are shocking and the climate change is getting worse, with its consequences terrifying. What if I could make a difference, even if just locally?

The best part of teaching children eco-fashion? Witnessing the excitement of making something. Seeing the pride in the children's eyes when they finish a project. Or maybe hearing a parent who tells me how I inspired their child to do more eco-fashion at home.

Thanks for reading.

If you feel like sharing your thoughts, you can find me on Instagram @wemakekidsclub

Love,

Aurélie