At the Heart of Self-Made Business
How an Athens Boutique and a student-run brand are creating ethical consumerism.
Story by Amber Phipps
Photos by Jacob Durbin
The rise of sustainable and ethical fashion is becoming both influential and beneficial as more people realize how their actions affect the environment. Business owners are striving for handcrafted, local products and ethically sourced materials to combat the industry of fast fashion.
Fast fashion refers to any product that is cheaply produced in order to gain maximum revenue through catalogs, malls and the latest trends, according to Earth.org. The haste with which fast fashion produces clothing from cheap materials results in increased carbon emissions and global pollution.
Fast fashion is often cheaper due to the rate at which companies produce clothing. Not everyone has the budget for purchasing handmade, customized clothing since those brands are often more expensive due to their quality. Due to this, people result to staying within their budgets and purchasing cheaper clothing – both in price and in quality.
Environmentally conscious fashion brands often do not carry larger sizes. This excludes those with the desire to shop sustainably but are unable to find their sizes at ethically sourced clothing stores.
Local businesses such as Bleeding Heart Boutique and VANI are combating the harmful, fast fashion industry with upcycled, ethically sourced materials. These small businesses prioritize products that not only support local artists, but also spread awareness about the importance of genuine, environmentally friendly materials.
Hannah Morgan poses in one of her favorite areas in her store.
Hannah Morgan, the owner of Bleeding Heart Boutique just held the grand opening of her storefront in Athens on July 29. This store is not just the start of a colorful and vintage business for the community of Athens; it is so much more.
Located on 28 ½ East State Street, Bleeding Heart is filled with racks of ripped jeans, funky patterned shirts and handcrafted earrings. Vivid colors and wacky patterns paint the store in shades that light up the street, and passersby cannot help but stop and admire the unique quality of the shop.
“A bleeding heart is someone who cares a lot, so much so that their heart bleeds, and I’ve always felt that way,” Morgan says. “I am definitely bleeding heart towards trying anything that I can to reduce [the] carbon footprint on our environment.”
Morgan’s boutique has something for everyone. From plants to jewelry to clothing, she strives for secondhand and sustainable items in an environment where everyone is welcome. One way Morgan curates ethically sourced products for her store is by collaborating with local artists who create handmade items.
“I’m hoping that it means we can ride more of this train of people realizing that secondhand first is a good way to shop … If you’re not getting something secondhand here, you’re probably getting something made by someone local who put their heart and business into it,” says Morgan.
Secondhand clothing is not just a trend for young adults wanting to find their style with unique pieces, but a legitimate way of recycling clothing in a consumer-driven society. According to Earth.org, “the world consumes around 80 billion new pieces of clothing every year, 400% more than the consumption twenty years ago.”
This increase in clothing sales over the past few decades has resulted in more clothing production and consumerism. The growth in sales leaves people wondering if there’s anything that can be done. Small business owners are pursuing their passions and their regard for the environment by making secondhand shopping trendy and affordable.
Anthony Phillips creates handmade leather products such as bags, wallets, and purses for his brand, VANI. Phillips is a junior at OU studying entrepreneurship. Similar to Morgan, Phillips strives for ethically sourced materials to create his designer products and ensures customers that all products are handsewn by him.
Phillips started leatherwork during his junior year of high school. After realizing the long-term potential of his skill, Phillips trademarked VANI in 2019 by accessing better materials for his leather products.
“I make it entirely by hand, so I get one flat hide, and then I have different pieces that I can cut out and sew and glue together to make them into different bags. I use all Italian cowhide,” says Phillips.
All of Phillips’s products are hand-sewn by him using cowhides from honest companies. When he started his business, the goal was to achieve designer quality from legitimate materials, but Phillips quickly found that many of cowhide suppliers are not transparent about where they obtain their hides.
“The supplier that I use is American based, but they buy all of their leather overseas from ethically sourced, family-owned tanneries in Italy and France,” says Phillips.
Tanning is the process raw hides go through to prevent decay, according to Best Leather.org. This is required before the hides are transported, which ensures the cleanest quality leather for Phillips to sew his products. After thorough research, Phillips ensures the tanneries he purchases his hides from originate at companies in Italy who are open about their treatment.
Phillips directs all his effort on custom orders due to the amount of time and precision it takes to make one product. One wallet could take four to five hours, and a purse can take up to 15 hours to complete. Phillips is an open book when it comes to discussing where the leather comes from since all of his products are hand-sewn. While Phillips does not have a website for VANI, his orders are taken by word of mouth.
As the battle against fast fashion persists, ethically sourced materials for sustainable products is not an unachievable goal. Small business owners are rising to the occasion with well-made products that customers can feel good about purchasing.
While these small business owners have proven that sustainability is actionable, it does not mean their journeys were easy. For Morgan, the grand opening of Bleeding Heart was well deserved after months of enduring life’s unexpected challenges.
“When I decided to start this store, it was with barely anything in my bank account,” says Morgan. “I was working here alone, and I was really hoping to open the store by the end of April or beginning of May. That is when I fell off a ladder and ended up fracturing one of my vertebrae in my spine.”
After months of working many part-time jobs and putting everything she earned toward the store, Morgan’s boutique opening was postponed as a result of her back injury. The healing process meant bedrest for the next few months, causing financial strain.
“During the healing process, [I] wanted to be at the store and keep going on that goal. It drove me crazy just to be laying there,” Morgan says. “It also created a panic around my funds too because I thought, here’s two months of me having to rest my back, and I have to pay rent on this spot, or I’m going to lose it.”
Despite life’s ever-present obstacles, Morgan refused to let any setbacks hinder her dream of owning a store and advocating for her values. The community of Athens, seeing her vision and sharing her passions, stepped up to the challenge and raised enough donations for her first few months of rent on the store space.
“The community really showed up for me. I’m blown away every time I think about it,” says Morgan. “The amount of friends that showed up and donated but [also] people that I didn’t really know either from the community that were just excited to see this store open.”
Morgan’s boutique has also helped to introduce more inclusion and representation into the community. Bleeding Heart paves the way with bright colors, expression and vintage chic all while advocating for inclusion.
“I really feel like there’s not a lot of shopping options in uptown Athens especially inclusivity-wise,” says Morgan. “I want to be that place where anyone can find something here, and I welcome anyone who wants to come in.”
Alexa Gudelman is a senior studying environmental biology at OU. As someone who supports local businesses and advocates for the environment, Gudelman was thrilled to discover a new boutique was opening in Athens.
“It was so colorful with so many different patterns, a lot of things caught my eye,” says Gudelman. “I think it’s going to do really well when school starts.”
Gudelman could not help but notice the variety of denim shorts and jeans sold at the boutique. The products sold at Bleeding Heart include a range of patterns, textures and sizes, so for those who are unsure what they would like at the store, their style preference is most likely represented in the selection of clothes and accessories.
“I think it’s really important because not only are the products and the quality of them better because they’re not produced in fast fashion factories … but also it just makes you feel better that you’re supporting small businesses,” says Gudelman.
Supporting small businesses such as VANI and Bleeding Heart may not be the final solution to the fast fashion crisis, but it is a step in the right direction. The problems of the fashion industry cannot be resolved overnight, but by making a conscious effort, small changes are better than nothing.
Buying from small businesses is not only supporting the owners’ businesses and dreams, but also helping the environment. The benefits of secondhand shopping are rooted in concerns for the planet and the desire to reduce fast fashion.
Several pieces of leather and tools used by Anthony Phillips to create VANI products. (Photo provided by Anthony Phillips)
For business owners such as Phillips, supporting local businesses means encouraging the hard work of enthusiastic individuals. The resources used to make his leather pieces allow customers to have comfort in knowing what they are purchasing.
“Ethically sourcing is more important to me as a person than it really was for the business because you can get leather for cheaper but it’s less ethically sourced than what I get,” says Phillips. “And then it also makes more sense from a business standpoint because whatever you tell people about the supply chain, you can show it off more than being secretive about where you get everything from.”
Making the change to purchase locally and support the environment may eventually decrease carbon emissions caused by fast fashion. The effect may not be immediate or visible, but over time, these small changes could change the future of the world.
For Morgan, ethically sourced products make her colorful store and handcrafted products notable. Customers pick out bright tops and bleached denim with awe and wonder on their faces. Each item is generously worn or created with care, and Morgan finds joy in seeing her satisfied customers.
“I really wanted everyone to feel included in what they could shop here for whether their budget, their gender expression, their size and shape and age,” says Morgan. “I really wanted you to be able to find anything here.”