Although no one likes to think about it when shopping for a cute dress or new shirt, fashion comes at a high price — to the environment and the social structures of the countries where much of the clothing manufacturing trade is based.

Growing awareness of these impacts has inspired the "slow fashion" movement advocated by such groups as the Centre for Sustainable Fashion and the Ethical Fashion Forum, which aim to support sustainable social and environmental practices within the fashion industry.

Locally, Conscious Designers Hawaii grew out of Tsu­baki Hime "eco-clothing" designer Camille Mori and marketing professional Olivia Wong’s shared interest in sustainable fashion and socially conscious pursuits.

The pair aims to bring together like-minded individuals to participate in pop-up events and fundraisers for such socially conscious causes as Dress a Girl Around the World, which provides girls in impoverished nations with clothing. By raising awareness of the downside of "fast fashion," they hope to encourage more Hawaii designers to create sustainable brands and build up the marketplace for eco-conscious clothing.

Mori and Wong met during a fashion show production class sponsored by the Hawai‘i Fashion Incubator. "Camille told me about her line and love of eco-conscious work, and we exchanged cards," Wong said. "I told her to call me if she ever needed help marketing, and a couple months later she called."

Mori needed help presenting a fashion show during Hawai‘i Fashion Month in November, and "closer to the event," Wong said, "it evolved into a whole organization."

Wong, whose father and grandfather were from Hawaii, grew up in Los Angeles with an interest in socially conscious business practices. She moved to Hawaii to pursue an M.B.A. degree at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Mori grew up in Tokyo and studied at UH to become a religion professor. During a study-abroad program that took her back to Japan, where she and the other students were taught to replicate Buddhist drawings as part of their studies.

"It was lots of fun and soothing," she said. It also got her thinking about paint ing the imagery onto her own clothing.

"I was reading a lot of books pertaining to sustainability and was shocked by the amount of waste generated by the fashion industry and how people don’t talk about it," she said. "They talk about waste in food and other industries, but not fashion."

Elizabeth Cline’s 2013 book, "Over-Dressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion," examining the "cycle of consumption and waste" among consumers and the fashion industry, served as Mori’s wake-up call. Cline notes that for a large part of the 20th century, most people owned only a few outfits that were carefully mended and worn until they were utterly worn out.

"We’ve gone from making good use of the clothes we own to buying things we’ll never or barely wear," Cline says in her book.

Said Mori, "I thought of how much people buy and get rid of the next season. We want to promote the idea of making things last, mending, repurposing or donating them."

"A lot of it had to do with my education. When you study Buddhism, you’re taught not to be attached to objects, to think about your actions and the consequences of your actions."

Wong said it helps to buy local when you can and seek out companies involved in socially conscious endeavors. Among the designers she and Mori have worked with are Thanh Apostolides, Yi Lin Hu, Taleah Smith of Indigo Sage, Love at Dawn’s Angela Tomiye, and Love Me Knots, a jewelry company that pursues its own socially minded work, including donating a portion of sales to human and animal welfare causes.

Love Me Knots owners Sophia Vuong and Jaclyn Park were visitor industry co-workers who started their business in 2013 with the idea of using recycled wood and plastic to package their jewelry and experimenting with recycled nylon cording for some of their pieces.

Wong said, "All we can do is talk about what we believe in and what we would like to tell people, put it out and maybe someone will read about it or hear it and be inspired."

Keep up with Conscious Designers Hawaii at www.facebook.com/ConsciousDesigners.