Fashion Topic: Loving Ourselves and Our Planet
If you are at all observant about the fashion industry you know our world is glutted with retail stores, boutiques, shops, and second hand stores all full to bursting with clothing pieces to tantalize and tempt our fashion palettes. There are many people who are not at all influenced by the industry. They could care less about what is currently trending, or who is wearing what at the Oscars.
Young people, especially women, love the change of the seasons if just for the excuse to go buy a new outfit. The fast fashion movement is not slowing down and continues to provide new pieces to credit card clutching fashionistas in as little as two weeks from design idea to hanging in the store. See this article from earth.org. (I do not necessarily agree with all the philosophies and ideas put forth by this organization, but thought this was a good article on the impact of fast fashion on the environment.)
While I agree that slow fashion is a better way to go, many slow fashion retailers have price points that are more than many can afford. Granted they are better quality pieces and because of that will most likely be a long term wardrobe staple, meaning you don’t have to buy as much or as often.
I personally have found second hand to be the best way to buy new clothes and still help the environment by repurposing clothing and other goods that would have wound up in the land fill. Unfortunately, even second hand stores are feeling the affects of over production and over consumption. They are now fighting the “throw away” mentality. Young people especially are still buying with unfettered freedom, but now with the mentality that if they don’t like it, or it looks bad after a few washings, or it no longer fits they can just drop it off at the thrift store. I have seen more than one thrift store in our area close their doors to donations for periods of time to try to manage the bulging overstock they have and sell through some of what is on the sales floor.
How do we deal with this problem in a way that will, not only help ourselves, but will also help our world? I think it all starts with us, the individual, and we have to start with one small change, or one small choice at a time. With all my health issues over the last three years, I have sought out therapy to help manage my new normal. I frequently get overwhelmed by the symptoms, the drugs, the appointments and the tests, but my therapist keeps reminding me change that is permanent comes about by starting small. I think this can apply to our overburdened clothing economy.
Here are a few ways to start small in your effort to become a more responsible and sustainable consumer:
1 - Start at home. Obviously home is where we live, and if our homes are cluttered and too full our mental health will suffer. When our mental health suffers we tend to fall into those habits of shopping too much, overbuying, and feeling overwhelmed. It truly becomes a vicious cycle. Here are a few small ideas for dealing with the clutter at home.
a - Go through one part of your closet at a time. Perhaps start with your scarves. Go through and pull aside the ones you rarely wear, or those pieces that are scratchy and uncomfortable. Do the same over time with your tops, your bottoms, your sweaters, etc.
b - Decide how you want to get rid of things. There are lots of options, but remember the market is glutted, so selling may not always be the easiest way to off load things. Look for entities that service the underpriviledged. There are places that will take gently use work clothing to give to people who are trying to get back on their feet after being homeless, struggling with addiction and so on. These clothes can help them at job interviews, court dates and when looking for a place to live. There are also online groups that will sell you a bag that you can fill and send back to them. They will recycle the clothing, keeping it out of the landfills. Try Trashie, or PopLinen. Of course selling is still and option. Try Poshmark, ThreadUp or even setting up a shop on Etsy. Just remember many of these places take fees out of your sales, but my thought is if they do part of the work of selling, they can have it.
Image by Andreas Lischka from Pixabay
2. Change your thinking about shopping. Shopping has a strange pull on many of us, and it has been scientifically proven to raise our dopamine levels giving us a high quite similar to taking drugs. If you have a more addictive personality this needs to be taken into account. I often get in the “mood” to go shopping, but I am finding more and more it takes over. I’ll have a run of several weeks where I keep wanting to go, go, go. Albeit I mostly thrift, but the truth is I don’t need anything. I do it for the feel good aspect of it. Recognizing our personality quirks gives us a better chance to not over shop or buy unnecessary items.
3. If you are going to shop, do it wisely. Do your research. Know what stores cater to fast fashion manufacturers and give them a wide berth. Stores like those listed in the earth.org article mentioned earlier in this article are not helping our environmental clothing problem. Shop retailers with a good reputation who are actually trying to make changes in their manufacturing and planning to create less waste, and less pollution. Shop thrift stores, especially the local, smaller retailers. Local businesses need or dollars. Two of my favorite stores are the American Cancer Society Discovery shop right around the corner from me, and the Toledo Humane Society Thrift Store. They employ mostly volunteers, and most of their proceeds go to the non-profit itself, giving me an additional reason to feel good after I shop there.
In addition to doing your research on where you shop make a list of what you are shopping for. It is easy to pick up many things at a thrift store that you don’t really need just because they are cute or cheap, but we need to ask ourselves, do I really need this? Making a running list will give you the ability to better stick to your goals of only buying what you need and not continuing to be an over consumer.
Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay
4. Wear things more than once before washing. This is an amazingly easy way to use less water and create less clothing fibers from going into our sewers and even into our ground water. Instead of automatically throwing your clothes into the laundry basket, hang them up or drape them over a chair to air out. Obviously if you get sweaty or have issues with strong body oder this is not as applicable. I typically throw tops that touch my body into the wash after one wear, but an outer layer, my jeans and even my compression socks I wear multiple times. Letting them air out seems to work great, but I also don’t struggle with heavy body oder, pet hair, drool or baby liquids. If I do get cat hair on something I just use a lint roller to get it off.
I know for me this love/hate relationship with clothing has been and will continue to be a journey, but just like with my physical health I want to keep trying to be a better, more informed consumer who not only cares for myself, but also for this amazing planet God gave us as our home.
I hope you enjoyed this Fashion Topic article. If there are other fashion related ideas you would like me to explore leave me a comment.
Have a great week.