These visionaries exemplify the power of individual action coalescing into a collective movement.
The fashion sector is responsible for up to 10% of global carbon emissions and ranks among the largest consumers of water, yet change is afoot. This Earth Day 2025, themed “Our Power, Our Planet,” calls for collective action to protect the Earth. In that spirit, we’re spotlighting ten fashion activists – designers, models, and entrepreneurs – who are leveraging their talent and influence to drive meaningful change. Each is redefining what luxury and style mean in an era of climate urgency, proving that the runway can be a force for good.
Amber Valletta
Supermodel Amber Valletta has reinvented herself as a climate advocate, turning red carpets and classrooms into platforms for change. As the Fashion Institute of Technology’s first sustainability ambassador, she works to integrate ethical practices into fashion education and industry partnerships. Valletta’s collaborations also push boundaries – at the 2024 Green Carpet Fashion Awards, she donned a bespoke Triarchy tuxedo dress made of biodegradable denim, showcasing a compostable fabric innovation that literally let her “eat her jeans” after the event. By linking glamour with green innovation, Valletta exemplifies that mindfulness is always in vogue.
Aurora James
Aurora James channels her design prowess into economic and social justice in fashion. The Canadian creative behind Brother Vellies built her brand on preserving traditional African craftsmanship and supporting artisans. In 2020, after witnessing racial inequities, she launched the 15 Percent Pledge, calling on retailers to devote 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses – a bold move that has reshaped U.S. retail. James’s memoir Wildflower further amplifies her mission, weaving her personal journey with a rallying cry to empower Black entrepreneurs and reimagine a more inclusive industry.
Duran Lantink
Dutch designer Duran Lantink is an avant-garde upcycler turning fashion’s excess into covetable art. He first grabbed global attention by creating Janelle Monáe’s infamous pink “vagina pants,” a defiant celebration of femininity stitched from repurposed fabric scraps. Lantink has since built his brand by “collaging” luxury deadstock – cutting up unsold Chanel, Lanvin, and Dior pieces and reassembling them into daring new silhouettes. His radical approach was rewarded in April 2025 when Jean Paul Gaultier tapped him as its new creative director, marking Lantink as the first permanent successor to Gaultier and signaling high fashion’s embrace of sustainability.
Livia Firth
Livia Firth has spent over a decade as one of fashion’s foremost sustainability advocates, turning red carpets green. The Italian-born activist founded Eco-Age and conceived the Green Carpet Challenge to urge celebrities and designers to showcase sustainable, ethically made gowns on the world’s biggest stages. Firth’s influence extends to film as well: she was executive producer of The True Cost (2015), the groundbreaking documentary that exposed the human and environmental toll of fast fashion. By marrying glamour with accountability – from Hollywood galas to global policy forums – Firth continually aims to show that conscience and couture can share the spotlight.
Quannah Chasinghorse
Quannah Chasinghorse is a 22-year-old model and land protector giving a powerful Indigenous voice to climate activism in fashion. Hailing from the Gwich’in and Lakota nations, she helped push the Alaska Federation of Natives to declare a climate emergency and now serves on its Climate Task Force, lobbying to protect sacred lands like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. On runways and at events like the Met Gala, Chasinghorse wears traditional tattoos and jewelry, unapologetically infusing Indigenous culture into high fashion. With each appearance, she educates the industry on the frontlines of climate change and champions the rights of Native communities and Mother Earth.
Stella McCartney
Stella McCartney has been a trailblazer of sustainable luxury since before it was trendy. A lifelong vegetarian, she built her label on a strict policy of using no leather, fur, feathers or animal skins – a stance once radical in high fashion. Instead, McCartney pioneered cruelty-free materials and is now at the forefront of innovative textiles like mushroom leather made from mycelium, which she debuted in handbags and garments as a petroleum-free alternative. Beyond materials, she’s investing in regenerative agriculture pilots for cotton and wool, partnering with farms to rebuild soil health and biodiversity while sourcing raw materials.
Marine Serre
Marine Serre is the enfant terrible turned eco-visionary of Parisian fashion, renowned for spinning street-market finds into couture. Upcycling is the backbone of her brand – she has made runway pieces from old t-shirts, household linens, and even upcycled bike leathers, “restoring value to forgotten objects” in each collection. In her fall/winter 2025 show, titled Heads or Tails, Serre staged a conceptual triumph at the Monnaie de Paris mint: dresses crafted from upcycled watch straps and recycled coins mingled with flowing gowns made of vintage silk nightgowns.
Aditi Mayer
Aditi Mayer is a sustainability storyteller working at the intersection of culture and climate. As founder of The Artisan Archive, she champions global artisan communities and traditional crafts as part of the solution to fashion’s climate crisis. Mayer’s work – spanning photography, journalism, and advocacy – examines how fashion can honor heritage and address social injustice, from Los Angeles factories to Indian cotton farms. In March 2025 she brought this vision to the PhotoVogue Festival in Milan, presenting “Weaving Craft, Culture, and Climate,” a talk exploring how preserving craft and cultural memory can help resist climate chaos. By bridging indigenous knowledge and contemporary activism, Mayer reminds us that fashion can be a powerful language of resistance and regeneration.
Torishéju Dumi
Torishéju Dumi, a British-Nigerian-Brazilian designer and 2025 LVMH Prize finalist, turns her runway into a dramatic allegory for our times. Her spring/summer 2025 collection, La Nef Des Fous (“The Ship of Fools”), imagined a decadent aristocracy aboard a sinking ship – a floating world in chaos that served as a metaphor for societal and environmental collapse. Opulent garments on Dumi’s catwalk literally came apart at the seams: couture gowns with ballooning silks and tulle were shown tattered and waterlogged, as if dragged through the sea, transforming symbols of luxury into liabilities in a drowning world. By the finale, her fashion fable of pretenders “given over to pretense and performance” hit uncomfortably close to home – a creative tour de force that calls out our need for true leadership before we all sink.
