Slowing down fast fashion by sharing and selling our clothes…
Kids these days often get bad press about their clothing habits and consumption. For example, buying something and wearing it only once, just to look different in the next Instagram post. But they are not all like this and in fact some are leading the way.…and we can take a leaf out of their book. I discovered the other day that one sustainably conscious young woman always sells an existing item in her wardrobe on Depop every time she buys something new. This is her way of being sustainable and earning extra money.
Could more of us do this? It stops our wardrobes getting unmanageable and
extends the life of our clothes. Did you know that by extending the life of
our clothes by just 9 extra months it would reduce carbon, water and waste
footprints by around 20-30% each.
Selling our unwanted clothes or organising a Swish clothes sale (clothes
swapping party) is a great way to extend their life. So often we have things
in our wardrobes that are really good quality but we’ve fallen out of love
with them. They might not fit any more, just not work with our existing
lifestyle or may have been the wrong purchase in the first place. It’s best
not to have these unworn items cluttering up your wardrobe space and
stopping you seeing what you’ve truly got to wear.
I recently read an article about two women who had never met until they both
spotted a classic camel coat in a charity shop at the same time and
they decided to share it rather than one person loose out. In fact, they get
together every few months to swap over and exchange how they styled and worn
it. They even started leaving each other notes in the pockets! They reckoned
that by sharing it they wore it more often than if they owned it outright
and saw the value of ‘absence making the heart grow fonder’. It’s no secret
that most of us buy too many clothes and wear them too little. In fact, it
is now estimated that we buy 4 times more than we did 10 years ago and wear
them far less, half the amount of time. Consequently, we are valuing them
less and less and therefore our environment too.
So sharing is a great way forward and it’s what my daughter does all the
time. She lives with a friend, and they share each other’s wardrobes, this
gives them twice the number of options to work with. It’s also a great way
to experiment with a new look before investing.
However, clearly there are some challenges with doing this. Colouring for example is one thing to consider, ideally you want to team up with someone who suits the same colours or at least similar colours to you. Sometimes you can get away with a bit of a difference, by the use of scarves and how you mix different shades together. And of course fit is also important. If your body shapes are similar it will make it easier but it doesn’t always have to be the case. My husband has often sifted through my son’s cast offs and found something that suits despite them being different height and build. So have a think, who can you best share with?
I’ve mentioned it before but Thrift+ is a great platform to re-sell your
unwanted clothes that gives you the chance to earn credits and get vouchers
from the likes of John Lewis and Farfetch or raising money for your
favourite charity. You can also pick up a bargain on their website which
stocks high street and designer labels.
Depop, beloved by the younger generation is no longer just for the teens.
You can now select by store/brand such as & Other Stories, Anthropologie,
Arket, Boden and AllSaints, to name but a few.
So, what are you waiting for – get sorting your wardrobes and find like-minded people who want to slow down fast fashion.
As always if you need any help with any aspect of your styling, don’t
hesitate to give me a call.
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