The Spirit of Fashion for Conservation

What does the word ‘fashion’ mean to you? Maybe pretty dresses, pretty models? We also see and care for the less than pretty side – insurmountable amounts of water waste, trash, unethical workplaces, and wildlife damage.

Fashion for Conservation (FFC) was co-founded by Ava J. Holmes to change the way the industry is run, with its “supply first, consequences later & ignored” mentality. She embodies its spirit as a woman who values the creativity and passion of fashion, but also values the beauty of nature and more importantly, humanity’s place in it.

I was lucky enough to grab an interview in between her busy time spent on survivalist TV shows and deep in the Peruvian Amazon working at her boutique+chocolate cafe. While in Peru, the internet is always on-again-off-again like a complicated relationship, but I got a chance to exchange some emails with her despite her shaky WiFi.

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On Growing Up, and Past Experiences. 

I grew up in a pile of dirty laundry on the back of a tour bus.

Suzi: You had a very interesting childhood, can you fill us in on how you grew up? 

Ava: I grew up between the mossy forest of PNW wilderness outside of Portland, Oregon, the red rocky deserts of the Midwest throughout Arizona, and in the finger lake region of upstate New York—always surrounded by nature. These were my childhood home bases, though the real answer is simply that I grew up in a pile of dirty laundry on the back of a tour bus. We were always on the move because I was on tour with my mom’s band for part of every year. 

Suzi: That’s a wild way to spend time as a kid! Do you have any stories you can share?

Ava: Probably there are many I could share—the embarrassment of being picked up from school in a giant pink painted tour bus when all I desired was to blend in with the other students boarding the yellow bus, participating in countless protests with my parents against destruction of natural lands for coal, fracking, and development, or just what it was like to witness so many flavors people and places each with their different cultures, trying to make sense of all the chaos in humanity. 

I write about a lot of stories in my book (see below), but really I think what really stood out was simply the contrast of being so deeply immersed in nature, both physically and spiritually to being thrown into the whirlwind of societies, cultures and the general chaos of humanity on tour with my mom. There was irony in everything. I spent a lot of time with a Navajo family with whom my mom and I lived in Arizona. They taught me everything I still believe in today about human’s role in nature, and nature’s role in our lives. Meanwhile, I saw the opposite happening in the world. 

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Suzi: Wow, you were exposed to quite the variety of human life starting from such a young age. To add on the list of interesting experiences you went through, you also starred on season 9 of Naked and Afraid. What are some behind the scenes things that happened? 

Ava: Actually this was a really unexpected adventure for me! Sometimes entrepreneurs go to extremes to get what we envision done. This was one of those moments where we had a relatively impossible deadline coming up based on a last minute decision to participate in London Fashion Week (LFW). Going on that show was actually a sort of sponsorship of FFC being able to get to LFW to show our collection “Elephantasia” that September.

The experience itself was surprisingly impactful and triggered a lot of self reflection. It forced me to slow down for really the first time since we founded FFC. Fashion is already one of the fastest paced, cut-throat industries. Being on a very small predominantly volunteer team, often with a small startup budget, and directing donations toward conservation instead of reinvesting into our brand slightly increased the challenge. My experience on Naked and Afraid was both a profound reminder of WHY we were doing what we were doing and WHO I was on the earth. 

On the Gap between High-End and Nature.

The very animals and environments we were working to protect through high fashion, were being harmed by the industry as a whole and the making of fashion…

Suzi: You had a TEDx Talk in Seattle last year called “Blue Jeans or Blue Water”, in which you mentioned how hard it is to combine these two seemingly opposite industries of Fashion and Earth Conservation. Can you take us through your thought process when you realized the effect fashion has on the earth?

Ava: Entering the fashion industry was much like everything else I had been a part of. Before organizing fashion events or founding Fashion for Conservation, I worked at music festivals. The waste even after one weekend was sickening to me. The reality of fashion showed itself to be more of the same.

I got into fashion by accident, I was interning for an environmental NGO in New York City who just happened to have a lot of connections in the industry. We had decided to plan a big fundraiser and fashion became our platform for it. I fell in love with the wildness and fantasy of it all, how it could tell stories and share real facts, some quite depressing, in a lighthearted, engaging way. After my internship, I decided to take the idea and run with it. That was the year FFC was born, 2012.

It wasn’t actually until I actually worked for a few other fashion brands, that I realized there was already an intense conversation going on between fashion and conservation. The very animals and environments we were working to protect through high fashion, were being harmed by the industry as a whole and the making of fashion, namely fast fashion. So there we became part of a much larger conversation of “sustainable,” “eco,” and “conscious” fashion, which inspired us further to push FFC forward.  

Suzi: You really were IN the industries to see what was wrong with them. And in Fashion for Conservation, you’ve participated in galas, catwalks, and dozens (and dozens) of parties. How does a woman who’s a wild child at heart decompress after events like these?

Ava: You can probably guess!

I go as deep into nature as possible and if I can’t get out of a city, even a city park can be a refuge for re-centering. I’ve been fortunate enough recently to spend most of my time in the deep Peruvian Amazon whereas before I lived in cities, mostly between Seattle, NY and London, and got out to nature somewhere, wherever was around me then for a few days whenever possible.

On Her Future & Ours

Most importantly, sustainability is being grateful for what we already have.

Suzi: You have an autobiography coming out next year (2020): Barefeet or Stilletos! Can you tell us what we can look forward to in it?

Ava: The full story! 

Here is a little piece of the description from my website (AvaJHolmes.com):

Barefoot or Stilettos, highlights the strange and brilliant characters in Ava’s life from whom all of us can learn a few things, including anarcha-feminist punks, life risking social justice and earth activists, circus freaks, members of royalty, fashion icons, superstars, primitive survivalists, evil executives, modern gypsies, indigenous heroes, and a few under-recognized geniuses who’ve changed part of her and/or our world forever.

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Suzi: Sounds like a crazy book, it’s hard to believe it’s your autobiography and not a fantasy fiction novel! Lastly, can you tell us some easy ways to practice sustainability in our everyday lives?

Ava: Most importantly, sustainability is being grateful for what we already have. We need to re-learn the ancient ways of minimalism. Less is more. Quality over quantity. Give more, re-use more; buy less, waste less. This goes for everything in our lives, food, fashion, and beyond.

Also sustainability is being able to give back through whatever medium is right for YOU, perhaps even through what sustains you personally. If you’re a dancer, if you’re an accountant, if you’re a doctor, a filmmaker, a chef or a fashion designer, make yourself available for the events, people and the earth that needs your hand! I think it can be much more impactful and long lasting to give back doing what we already enjoy doing, but for others and for the planet too.

For me personally, that’s being close to nature and working on the grounds here in the Peruvian Amazon doing various conservation projects and working with artisans in native communities to create more beautiful unique products for FFC and the ethical boutique + chocolate café I opened in a little town here called Puerto Maldonado.

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Ava is quite the character, full of juxtapositions and opposites like the company she built. 

Through all of her experiences, she shows that sustainability can be integrated into everything that larger fashion brands claim to be impossible. Since FFC itself is a symbol of a successful combination of the two, we now know they just aren’t trying as hard. It’s to everybody’s benefit that more companies in this and other industries can take Ava’s example and apply it to their own.