Revisiting my WHY

Since 2018, I’ve taught Sustainable Enterprise and Strategic Management of the Natural Environment at Syracuse University’s Whitman School, with fall 2025 enrolling nearly 60 students. Each semester, I use Simon Sinek’s Start with Why framework to help students articulate their purpose and connect it to sustainability. Over seven years and 250+ submissions, students—many for the first time—express deep introspection, humanistic values, and a desire for connection with nature and others. This year’s responses showed particular wisdom. We need principled, critical thinkers who can align purpose with enterprise to drive sustainable innovation. ~ Mark Coleman

By Kieran Lance Romano

I still remember the first time my mom brought up sustainability with me as a kid. She said that if my friends and I could walk or bike instead of driving to school everyday, that would not only save gas and money but also pollute the air less, while having fun! As a kid doing that made me feel like I was helping in keeping mother nature happy, and that feeling has just stuck with me as I am growing into a member of this society. Now, after diving deep into sustainable enterprise this semester, my Why has grown bigger: it’s about designing fashion that doesn’t just avoid harm, but actually gives back to the planet, blending my love for vintage workwear with biotech magic from nature. Fashion (specifically Fast Fashion) still pumps out 11% of global emissions, and those synthetic dyes and throwaway clothes choke everything, and create a lot of waste but I push back with garments that age beautifully and break down like compost.

Bringing Back 1950s Workwear, but Better

This semester sharpened how I see the mess, how mass production and overconsumption aren’t just industry problems, but are baked into our culture, and policy often picks short-term profits over the planet. My senior thesis is my labor of love. I am recreating 1950s workwear, the high-waisted wide leg denim trousers, chore jackets, and flannel shirts in linen, cotton, and twill thinking about materiality that existed 70+ years ago. I love the details, thinking about reinforced seams for pockets full of tools, specific points of wear that shows that the garment has been used and worn properly, cropped hems for moving around easily, and even accessories like hats and jewelry and scarfs. But instead of synthetics, I’m dyeing everything natural, for my specific colors I will be using indigo for that perfect faded blue look like old Levi’s, madder root for a deep scarlet color, cutch for earthy khakis and olives, alkanet for stormy grays, all mordanted with aluminum sulfate so they lock into the natural fibers and weather into real vintage patina. You can wash them, and wear them hard, and they soften just right, fraying at the edges like they lived through the postwar boom, timeless pieces that make you want to keep them forever, not toss after one season. No more “5 T-shirts” for me; these are built for life cycles that match nature’s, with colors shifting subtly like the era’s khaki trousers fading under sun and soil.

Biomimicry

Something that I have been thinking about a lot is biomimicry, looking into the design of nature and what we can learn from a sustainable planet. I researched a lot into copying how corals and jellyfish make color without the toxic waste. This semester showed me the entrepreneurial gold in fixing these market failures like dyes that need crazy heat and chemicals, and the end of life polluting the waterways. One of my projects pulls from Discosoma corals for DsRed reds, Echinopora forskaliana chromo-reds, Stylophora pistillata pinks, Acropora yellows and oranges, and Aequorea victoria jellyfish GFP, they glow under light through these cool barrel-shaped chromophores that stick in water at room temp, no harsh stuff. Imagine powder kits you mix at home, blend the reds, pinks, oranges, yellows for custom vibes, dye your natural fabrics, and it softly fluoresces under UV light, composts clean. It’s like nature’s enzyme tricks in action, it’s renewable, multi-functioning, and totally beyond basic plant dyes and synthetic dyes. This ties right into my workwear, denim glowing faint coral under sun, aging with that vintage feel while protecting you and the earth, maybe even adding iridescence like butterfly wings for extra pop, just one possibility of the future.

Why Now and Into the Future

This all evolved my original promise of biodegradables like cotton, hemp, wool into something bolder: full-circle fashion where clothes return to soil like kitchen scraps, fighting the green movement pushback with real products people want. I compost my food, donate clothes instead of trashing, hunt sustainable zippers, now I’m making that everyday for everyone, from fungi fermentation backups to mineral accents for depth. Enterprises can thrive here: sell home dye powders alongside ready-wear lines of glowing 1950s jackets that patina perfectly, premium for their longevity and planet perks. Scale it with biotech vats growing proteins cheap, like making insulin, dodging the limits of farming dyes. Post-Syracuse, this is my path, try to launch a brand around “vintage vitality,” educate on impacts through labels showing origins and breakdowns, and turn the global mess into resilience. Childhood biking was step one; now it’s biotech or natural fashion that will lead the green shift, proving we can thrive, not just survive, in a changing world.

My Why?

Merge fashion passion with earth protection, proving small ideas grow into industry game-changers.

Kieran Romano

Fashion and Apparel Design Major – Sustainable Design Minor

I’m a designer and artist pursuing a degree in fashion and apparel design at Syracuse University with a minor in sustainable design. I have a genuine passion for pattern making and sewing, as well as working towards a better environment with my sustainability goals. I have a strong focus on collaboration, I possess exceptional interpersonal skills and thrive both as a team leader and member.

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