Waseda WeeklyWaseda Weekly

Enjoy a variety of sustainable fashion!
"Rethink Fashion Waseda"

Secretary-General School of Social Sciences 4th year Miki Fujimoto

Rethink Fashion Waseda (commonly known as ReF) is a student organization that carries out awareness-raising activities about fashion and sustainability. It was founded in 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, by six members of School of International Liberal Studies who are aware of the recent environmental pollution and human rights violations in the fashion industry.

Specifically, our activities include disseminating content that allows people to feel closer to sustainability while learning about fashion industry news through three different media: Instagram, YouTube, and our website, as well as organizing events such as used clothing flea markets. It is operated. Through these activities, we aim to make more people aware of the current state of the fashion industry and increase the number of people working on sustainable fashion. What we value most in our activities is ``enjoying sustainable fashion in all its varieties.'' I think the appeal of ReF is that we can come up with our own approaches to the issue of sustainable fashion, where there is no right answer, and have fun while making positive changes in society.

At ReF, we do not intentionally define what sustainable fashion is, instead we disseminate information on a wide range of themes. The image is from Instagram on the left and YouTube on the right.

In August 2023, at a POP UP event in Daikanyama, in addition to selling used clothing, we introduced collaboration products with brands working on sustainability and sold ReF original goods.

ReF is a group of members who believe that there is something we can do to enjoy the fashion we love in a sustainable way. When I first entered Waseda University, I saw posts by my seniors at ReF and learned that the clothes we casually wear every day were made at the expense of many people and resources. I decided to participate because I wanted to learn and take action.

Through this activity, I not only deepened my knowledge about sustainability and the fashion industry, but also met important colleagues who are like family to me, but who I respect greatly in terms of work! Additionally, through interactions with other fashion-related student organizations and collaborations with companies, I have had many valuable experiences that I would not have had if I hadn't joined ReF, and I am being inspired every day.

Left photo: Staff group photo at a POP UP event in Daikanyama in August 2023
Photo on the right: We hold a general meeting online on the last Sunday of every month. The author is third row from the top, second from the right.

This is the perfect environment for people who are interested in sustainability and fashion and want to tackle something seriously during their university life. If you would like to participate in the event, please check our SNS.

At Waseda Waseda Arena on Toyama Campus, we collaborated with a brand that sells sustainable bags to take a photo of the members' casual clothes.

[Official student club information]

◆ student club name: Rethink Fashion Waseda
◆ Group classification: club
◆ student club founding year: 2020
◆ Genre: communication
◆ Activity date and time: Irregular, Sunday of the month (meeting)
◆ Number of members: 75 people
◆ Activity location: basically online
◆ Website:https://refwaseda.wixsite.com/website
◆Instagram:@ref.waseda
◆YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@rethinkfashionwaseda7457