In July 2022 Barber was named a Contributing Editor to Elle (magazine) UK following the appointment of Kenya Hunt as Editor-In-Chief. [17] Aja Barber's debut book "Consumed" challenges you to change the fast fashion system as we know it". The Tempest. Economist Impact: What women-led initiatives are making waves in circular/slow fashion (or the circular economy in general)?

Change your habits and how you hang out with your friends, and adjust your social media. There’s a lot of peer pressure that happens surrounding this topic, but one thing we can do is adjust the temptation which leads us towards buying things we may not need. Normalising rewearing clothes a lot is one of the first things we have to do, and all of us can do it. Another red flag was “learning about the history of how our clothing is made, and seeing every clothing tag with ‘made in’ countries where non-white people live.” Attwood, Naomi (23 September 2021). "How Consumerism, Climate Crisis and Colonialism Are Linked". AnOther Magazine.She has written articles for The Guardian, [11] CNN, [3] and Selfridges [12] and featured in interviews conducted by The New York Times, [13] Refinery 29 [14] and BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour. [15] She also appeared in Al Jazeera’s TV show Studio B: Unscripted alongside Asad Rehman, Executive Director of The War on Want, where they discussed the fashion industry, green washing and colonialism. [16] Anyway, I grew up in a very affluent area, where test scores were high and taking grade-level math in high school was something I hid from my peers (as many of them were taking math courses above their grade level). The idea of going to vocational school instead of university, senior year, was frowned upon... of course in a silent and very insidious way. Our high school had a wall where all the graduates put their names up, along with the school they would be attending, on a cut-out profile of a graduation head and bust. I remember only seeing one vocational school. There’s absolutely zero wrong with vocational school. Our society wouldn’t function without people doing all sorts of jobs (plumbers, mechanics, carpenters), but vocational school signified something shameful about your socioeconomic status that went unspoken yet held us all in its system. In an interview for Vogue about Consumed, Barber expressed interest in writing fiction in the future, "I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life, because if I’m still doing this, it means that we haven’t fixed the problem. I want to inspire people to collectively fix the problems facing the fashion industry; I want to get money into the hands of people who deserve it — namely garment workers — and then I want to dip out and write fiction books." [5] See also [ edit ] Barber continues to highlight the human as well as environmental impact of the fashion industry. It is the BIPOC community that continues to be exploited by the fashion industry through worker exploitation and cultural appropriation. It is the BIPOC community that are forced to confront the worst consequences of climate change. Barber explores the concept of racial capitalism, which is where brands benefit monetarily from non-whiteness. Diversity is commodified, and all about money rather than genuine social change. In a direct and non-patronising style, Barber emphasises that feminism, colonialism and racism are inextricably linked, and we must do what we can from our intersection.

Barber's isn't just a voice we should listen to - it is a voice we MUST listen to.' - Clementine Ford Economist Impact: What advice would you give to girls and women trying to break cycles of production/consumption/waste so they can embrace more circular, regenerative habits?ELLE UK unveils new sections, a design refresh and new contributors in the September issue". Hearst. 28 July 2022. A call to action for consumers everywhere, Consumed asks us to look at how and why we buy what we buy, how it's created, who it benefits, and how we can solve the problems created by a wasteful system. We live in a world of stuff. We dispose of most of it in as little as six months after we receive it. The byproducts of our quest to consume are creating an environmental crisis. Aja Barber wants to change this - and you can, too. A call to action for consumers everywhere, Consumed asks us to look at how and why we buy what we buy, how it's created, who it benefits, and how we can solve the problems created by a wasteful system. A hugely compelling exploration of a culture of exploitation and how, together, we can end it.’ – Gina Martin

Wells, Kaitlyn (18 July 2022). "Purging Old Clothes? Here's How to Responsibly Donate and Repurpose Your Castoffs". The New York Times. Townsend, Solitaire (16 November 2020). "100 UK Leading Environmentalists (Who Happen To Be Women)". Forbes. Aja Barber is a writer, stylist and consultant focusing on the intersections of sustainability, fashion, and the textile industry. Her work explores the traditions of privilege, wealth inequality, racism, feminism, colonialism, and how these systems of power affect our buying habits.

I really appreciated the candid nature of the book and how often you share your own failings and flawed shopping habits. You hold yourself accountable, and it adds a beautiful humility to the book.

We live in a world of stuff. We dispose of most of it in as little as six months after we receive it. The byproducts of our quest to consume are creating an environmental crisis. Aja Barber wants to change this--and you can, too. If you enjoy shopping and care about the environment, I think this book will change how you think about shopping--both why we do it and how it impacts the world. Even if you're not a huge shopper, this book will probably make you rethink where you shop and how you rewear and reuse stuff. And when it comes to people who have spent years over-shopping, how does our thinking need to change?I will say this: the author does a good job at recognising the systematic problems and linkages between fashion and environmental disaster, however her critical abilities never go beyond that (especially in her “solutions” which amount to....give more money to people?) The book vividly details waste: “Only 10-20 per cent of the clothing donated to charity shops is sold. Very often clothing which doesn’t make the cut gets shipped overseas.” One destination is Kantamanto Market in Accra, Ghana, which is “probably the world’s largest second-hand market, receiving 15 million garments a week; 40 per cent of which end up in landfill.” As a charity shop volunteer herself, Barber witnessed the “non-stop flow of clothing bags,” which triggered feelings of unease and started her journey into environmentalism. The book, in my opinion, gets much better towards the end of this chapter and then into the following ones - however I still have one remaining critique, and that is simply that the book is really repetitive in this part. I think an editor could have chopped this remaining section down a tonne simply by removing expressions or paragraphs which had already been said in a slightly different way earlier on. It still would have been as impactful and thought-provoking for the reader. Investigating “what happens to our unwanted clothes, and especially Kantamanto,” Barber found that “our waste is getting dumped in the global south like Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda,” and concludes that “the system really craps on non-white people at the beginning and end of the process,” crediting the organisation Slow Factory for its work educating on this topic. And as consumers we are encouraged to not question this. In fact, Barber uses examples from the early days of the pandemic. Governments encouraging the people to go out and spend. To consume. To idk themselves and others because the economy is king.