Intersecting Social And Environmental Justice With Aditi Mayer

While her frustration grew due to the lack of justice for the environment and labor within fashion, Aditi Mayer decided to take a different approach as a content creator. Between climate and social justice, Aditi has used her voice to bring attention to how the two are ever so intertwined, and how we can move forward as an industry to better understand the change that needs to be made. As Earth Month comes to an end, we caught up in an interview with Aditi to highlight her work as a leading activist. 

Tell us a bit about your journey into fashion. Did you admire the industry growing up? If so, when did your admiration turn into concern and inspire you into becoming an activist? 
I wasn’t someone who necessarily grew up with a quintessential ‘passion for fashion — my first love was photography, which I got into at the young age of 8. With visual storytelling as my compass, I discovered the beautiful world of Tim Walker’s photography in the glossy pages of Vogue. Thinking back, editorial fashion photography was my gateway into falling in love with fashion– it was a world rooted in escapism, and I truly loved the considerations of light, color, texture, silhouette, and more. A few years later is when the Rana Plaza Factory Collapse occurred in 2013, which exposed me to the dark reality of the dominant fashion model. I decided early on that I wanted to use my passion and skills for visual storytelling, and the visual culture of fashion to not only unpack the issues of our fashion model today, but also, how fashion could be a tool for climate action. My work is deeply rooted in the intersections of social and environmental justice, so fashion provides the perfect vehicle to develop an intimate relationship to the things we won– from the land to the labor behind the label.

While you’ve worked with massive publications and companies within the industry, if there was one key note that the creative leaders could take away from your message, what would it be? 

I suppose it’s challenging disposability culture. Fast fashion is one medium to see the way that our dominant culture today has been disassociated from the things we consume: whether it’s the labor who made it, the land it comes from, the culture it belongs to…or even, where a product goes when we decide to dispose of it! To challenge disposability culture is to embody a culture that resists against extraction and exploitation, whether it’s of our natural resources, or marginalized communities around the world. 

In the years since you have committed to activism and grown your community, what sustainable initiative have you been most pleased to witness?  

No movement is complete with community. In the words of civil rights activist Grace Lee Boggs, “We don’t need critical mass. We need critical connections.” One of the most gratifying parts of my work as a sustainability and climate activist is the beautiful community of co-conspirators and allies: whether it’s fellow BIPOC activists who are trying to expand our understanding of who can be an environmentalist, or the amazing community of garment workers around the world that have been at the forefront of resisting and reimaging justice in our fashion industry. 

Earth Month is coming to an end - what can we all do to carry the momentum of awareness through the entire year? 

I always like to mention the origins of Earth Month. When Earth Month began over 50 years ago, it was a day rooted in grassroots organizing, teach-ins, and local action-inspired by the Civil Rights Movement. We need to create spaces for education, which creates language and awareness in order to create systems of accountability. Also, the most important thing we can all do is facilitate our own personal relationship with the Earth and our immediate communities.  

What are you excited to see as we strive to continue to keep our voices loud and shift as an industry?

Remember that while it’s often tragedy that spurs our work in movement spaces, it’s the love for beauty, culture, and humanity that often keep us there. I’m always deeply inspired by the breadth of independent makers and creators out there that champion culture, makers, and our Earth in their process.