Responsible Leadership
q&a series

With Bay Garnett
Fashion Stylist / Editor / Published Author
Co-Founder of Second Hand September

Introducing Bay Garnett,
one of the most influential,
and least self-promotional
figures in modern fashion.

[Q:] What moment, personal or professional, shifted your
perspective from profit to
purpose, or made you
realise you couldn’t lead
any other way?

I don’t think it was a single moment. I’ve never really believed in those neat epiphanies.

For me, it happened organically, through doing. I was working on a project with Oxfam around clothing donation and reuse, and it was only once I was involved that I realised how important it felt. Not in a moralistic way, but in a very personal one.

Doing something that serves a bigger purpose than just yourself is incredibly freeing. It’s a relief, actually, to step out of the constant focus on me, how I look, what I’m doing, what I’m achieving. When your work connects to something larger, it feels grounding. And once you experience that, it becomes hard to ignore.

I think people underestimate just how deeply inequality sits at the root of so many global problems and how uncomfortable it is to acknowledge that properly.

Leadership isn’t about having special insight or easy answers. Often it’s about sitting with complexity and recognising your own position within broken systems. That’s hard to say out loud, because it can feel hypocritical, or overwhelming, or unresolved.

But pretending the systems work as they are is far more dangerous.

I’ve unlearned the idea that success is something external.

We’re taught to measure success by money, visibility, or how busy we are, but those are very blunt tools. Success, to me, is internal. It’s about how you feel about yourself and your work when everything else is stripped away.

That doesn’t mean I always feel successful. I don’t. But contributing to something positive, knowing that my work has helped shift attitudes around secondhand and overconsumption, that gives me a sense of success that lasts longer than any job title or paycheck.

I think my younger self would be surprised, and quietly pleased, that my instincts turned out to be right.

When I was younger, my love of secondhand felt rebellious, even eccentric. I hated the idea that everything had to be new. It just felt wrong, even before we were talking seriously about climate change.

Looking back now, it’s strange to realise that what once felt fringe is now mainstream and necessary. Circularity, reuse, upcycling - this is what normal looks like now. I think my younger self would be saddened by the state of the world, but also reassured that trusting joy and instinct can lead you somewhere meaningful.

I’ve definitely turned down work that felt hypocritical.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realised that your word and your actions are who you are. When something feels misaligned, it’s hard to justify it, even if the opportunity is tempting.

I don’t operate with rigid rules or grand declarations. I just ask myself whether something makes sense with how I live and work. Often, if it doesn’t, the opportunity disappears anyway. Things have a way of falling away when they’re not meant to happen.

Yes. But for me, values and business can’t be separated.

I’m not a corporation with different arms for profit and philanthropy. I’m a one-woman band. That means any conflict is personal, not theoretical.

I don’t claim purity, and I’ve never said I don’t buy new clothes. But I do have principles, and over time I’ve become more conscious of choosing coherence over contradiction. Leadership, in that sense, is about responsibility and understanding that your choices add up to a reputation, whether you manage it or not.

The belief that constant newness is normal.

The fashion system is built on overproduction, to a scale that’s completely unsustainable. The fact that such a huge percentage of clothing produced every year is never even sold should be impossible to justify.

What I’ve learned is that this isn’t about individual consumers making “better choices” alone. It’s systemic. And at some point, it requires regulation, limits, and a fundamental rethink of what growth actually means.

I’m most inspired by people who think seriously about systems - historians, economists, activists. People who are trying to solve problems for everyone, not just optimise profit.

I find it deeply motivating to listen to thinkers who talk about how so much talent has been funnelled into profit-maximising institutions, leaving urgent global challenges under-addressed. That clarity makes you want to contribute, even if you don’t have all the answers.

I don’t really have a side hustle in the traditional sense.

What fuels my work is curiosity - listening, learning, paying attention. That’s where ideas come from for me, not from monetising every spare moment.

Overproduction.

The scale of waste, not just in fashion, but across industries, is staggering. Producing vast quantities of things the world doesn’t need, only to discard them, is completely at odds with the reality of climate breakdown.

That contradiction is impossible to ignore once you really look at it.

There needs to be serious legislation around overproduction.

It shouldn’t be acceptable to produce endlessly, discard recklessly, and call it growth. Limiting production wouldn’t just serve the planet, it would serve future generations, workers, and communities who are currently absorbing the cost of that excess.

They’re making it impossible to pretend these issues are abstract.

Climate change isn’t theoretical for younger generations, it’s lived reality. That urgency strips away excuses and demands honesty. You can’t hide behind long timelines or vague commitments anymore.

I hope they say I helped make secondhand mainstream and showed that it is never second best.

If people feel that reuse became normal, desirable, and culturally valued in part because of my work, that would mean a great deal to me. That’s where I’ve spent most of my working life and I’m proud of that.

[ Bay Garnett bio ]

[ Bay Garnett. Pioneer of thrift. Cultural agitator. Quiet revolutionary.
Bay Garnett is one of the most influential, and least performative, figures in modern fashion. Long before 'sustainability' became an industry buzzword, Garnett was already living, working, and styling from a radically different place: thrift stores, charity shops, and the belief that clothes carry stories, not status.

Best known for styling the first Vogue editorial using entirely secondhand clothing in 2003, Garnett didn’t set out to make a statement. She simply worked with what she loved, and what she believed in. That unselfconscious authenticity became her signature. What looked radical at the time was, in truth, instinctive: she wasn’t interested in newness for its own sake, nor in fashion as a vehicle for excess. She was interested in storytelling, character, and culture.

Over the past two decades, Garnett has shaped a generation’s understanding of style as something democratic, emotional, and deeply human. Her long-standing collaborations with charities such as Oxfam helped bring secondhand fashion into the mainstream, reframing it not as 'second best' but as smarter, richer, and more expressive. She has consistently challenged the industry’s obsession with overproduction, novelty, and profit, not through slogans, but through example. What distinguishes Garnett is her refusal to moralise. She loves beauty. She appreciates luxury. But she rejects snobbery. Her work sits at the intersection of elegance and rebellion, proof that ethical choices don’t require aesthetic compromise.

In an industry built on aspiration, she quietly redefined what aspiration could look like. Today, as circular fashion becomes not just relevant but essential, Bay Garnett’s influence is unmistakable. What was once fringe is now foundational. And what began as personal instinct has become cultural legacy.]

RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP

Do Epic Good's Responsible Leadership Q&A series spotlights voices who are leading with integrity, courage and impact. These are people like you. People who remind us that no matter what industry you are in, responsible leadership is the only way to lead.

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