BY DAVE DROSCHAK

Amber Brennan was in her early 20s, working in corporate America for a big-box store, when she realized something was amiss in the global world of clothing retail. 

“In a management role I learned a lot about fast fashion and some of the devastating impacts it was having on both people and the planet,” says Brennan. “There was this consumer mentality of push, push, push to get your baskets filled up. I was like, ‘Wait, what are we really accomplishing here? Are we doing any good or are we just asking people to stuff their houses full of more stuff that they don’t need?”’

In 2012, Brennan began researching environmentally friendly clothing companies with a long-range goal of opening a store she could call her own and focus on what she calls “ethical fashion.” 

Her dream was realized five years ago this November when she co-founded Rose & Lee Collective in downtown Apex. The women’s apparel and accessories store at a vintage house location along West Chatham Street stocks brands that practice fair trade, execute labor audits, encourage water recycling, use organic fabric, and many more causes close to Brennan’s heart. 

“Fashion can be a really dirty industry,” Brennan says. “A lot of clothing factories are unregulated, with people working 15- or 18-hour shifts and being paid pennies per hour. And there are governments that don’t heavily audit the facilities to ensure there’s no child labor or slave labor.”