The more society evolves, the more impatient we seem to get. It’s a bit ironic if you think about it. The more time we have on our hands, the faster we want everything. We want our food fast and our cars faster. However, the quicker we demand everything at our fingertips, the quicker we’re sentencing our planet—and those on it—to death, leaving conditions worse for those who succeed us. Take a look at fast fashion, for instance—it may be cheap, but every dollar we spend on brands like Shein is spent on someone else’s dime.
Valeria Celon, the founder of Trash Bandit NYC, is helping the world go round—figuratively and literally—with her very own line of “trashion” (an amalgamation of the words “trash” and “fashion”). Celon turns trash into treasure with Trash Bandit and is here to tell you all about it and the price you really pay when you buy fast fashion.
Lucy Geldziler: What was your inspiration and business model for developing trash bandit?
Valeria Celon: Trash Bandit started out as a school project while I attended FIT and eventually evolved into my full time job. I majored in fashion business management and almost dropped out until I joined the sustainability minor program. After learning about the alarming amounts of textile waste the city produced, I knew that I wanted to work with textile waste and also saw an opportunity to make some money on the side while I was still in school. My mother taught me how to sew over the Covid lockdown and I eventually started designing my own patterns and opened my online store. Because I am working with textile waste and deadstock fabric, a lot of my pieces are one of a kind or have very limited runs which make the brand feel unique. I handpick all the fabric I use and make everything myself in my East Harlem apartment, so I am very invested in every piece I make.
LG: What’s your favorite product you’ve ever made?
VC: My favorite piece I’ve ever made is a burgundy nylon tote with monkeys embossed on it. It was the first bag I made that was “selling quality”, I ended up keeping it because I became too attached.
LG: How will a Republican presidency, house, and senate affect the fast fashion world? How do you plan to tackle any hurdles that might impede upon your business?
VC: I think there are a lot of misconceptions about domestic products and the biggest one is that they won’t be negatively affected by tariffs. All of my pieces, and a lot of small brand’s, are cut-and-sewn domestically and I think that leads people to think that it is 100% made in USA. In reality most, if not all materials are made abroad. For example, I source my materials from Fabscrap, they source fabric waste from a studio based in New York, but that studio likely sources from a factory abroad. I think tariffs will still be damaging to small brands and businesses despite fast fashion prices increasing as well. There is already such a large price gap between fast fashion and slow fashion that consumers who are not interested in sustainability will still choose the cheaper fast fashion option, especially if this decision is exacerbated by the cost of other essentials rising.
I’ve always tried to keep my pieces affordable because I think sustainability should be attainable to everyone. I grew up in a working class family in a low-income neighborhood so I understand that sustainable fashion can genuinely be unaffordable to a big part of the population. So even if costs do go up, my hope is that I can keep my pieces affordable while being able to meet my needs.
LG: What is something you wish people knew about the world of fast fashion?
VC: I wish people knew that one of the reasons fast fashion is so cheap is because the industry is filled with human rights violations. We often only think about the environmental damage side of fast fashion and forget the ethical violations that occur along the supply chain. Millions of garment workers don’t make a livable wage even in countries where the cost of living is significantly lower than in the U.S. They are exposed to dangerous contaminants and have to work in hazardous conditions and that’s what allows us to buy $4 shirts.
LG: How is fighting fast fashion by making trashion helping us combat societal/systemic issues?
VC: A lot of brands are now working with textile waste, which helps address the tons of perfectly usable fabric that gets discarded by bigger brands each year. Also, I feel like it has sparked its own creative sector that shows consumers that sustainable fashion can still be fashion forward and colorful, not just neutral pieces (no shade to those brands!) I think self-expression through clothing is very important to many people and even better if it’s sustainable. Many big brands are also taking note of consumer’s interest in textile waste/repurposed materials and are reusing their own waste in specific collections as well.
LG: What is something people don’t realize is connected to/directly impacted by the world of fast fashion?
VC: In order to compete with foreign companies, many U.S. companies that manufacture domestically cut corners to save on costs. Even in the U.S, garment workers face many violations like wage theft and unsafe workplaces, with many of them immigrants, they are afraid to speak up. We often think these are problems that only happen in foreign sweatshops but there are plenty of sweatshops in the U.S.
LG: What do you hope to see for the world of sustainable fashion in the future and how do we get there?
VC: I love seeing the increase in sustainable small brands but I think it is also extremely important for multinational companies to move towards sustainability. It is understandably very difficult (some say impossible) for companies of this scale to ever achieve sustainability since their existence promotes overconsumption but I think the appearance of smaller brands is slowly forcing them to make changes. I think increased awareness coupled with available alternatives are allowing people to make the switch.
Thanks to brands like Valeria’s that are making sustainability affordable, you can have your cake and eat it too. Be sure to check out trashbanditnyc.com or @trashbanditnyc on Instagram for a slice of the future. Whether it comes to donating a dollar to charity, eating less meat, voting, or shopping sustainably, by pretending individual actions don’t matter, we are only further enslaving ourselves.
Written and Interviewed by Lucy Geldziler
Photography by Mark Bluemle
Styled by Katelynn Herrera
Talent: K Pereira, Chrissy Palmiero