Crafting a More Sustainable Fashion Industry

Marist Alum, Jillian McCarthy’s Book, The Vintage Mindset

Devoted and vivacious, Marist College alum Jillian McCarthy ‘20, knows what she wants out of life. Having just graduated in May, McCarthy’s work ethic has been evident throughout her time in college and the early stages of her career. 

McCarthy recently graduated from Marist College and is now living in Manhattan working for Mish Fine Jewelry as a project associate. Source: Jillian McCarthy

McCarthy always had an interest in fashion, and chose to double major in fashion merchandising and Italian at Marist. Now, she is currently employed as a project associate at Mish Fine Jewelry in Manhattan. Her first book, The Vintage Mindset, will be published this December.

Centered around the fashion industry, one of the biggest causes of waste and pollution in the world, The Vintage Mindset aims to educate readers about the industry’s problematic practices and what can be done to fix them. 

Briefly, the book focuses on what individuals can do to make the industry more ethically-minded, how leaders in the field can implement sustainable business models, and the trailblazers who are leading by example. Divided into three parts, The Vintage Mindset begins by describing the massive amount of waste produced by the fashion industry and how this way of living cannot last. Part two includes interviews with entrepreneurs in the industry who are taking innovative risks to redesign the sustainability of mass production. Finally, part three includes McCarthy’s analysis of Dutch trend forecaster Li Edelkoort’s ideas, regarding the future of the fashion industry. As a result, readers will learn the benefits of shopping in the second-hand market and better purchasing habits. 

With her book, McCarthy hopes to inspire readers to think critically about the fashion industry and what sustainable changes can be made. One of those many changes that readers can implement themselves includes a “vintage mindset,” or shopping the secondhand and vintage markets. One of the most sustainable, ethical ways to shop is to focus on the resale market. Shopping for vintage products from the 1970s or 1980s offers a solution to fast fashion. McCarthy notes that pieces are often much better quality and have yet to wear out forty years later. For her, one such find was a Versace piece from the 1980s, which is still in perfect condition. 

What shaped her love of fashion while at Marist, McCarthy said, was taking advantage of every opportunity that presented itself. She wasted no time in recognizing what she hoped to accomplish, with multiple internships and abroad experiences. Her freshman year of college, she was accepted into the Freshman in Florence Experience (FFE) program, where she refined her passion for travel, deciding to later spend her entire junior year in Italy again, this time in Taormina, Sicily and Florence.

McCarthy spent her freshman year of college living in Florence, Italy, the home of The Duomo. Source: Jillian McCarthy

“It’s simply not enough anymore to be monolingual in a bilingual world and industry,” she said. “You begin to see everything between two cultural lenses which affects how you go about everything.”

Living abroad taught her to combine her love of European culture and fashion in The Vintage Mindset. She focuses on “the nature of slow fashion and slow food — movements on which my book is based,” McCarthy said. By maintaining such an outlook, she hopes “to cure a lagging fashion industry.” 

Before she began working on her book, McCarthy was contacted by Georgetown University professor Eric Koester, founder of the Creator’s Initiative. The program aims to teach students about entrepreneurship by guiding them through the process of writing and publishing a novel from start to finish. McCarthy learned how to bring her ideas to life on paper through constant writing and revision, as well as how to crowdsource funding to publish her book and work with editors in the process. 

The Vintage Mindset will be released in December 2020 in select bookstores. Source: Jillian McCarthy

“It’s exciting to see your writing bring an idea to life on paper, which may have been a thought I had sitting in a classroom in Tuscany,” McCarthy said.

Although she currently lives in Manhattan, her love for European culture will never diminish. “In Florence, they emphasize a slower way of life and we don’t focus on that here,” she said. “You can reinvent yourself in New York with the right ambition and the drive. But there’s a lot to be said about the slow way of life.”

While there is no new book in the works right now, McCarthy is more than open to the possibility of writing again in the future. 
The Vintage Mindset will be available through Amazon and in select bookstores in December 2020.