Kaley Roshitsh
Kaley Roshitsh @KaleyRoshitsh, is the Sustainability Editor at WWD, where she covers the fashion industry’s sustainable transformation through the lens of next-gen values, including climate and social impact, material innovation, and circularity. Her approach is driven by a relentless curiosity and optimism, even in the face of new challenges that arise.
IRK: Tell us your “Why”
Back in college, I started a magazine Thrifted Mag about thrift culture with my friends, and we contributed to something creative and grassroots in an effort to make resale modern. This was an experimental thing but my purpose today still hinges off of that same reckless ingenuity, resourcefulness and limitless potential for change. Someday, I want to start a consumer revolution. Still figuring out the ‘how.’
IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and the planet?
How do you make people care? This is something I toil over in my day-to-day reporting, but if there’s one thing I’m decent at it’s getting people excited or interested because I’m excited or interested (perhaps to the point of delusion). Whether it’s getting more young people psyched about community gardening – inviting them to my plot to pick tangy city parsley or talk plot politics – or sitting down and explaining the importance of fair payment practices in fashion, you have to care first!
IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life?
Most everything I own is secondhand, be it the hardy wooden bookshelf or old newspaper stand I swept off the sidewalk, the rest of the secondhand furniture my parents lovingly helped me schlep up five flights of stairs or the many, many thrift wardrobe scores (favorites being a ‘90s Gap leather jacket and several designer pieces I’ve been blessed to find).
An encompassing goal, for me, is to not be a stranger to my neighbors, so I’ve made myself a fixture in my community garden and frequent patron among small businesses. There’s no moral incentive to buy something online that you could source locally. On the individual side, there’s switching to shampoo and conditioner bars, reusable cups and the like but perhaps most importantly in my work amplifying company promises per their sustainability reports, holding a mirror up to the industry and writing about the solutions and change-makers.
IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet?
Everybody wants the same things at their core, and everyone should be able to live their dreams with access to peace, ease, abundance, love and a sustainable, healthy planet and community. Considerate people equate to a well-stewarded planet. The answer starts within.
What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? https://sdgs.un.org/goals
If you were to do a venn diagram of my career experiences, which is the first thing East Coasters tend to ask you about, then you’d find a lot of overlap between “vintage” and “thrift” fashion and “women” or gender equity (Her Campus, U.N. Women, Women’s Wear Daily), you get the idea. However, the holistic picture of the SDGs is why any one of us is actively doing anything at all. All of them are needed together, urgently and now.
