Sustainable Fashion & Vegan Content Creator Shruti Jain is taking the Lead on Positive Change with her platform StyleDestino

New Delhi: Social media is a powerful platform. It promotes knowledge sharing, helps break the stigma around topics like mental health, race, and body image, and helps you build a community without any border barriers. It’s unfortunate that a platform that can be used for force of good is being used to fuel ravenous capitalism, is exposing young kids to unattainable beauty and body standards causing mental health issues and is being used to promote fake lifestyles of so-called “influencers”.

But fintech professional cum conscious content creator Shruti Jain is harnessing this medium to propel conversations centered around sustainable and compassionate living through her platform Style Destino. Her love for fashion and values that promote compassion toward all beings led her to start her blog. As a vegetarian (now vegan), Shruti extended her cruelty-free values to her wardrobe and lifestyle. She always believed that “style should not be at the cost of someone’s life”. She founded Style Destino to show that you can look fashionable and lead a luxury lifestyle without harming animals.

Interestingly, her blog also helped her to embark on a personal journey with sustainability and was the reason why she turned vegan. “While I was researching vegan fashion brands, I came across a video about the Rana Plaza accident - the factory collapse that claimed the lives of over a thousand factory workers in Bangladesh. That was a turning point for me. Until now, I didn’t know about the horrors of the fast fashion industry and was part of the consumer culture plagued with gluttony,” says Shruti.

“Most people are not aware that the fashion industry is a major contributor to climate change. Not just that it is also one of the worst offenders when it comes to human rights abuses and exploitation of workers. Thanks to social media, I learned more about the “Human” and “Environment” aspects of sustainability. That has been my inspiration for leading a more sustainable lifestyle – from fashion and beauty to my everyday choices.”

She actively speaks up against fast-fashion giants, educates about the rampant greenwashing in the fashion industry and talks about intersectional sustainability – how sustainability topics are inherently topics of race, gender, social class, and other identities that impact marginalized communities. 

Her chic sense of style disproves the notion that sustainable fashion is anything but basic and uninteresting. Her sustainable vegan fashion feed is packed with sustainable brands, including luxury designers like Stella McCartney, Themoire, Senreve, Chopard, and Ganni, to affordable options like Pangaia, No Nasties, Nicobar and Cariuma. She champions the idea of repeating and borrowing clothes. 

“Through Style Destino, my goal is to inspire everyone to become mindful consumers. We really need to think of sustainability beyond the consumer context. You shouldn’t {ever} buy your way into sustainability.  Ditching fast fashion and mindlessly buying sustainable brands is not a wise choice. You don’t have to buy anything when you can re-wear what you have, can borrow, swap, rent or buy preloved.”

“I am constantly educating myself about the impact of my everyday choices, keeping an open eye, being critical of the areas I know I am falling back and making genuine efforts to change and grow. I share my journey with others, so others can be inspired and also help me get better”. 

Shruti is often seen repeating outfits, bags, and shoes from her closet, stylishly breaking the social stigma around outfit repeating. She says, “Considering outfit repeating a faux pas is a privileged mindset that most people cannot keep up with, and is downright wrong.”

Shruti’s honesty is refreshing in a fake world of social media and is one of many things we love about Style Destino. She only curates eco-friendly and ethical brands and always keeps things interesting with her sense of style and pro tips on being a conscious consumer. Not just fashion, she seamlessly incorporates sustainability into many facets of her life onto her platforms, including beauty, food, travel, and so much more!