Isabel Korab is an aspiring sustainable fashion designer. She graduated in December of 2017 at UW-Stout with a Bachelor of Science in Apparel Design and Development with a focus of sustainability. Through her work in sustainable fashion she has been privileged to work in many areas in her field and for serval companies across the map. She currently works as a Product Developer and freelance as a Sustainability Specialist. She plans to continue traveling the world and grabbing every opportunity she gets to work towards a more sustainable fashion industry. Isabel is looking to obtain a job as a sustainability coordinator or a position in design. She hopes that sometime in the future she can go back to school, because "there is so much more work be done!"
"Since I was in the first grade I knew I wanted to be a fashion designer. However, my role in sustainability came to me in college after I declared my minor. At the time I wasn't exactly happy with my life. I knew that fashion was my future, but something seemed missing. My first class in my minor was "Introduction to Sustainable Design and Development" and after about two weeks in the class, my life was completely changed. While I was completely appalled by how my beautiful, art-driven major, was actually a very dark industry, my minor in sustainability changed my mind set in many ways. Despite all the terrible statistics I was learning about the state of our planet, it actually made me wake up and appreciate all my privileges. I began realizing how lucky I am in life, and more importantly that I had a purpose. My career in sustainable fashion has led to me to a technical design position for an ethical clothing company in Oregon fighting sex trafficking in India, a position as sustainability specialist student manager for UW-Stout, a design position for a sustainable and ethical company in Nepal, a position as a sustainability specialist for an ethical and sustainable apparel company in Eau Claire, and much more. I have built a sustainable collection, Solar Garden, out of environmentally friendly and fair-trade materials, recycled thread and fabric. I dyed all my fabric out of natural dyes I made, as well as solar reactive dyes. I also grew fabric out of kombucha. My last semester of college I made a collection all made from fair trade and environmentally friendly materials and focused my theme on the oppression America and the textile industry inflicts on people in developing countries.
My definition of sustainability in fashion has continued to change and broaden. It began with my interest and excitement in new sustainable fabrications and technologies in fashion. While I believe we need to move away from synthetic fabrics and into natural and sustainably harvested and grown materials, I have started to focus more on the social and ethical aspects of fashion. We need to be thinking not only about caring for the planet, but it's people too. After living and working in Nepal for three months, I realized it didn't make sense that materials were considered "sustainable" just because they were made from a natural or organic fiber, when the living conditions of the people growing and producing the material were not sustainable. Quite frankly, when I got back from working in Nepal I was angered by the lack of information and discussion in my classes about the textile industry and the people creating our clothes in countries overseas. For three months I lived around people who didn't even have access to basic human rights such as clean air and water. I realize that this is not my teachers' faults, but a systemic problem that needs to be rewritten into our course work. Because of this, one of my future goal is to attend graduate school so that I can become a teacher and teach a class not only in sustainable fashion, but also a class on gender, race, and ethics in the fashion industry.
I have started to realize that I didn't go to school for my major just because "I like it," but also because I don't like it."
Thank you!