How To Make Your Wardrobe More Sustainable
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At the start of the year I decided it was about time to start finally addressing the elephant in the room when it comes to sustainability: my wardrobe. As someone who loves fashion, enjoys getting excited about new trends and going shopping I've become accutley aware that my wardrobe has an undeniable impact on the environment. Over the past couple of years I've taken steps to clean up my eating habits, beauty routine and day to day life. I'm so far from perfect and have do much else I could do but one of the big things I've never really done is address my wardrobe.
There's no doubt my shopping habits have changed for the better in the past 18 months. I buy less, think about my purchases more and if I want something new I try to find it second hand. But there is no getting away from the fact that the fashion industry is causing unimaginable devastation to the planet. It’s estimated that the fashion industry creates more CO2 emissions per year than all train, plane and car travel combined. Frankly that's tertfying. And then of course there are the ethical implications of how workers are treated. Are the safe and bring paid a fair wage? And how can we find out? It's merky, to say the least, and stressful as a consumer. It makes you never want to buy anything again and feel crippled with guilt whenever you treat yourself to a new top. But there has to be a way to improve.
Like with everything in life, we've all got to find a balance that works got us. A minimum effective dose, as it were. We have to work out what we can do to help but also make sure the changes we make are sustainable, not just for the plantet but for the rest of our lives. I've said it before, I've got a lot to learn and I'm so far from perfect, in fact some would probably say hypocrite was a more accurate way to describe me. I'm trying though and that's all we can do. Not sure where to start? Here's where I began.
Buying less: The obvious thing to do is buy less. If you can pledge to buy nothing new again then brilliant, do it. You're a stronger person than me. But if going zero-buy feels too much (especially if you're at the point where you see your ASOS courier more than you're parents...) then just buy less. Not every event needs a new outfit. Neither does every holiday, pay day or season.
Buy more thoughtfully: If you want to freshen things up then fine, just think a bit more about what your buying. Do you really love it? Does it fit well within your existing wardrobe? Think about whether you can get it second-hand instead of buying new. If you can't then look to more sustainable and ethical brands, it might take a little longer to find them but often the quality is better and you don't have to feel so guilty. Shopping second-hand by choice, vintage shopping or going for more ethical (and normally more expensive) brands isn't always accessible to everyone though. In those circumstances I'm trying to look to brands more sustainable sub-brands, think H&M Conscious or Topshop Considered. There's no way that these ranges counter the overall detrimental impact of the brand but if they're your only option it's still better than the alternative, plus voting with our money is a powerful thing to do.
Take care of what you own: It's simple, take care of what you have, it will last longer and you'll need to buy less. Some of these are the simple things like folding knitwear instead of hanging so it doesn't go out or shape or washing your denim inside out to preserve the colour. Pick yourself up one of my beloved jumper de-bobblers* and breathe new life into your knitwear in an instant. Make sure you crep-protect* all of your suede shoes, bags and jackets so they can survive the rain. Get the soles and heels on your shoes repaired before you make a hole in them (a new resolution from me). Got a hole in something? Sew it up! Even simple things like checking the tag before you wash something to make sure you're actually washing it correctly can have such a positive impact on how long something lasts.
Change your habits: A big way you can reduce the carbon footprint of your wardrobe is to think about often you wash your clothes. I'm not saying that you should wear dirty clothes but often things don't need to be washed as often as you think. Things like knitwear and denim shouldn't actually be washed after every wear anyway and normally you can get several wears out of something before throwing it in the wash. Could you use your towels an extra couple of days before washing or only change your sheets fortnightly instead of weekly? Reducing the water consumption of our wardrobes makes a huge impact. It also helps to prevent more micro-plastics ending up in the waterways. If you want to reduce this even more then pick up some guppy bags for when you wash clothes made from man-made fibres.
Thinking about the environmental impact of your wardrobe can be so overwhelming. I know I've found the guilt so stressful, but ultimately we can only do what we can do. No,changing some of my habits won't stop all of the environmental damage being done but if everyone makes one or two simple changes it adds up and makes a difference. We don't have to be perfect. We don't have to sacrifice our enjoyment of fashion or the ways we express ourselves, we just have to try and do a bit better today than we did yesterday. Anyone got anymore advice, please share it! Want some more information? Thred Up has loads of great resources including their quiz to find out ‘clean’ your wardrobe is. Venetia La Mana is also a great person to check out, she’s a self-confessed recovering hypocrite who’s is doing some really great work to spread the awarness of fast fashion.