For over twenty years, Sarah Jay has worked across the fashion system, fusing her love of style with a deep commitment to sustainability, public health, and social and climate justice.
Her styling work has been published internationally in Harper’s Bazaar, VOGUE, FASHION Magazine, ELLE Canada, InStyle, Schön, ZINK, Style Monte Carlo, and BMM Italy. Her sustainability expertise and advocacy have been featured in VOGUE, The Coveteur, Harper’s Bazaar, Dazed & Confused, The Globe and Mail, i-D, The Kit, Best Health, Flare, WWD, ELLE, and ELLE UK, among others. Her writing has also been published in Corporate Knights, FASHION, and ELLE.
From its inception in 2007 through 2021, Sarah played a formative role at Canadian apparel non-profit Fashion Takes Action, collaborating with industry and citizen stakeholders to shift behaviour toward more positive social and environmental outcomes. As Creative Director and active Board Member, she produced all fashion and runway events and helped shape the organization’s programming, research, and public awareness initiatives.
Sarah has supported responsible innovation in fashion internationally as a trusted senior consultant to NGOs, independent designers, SMEs, and global brands across the fashion, food, and personal care sectors.
She is recognized for her early community-organizing work as Associate Producer of The Green Shows New York (2009–2012), Fashion Director of the Green Living Show Toronto, and producer/curator of the Regenerative Earth Summit’s Farm to Fashion Show in Colorado — a first-of-its-kind event showcasing textile fibres grown through regenerative agriculture.
Sarah has collaborated extensively with the renowned environmental NGO Environmental Defence on campaigns addressing consumer product safety, dry cleaning, single-use plastics, and public transit. Most notably, she served as a cabinet member on the Just Beautiful campaign, advocating for stronger personal care product safety legislation in Canada — work that inspired the creation of her Emmy-nominated documentary, TOXIC BEAUTY. The film examines regulatory gaps in the cosmetics industry, the human health impacts of toxic exposure, and the causal link between perineal talc use and reproductive cancers. Widely credited with reigniting public scrutiny, the film contributed to the unprecedented global recall of talc-based baby powder in 2023.
As a journalist and certified social auditor, Sarah’s work has taken her to crafting and manufacturing communities across Southeast Asia, where she has travelled extensively. She is deeply committed to fieldwork, investigative research, and advancing traceability and transparency within the world’s most sensitive and high-risk supply chains.
Continuing her focus on product safety, labelling, and conservation, Sarah has investigated the cosmetics industry’s persistent and often covert use of shark-derived squalane. Her master’s thesis provides the first and only end-use market assessment of squalane origin in cosmetics.
As an extension of this research, she founded All Earthlings (AE), a consultancy working collaboratively with brands to identify and eliminate animal-derived ingredients hidden within cosmetic supply chains. Using stable isotope and genetic analysis, AE supports brands in verifying squalane origin and managing procurement risk, ensuring #SHARKLESS supply chains, not #SHARKLESS oceans.
Sarah has also served Indigenous Fashion Arts as Industry Liaison, supporting Indigenous designers, protecting cultural integrity, and fostering meaningful connections with global audiences.
In recognition of her impact-driven work, Sarah has received two consecutive nominations for the Canadian Arts & Fashion Awards’ Fashion Impact Award (2019, 2020) and is the recipient of Fashion Group International’s Visionary Award (2020).
She currently serves as Executive Director of Fashion Revolution, the world’s largest fashion activism organization, advancing cultural, industry, and policy change through research, education, and advocacy.
Sarah lives in Toronto with her two dogs. She is an avid thrifter, crafter, and open-water swimmer. Her true passion lies where style and sustainability intersect. ♥