13 AAPI Baddies in Sustainable Fashion and Climate Action to Follow
In the United States, we have celebrated the unique global contributions and leadership of Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) since 1979. The term AAPI encompasses cultures from the entire Asian continent, East, Southeast, and South Asia, and the Pacific Islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. There are so many AAPI baddies who have not only progressed climate action but have constructed the movement itself, and may we also say, looked susty while doing it? The baddies we’re celebrating this month have, to name a few victories, sought justice for garment workers across Asian countries, protected the rights to water and land in the Pacific Islands, encouraged the divestment of fossil fuels here in the United States, and empowered leadership of Asian American women, queer folks, and youth all throughout the diaspora.
In many AAPI cultures, stewardship is a core value; centering the interconnectedness of the natural world grounds climate activism in the goal of our collective well-being. Because sustainability movements, both in fashion and beyond, are often whitewashed, activists of color, including AAPI activists, are forgotten or not fairly recognized for their contributions. Considering the recent spike in racism and violence against Asian American and Pacific Islanders, celebrating these baddies is especially important to us.
Check out just a few of the AAPI baddies who inspire us within the world of sustainable fashion, climate action, social justice, arts activism, and so much more. And share with us who keeps you inspired too!
1. Amy Liu
Amy is a sustainable fashion influencer, writer, and vintage fashion lover based in New York City. Amy uses her platform to share her favorite sustainable brands for everything from accessories to home goods and more. We love her monthly newsletter for discovering the latest sustainable finds. Amy is also a member of the Verticale community, a resource where you can find the small sustainable businesses and brands that she supports.
2. W.O.W Project Team
W.O.W is a community-based initiative led by women, queer, trans, and non-binary people to sustain and protect the future of Manhattan’s Chinatown, which has begun to erode as a result of commercialization and is under threat of further disruption by the construction of a mega jail. Founded in 2016 by Mei Lum, the W.O.W Project team is made up of Asian American activists and artists based in New York who aim to bridge intergenerational gaps, seed conversations, and build community in response to active displacement. They organize art and education-based events including a youth recycling program called Resist Recycle Regenerate (RRR). RRR is a mentorship program where youth and AAPI leaders work together to create art using recycled materials from Lunar New Year Festivals.
3. Aditi Mayer
Aditi Mayer is a sustainable fashion advocate and a social justice activist. Her work in sustainable fashion is rooted in a commitment to climate action and racial and gender justice. Following the Rana Plaza Factory collapse (which spotlights the harm fast fashion companies do to Asian women garment workers), Aditi made it her goal to raise awareness and challenge the status quo around the exploitation of both garment workers and the natural environment within the fashion industry. She has led multiple grassroots efforts for labor rights in the Los Angeles garment district, and champions the celebration of South Asian textiles and styles.
4. Viv Chen
Viv a.k.a vivthemole is a thrifting queen and a vintage/sustainable fashion influencer. She is an advocate for finding your own personal style, and her newsletter is a great resource for styling your latest secondhand shopping hauls. She reminds us that shopping vintage and secondhand is certainly anything but boring and can be the catalyst to a susty style evolution.
Priscilla Tsai is the founder of Cocokind, a sustainable beauty and skincare brand advocating for change in beauty standards within the industry. In addition to being a sustainable brand, Cocokind also operates its own non-profit, the Cocokind Impact Fund, that offers financial grants to female-identifying entrepreneurs in the industries of sustainability, wellness, and health. As a business owner, Priscilla is committed to transparency in her company as well as giving back to new entrepreneurs entering the industry.
Masego is a sustainable fashion and lifestyle practitioner and a creative strategist from Cape Town, South Africa. Masego’s profile is a colorful reminder that sustainable living can be vibrant and joyful. In addition to her own platform, Masego is the co-founder of Cncs_ , a space for inspiring conscious and low-impact living. Cnscs_ is meant to be a resource to curate a sustainable way of life that works for one’s own unique needs.
Laetania is a Dayak environmental activist, youth advocate, and a student of health and human sciences. Her activism is rooted in combining climate justice and environmental advocacy with protecting and sustaining her culture, all without sacrificing joy. She uses her platform to advocate for youth leadership, promote indigenous rights, and community-led forest management.
8. Leigha Kato
Leigha Kato is a Brooklyn-based color-enthused style and lifestyle influencer. Leigha’s Instagram aesthetic is as rainbow as possible, and her optimistic energy is evident upon the first click. Her platform is great for vintage and susty style inspo as well as learning about new sustainable small brands and businesses. Through her profile, you can find her small business spreadsheet highlighting small, susty POC and queer-owned businesses all over the country selling anything from art to food to fashion.
9. Varshini Prakash
Varshini Prakash is the executive director and a co-founder of Sunrise Movement, a youth-based climate action non-profit. Impacted at a young age by coverage of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, Varshini has been invested in climate action nearly her entire life. She has been an advocate for divestment campaigns and was a leader in encouraging her alma mater, UMass Amherst, to divest from fossil fuels in 2016. Through Sunrise Movement, she has helped lead campaigns to progress The Green New Deal through Congress and encourage national and state leaders to back renewable energy projects all over the country.
10. Jenny Yang
Jenny Yang is the co-founder of A Good Used Book, a secondhand bookstore based in Los Angeles. In response to frustration with the Amazonification of bookselling, Jenny and her husband Chris started A Good Used Book to provide an alternative for buying well-preserved vintage books. The couple sources and preserves vintage books for resale on their website, Instagram stories, and around the city through pop-ups or market events.
Mina Flores Cantrell is the founder and owner of Numa’lo, Guam’s first-ever zero waste refillery. In an effort to reconnect with indigenous cultural values of interconnectedness with the planet and protect her home from the increase of waste due to colonization, Mina Flores Cantrell opened Numa’lo. Numa’lo, which means “to revive and return”, is meant to instill values of caring for the land as the original stewards.
12. ALOK
ALOK is an author, poet, LGBTQ advocate, and public speaker who uses their platform to educate on issues of gender outside of a colonial framework. In addition to their writing and public speaking endeavors, ALOK uses their platform to disrupt gender binaries through many methods including their personal style. Using fashion as a way to subvert norms is one of our favorite activities, and ALOK is a huge inspiration for this. They also use their platform to educate on the intersections between social and scientific notions of gender, sexuality, fatphobia, and more.
13. Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a sustainable fashion advocate and currently the senior sustainability and features editor for British Vogue. Formerly the sustainability editor for Vogue Global Network, Emily has been a major advocate and overseer of this massive publication’s investment in sustainable journalism, both in and out of the fashion space. She has covered major stories in sustainable fashion news such as a recent cover of the 10-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza Disaster, and a cover of Shein’s controversial $50 million fund to tackle clothing waste.
Ways to celebrate:
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