May 8, 2025 |
Tori Tsui doesn’t look like your stereotypical climate activist. When a woman sitting next to her on the Tube recently asked where she got her bright yellow nails done, and if she worked ‘in fashion’, it turned into a conversation about why Tsui campaigns against fossil fuels. Moments like this bring her joy. “So many people in society are alienated by traditional forms of activism. And I think we just need to completely expand what activism looks like.”
Tsui works at the meeting point between sustainability, fashion, music and culture. She wrote her best-selling book It’s Not Just You, about the relationship between eco-anxiety and mental health and is looking forward to sparking new conversations when she wears her new blue T-shirt, printer with the word ‘Freedom’ part of an unexpected collaboration between the German responsible fashion brand Armedangels and Wikipedia, the world’s biggest online free encyclopedia.
The Armedangels x Wikipedia limited edition collection, titled For Fact’s Sake, was designed to raise awareness about the importance of open access to knowledge. In these precarious times, when the lines between truth and fake news are increasingly warped, and when verified news organisations are often behind paywalls, access to free, independent, verified information is more important than ever. Since writing her book, Tsui has been witnessing how the rise of authoritarianism is impacting the debate around climate change. “By virtue of the fact that the climate crisis is getting worse, it’s only going to become a more topical thing,” she says. “And that’s why I’m really loving this campaign with Armedangels, because so much of how we navigate conversations around eco anxiety are based on research and information and access to information.” Her book was a call to arms, for readers to feel empowered, not to take her word for it, but to find out more themselves. “People Power is the only way we’ve ever really changed things in society. Information and access to information is a huge part of that.”
Tori Tsui wears a T-shirt from the Armedangels x Wikipedia collection
Tsui uses her influence well, whether speaking at the Change Now Summit in Paris or contributing to the documentary Overheated with Billie Eilish and the late Vivienne Westwood. She is also part of the climate justice expert panel for Earth Percent, which facilitates a percentage of music industry earnings to an impact fund for the climate. Joining the Armedangels campaign was an easy decision. Armedangels is rooted in educating and empowering its customers to be agents of change. The brand’s collaboration with Wikipedia is designed to highlight the importance of knowledge and circularity. Armedangels is committed to empowering customers as change agents, and this partnership spotlights the value of both knowledge and circularity. Naturally, the garments follow the brand’s strict sustainability standards – made from 100% recycled cotton by Swiss innovation company Säntis Textiles.
“There are very few brands out there who are willing to be disruptive,” says Tsui. “A lot of brands are very afraid of being seen as too political, too preachy, too this too that. And Armedangels has consistently been a platform that has empowered people through, voters’ rights, championing activism, supporting people like myself, who are trying to use our platforms for good, whilst also advocating for fashion that’s transparent and sustainable. Information and access to information is under attack, and I think that it’s such a clever thing when fashion brands use their platforms and create a vehicle for change. We’re no longer in a space where businesses and brands can afford to be silent. We need all of them to take a stand – your businesses literally won’t exist on a planet without creating meaningful change.”
Tori Tsui wears a T-shirt from the Armedangels x Wikipedia collection
Free and independent access to knowledge is fundamental for empowering independent decision making, whether that’s choosing political leaders, or understanding what’s going on in the world. It’s important for everything, not least how we make informed decisions about what we buy. “Knowing where your garments have been made, where the cotton has grown is so essential to understanding sustainability and also the ethics of who makes your clothes,” says Tsui. “How do we create cultures where things are free and accessible? Wikipedia is that kind of backbone of cultural values that can be really powerful. The more we encourage that level of transparency and collaboration, the more we’re actually going to find solutions to so many of these huge problems baked into the structure of the way that fashion can currently exist.”
For Tsui, a T-shirt from this collaboration is so much more than a piece of clothing. “It’s almost like a conversation starter, people don’t necessarily expect you to wear a shirt saying Wikipedia with the values written on the t-shirt. It’s a really powerful way to have these kinds of conversations about mis and disinformation,” she says. Before you know it, you too will be talking to your neighbour next time you are on the Tube. “I want people to feel like they can be activists. When we start engaging in cultural campaigns like this with fashion brands people realize that activism doesn’t look like one thing, and that can encourage people to find innovative ways to take action and to create awareness as well.”
The Armedangels x Wikipedia collection is available at armedangels.com as well as at Kastner & Öhler in Graz, Austria, and Ludwig Beck in Munich, Germany, now.
