EBONY Power 100 2022 awardees Jason Bolden and Adair Curtis are more than just style experts, they are also sustainability warriors. The powerhouse pair shared their favorite sustainability style secrets with EBONY at Housing Works' 2023 Groundbreaker Awards Dinner in New York City, where they were honored as recipients of the nonprofit's 2023 Groundbreaker Awards, alongside the supermodel Iman. The event opened the nonprofit’s annual "Design on a Dime" shopping fundraiser, which featured pieces from Black designers, including Apartment 48 's Rayman Boozer, Beth Diana Smith Interior Design, Delia Kenza Interiors, Everick Brown Design, KD Reid and Me & General Design.
“One thing is to shop vintage, go to all your thrift stores,” Curtis declared. “I personally love to go and shop stores in small cities that are adjacent to big ones; they typically have the best stuff!” Curtis suggested a few rules to follow so that your thrift hunt is a successful one, which includes doing a quick Google search to learn a little more about the pieces you are interested in. “Look at it the same way that you do all your other shopping,” he advised. “These things have value. They were made with quality.”
Eco-conscious style isn’t just about shopping. It can start right in your own home. “We've even done it with our child who's turning 2. We turn baby things over to friends and they turn things over to us,” Bolden shared. “From clothes to furniture, it's creating these ongoing stories, which I think is really important and really impactful, especially when you're talking about people of color. Back folks, we've been practicing sustainability for a long time, before it was punch word or in vogue. It's always been something that we had no choice to do, and now it’s classically and innately a part of us.”
Curtis surmised, “There's nothing better than creating a personal look, both in your wardrobe and also in an interior design project, and these pieces add value.”
