Sustainable Fashion: A Different Perspective on Consuming Habits
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| Photo by Spencer Selover from Pexels |
I saw this post one day when I was browsing Instagram, that a few female influencers advocating not buying new clothes for a whole year, and this idea of no more new clothes instantly clicked in my mind. When I looked at my closet, clothes, dresses and shoes are piled up and it takes me such long time to pick something to wear everyday. If one day I'm moving out this house, it will be a huge headache just to pack up the whole closet...
Time Consuming
I have hard time making choices in general. Adding more clothes just add more time for me to choose what I should wear everyday. Especially that I don't have a specific style of fashion, I buy clothes impulsively most of the time, and I ends up having too many various styles, which drives me crazy sometimes just to get ready for an event. This might sound familiar to you: put on one dress and second doubt it, change to another one, and to another one... more choices will make me overthink about the way I look or feel.
Money, Money
Ever since there's a baby in the house, most of my credit payment is for baby related purchases, like toys, beddings, diapers, nursery decorations...Having a child does take on a lot of financial responsibilities. so instead of buying too many clothes, I rather use it on important purchase for my baby.
I don't have a specific data about how many clothes are manufactured a day throughout the country, but from what I observe of my family and my own experience, a closet gets filled out so quickly less than a year. Where will these clothes end up after we remove them from the closet? What makes me sad is that many of the clothes have not been worn for more than 5 times. Where should I dump them? I'm sure people who work at Goodwill are tired of receiving used clothes. It's just too many. While the old clothes have no where to go, clothing companies keep producing new lines of clothes for each season. This cycle of producing-selling-buying is massive and endless. I know I can't stop the cycle in anyways, but at least I can give the earth a mini break just by not buying any clothes for a year.
I have to admit that, it is easier to say than actually do it. Yesterday I was wandering at Ann Taylor and saw a dress on final sale for only $24.99! It was an elegant dress that I can wear for many occasions and the price was just too good to walk away from. But guess what? I did not buy it in the end. So proud of myself!
Now I just need to dig out those forgotten shirts and dresses, and take them out for a spin once a while. It will also force me to be more creative to fully use my existing clothing to mix/match for new looks. The old me gets her thrills from shopping for clothes, while the new me gets her excites from discovering new looks out of old clothes. Hmm..have to say that I start to like this creative journey already!
