As long as it’s “fashion” and not “clothes,” it’s not sustainable.

Sourcing, manufacturing, shipping and retailing items just so people can wear what’s “in” or have a certain look is CO2 we can’t afford to spend. It’s unnecessary at a time when only truly essential goods should be manufactured and sold new.

Wall Street and people who like a booming economy don’t like this, but it’s just a fact: We have 10 years to lower CO2 levels and we’re nowhere near turning things around.

Buy used or buy nothing. (Or as they said in WWII, “Make do or do without.)

This is the most honest answer I got about this topic. It’s by an economist with a PhD and 45 years of experience in policy, and is currently researching carbon mitigation strategies. He then went on to complain about how he is often asked to not speak the truth so as to not “fear monger”. Distractions like ‘recycle better’ and ‘tech will save us’ are routinely used to reject climate solutions. When I talk about it, I get told to hush because “you are shaming me”. It’s no wonder that the children have resorted to striking on the streets for their future. The adults are failing them and we need to be ashamed. This is the point of view through which I see the world and it applies to fashion. Some thoughts :

Ootd : outfit of the day.

An ootd is a way of perceiving clothes. It has a strong visual component. If fashion is a craft, ootds subvert the craftsmanship and put the spot light on styling. Fashion is reduced to a stylists world. ( This is perhaps the reason all the IT girls can sell clothes ? Its perhaps the reason why we feel we need so many clothes. ) This by no means is to say styling should be ignored. It is what a consumer does – wear the clothes they own in various combinations. But today, all you see fashion people talk is outfits. The craft has become invisible. The craftsman are forgotten. ( No wonder we need a Fashion Revolution Week to give credit to the people who make our clothes. No wonder fast fashion remains popular in privileged communities in spite of a tragedy like Rana Plaza Collapse. “Look at my outfit” triumphs over “let me tell you about my garment”. ) OOTD is very much a product of the fashion industry and it’s way of thinking. The fashion induscty owes its roots to colonialism. ( Make the women in Bangladesh suffer for pennies and let the privileged women have endless OOTDs. People don’t have access to drinking water in parts of India but water intense cash crops like cotton are grown for export. The West routinely offsets its emissions and trash on to the developing countries. Ship the used-clothes to third world countries and their landfills. Yes, this is the colonial mindset. ) From the context of sustainability and the climate crisis we are in, we should be working on “needing less”. An OOTD is a different narrative :

Instead of asking “do I need another pair of shoes“, you go “imagine the cute outfit I can make with this pair of shoes“

“Do I need another t-shirt” becomes “lets look at what I can do with this tshirt“

“I dont need another blue shirt” becomes “look at how I paired this shirt“.

“Do I need this skirt” becomes “I can pair it with that pink sweater and wear black boots“

” Do I need another blue dress” becomes “I will rotate it with my other blue dresses to have a different outfit every day“.

When you pick up a garment, the OOTD mindset uses its critical thought towards how it can be styled. The energy should have been going to rewiring our brains to needing less. The energy should have been going towards walking way from garments that aren’t needed.

Do I need this garment ? Will I be naked without it ?

Is this the highest quality I can afford ?

Will I wear it into the ground before my body changes shape ( Assume most women have one size per decade during decades without child birth. If your body changes shape more often, adjust accordingly. )

Am I buying it with an intention of wearing it often ? Or is it a garment that disappears into a sea of a closet to come out once a month/season/year ?

Can I find it second hand ?

I want to be asking these questions instead of thinking about how a new garment can be acquired to be be worn in a certain manner.

The common sustainability advice : “buy it if you can pair it with 4 other things in your closet”, was good advice for Holocene, but not sufficient for Anthropocene. Different geological age, different solutions. If the sustainability advice does not discourage you from consumerism, it’s not sustainability advice at all. A perspective on fashion that does not challenge ones needs, is not sustainable.

“People always tell me and the other millions of school strikers that we should be proud of ourselves for what we have accomplished. But the only thing that we need to look at is the emission curve. And I’m sorry, but it’s still rising. That curve is the only thing we should look at.
Every time we make a decision we should ask ourselves; how will this decision affect that curve? We should no longer measure our wealth and success in the graph that shows economic growth, but in the curve that shows the emissions of greenhouse gases. We should no longer only ask: “Have we got enough money to go through with this?” but also: “Have we got enough of the carbon budget to spare to go through with this?” That should and must become the centre of our new currency.”

– Gretta Thumberg

Excerpt From: Daniel Hunter. “Climate Resistance Handbook: Or, I was part of a climate action. Now what?.”

The most important question of all :

Do you have carbon budget left to shop ? ( Know your ecological footprint. )

The potential disadvantages with the OOTD-mindset

  • #1 Reason : Affluenza !!! It always starts with the hyper consumers. They flaunt their consumption. Everyone else aspires to play catch up. You show folks that you make unique outfits from a large set of clothes. It trickles down to the masses. Every one else starts playing this game. Back in the day, we aspired to imitate the aristocracy. Then the movie stars. Then the media stars. Affluenza spreads like the disease that it is.
  • “I dont really need another scarf. But got this one coz I like how pink looks next to navy blue”. You end up buying garments you don’t really need for the sake of a combination. You see a an outfit on the internet. Something clicks. You realize that you can make something similar with certain garments. If you have a large closet, you might already have these garments. If you have a medium size closet, you might want to get this missing garment. Thinking in terms of combinations instead of the item itself consumes more resources.
  • They are the choice of expression for fashion bloggers for the obvious reasons. Boy can they consume and combine !!! We can not use the same methodology that created the problem to solve the problem.
  • OOTDs are visual stimulation. If you get used to consuming the imagery, you get used to needing the drug.
  • The focus of fashion shifts to how my garments looks instead of it being about the craft. When we do not care for the craft, we do not care for the craftsmen/craftswomen. That is how tragedies like Rana Plaza happen.
  • OOTDs as a way of showcasing slow fashion does not explain ones relationship with their individual garments. It often reduces the idea to buying from certain stores and styling them like the fashion bloggers. The details, the mends, the patches, the threads, the craftsmanship, the seams, the pattern, … none of them get talked about. There is more and more information in todays world, but less and less meaning.
  • There is an intimacy that is not captured by an image. An image is not the way to assess the beauty of worn-in things. It’s between the wearer and the garment.
  • Are OOTDs the right medium of expression for folks who wear uniforms for sustainability reasons ?
  • If capsule wardrobes are intended to simplify choice, we now have commercial bloggers competing to make as many outfits as possible with a capsule wardrobe. Why ? Why this pressure to make OOTDs ? Why is this the metric at all ?
  • OOTDs do not give an incentive to consume less or not consume. It’s rewarding for folks who can make endless outfits out of large closets. Unfortunately, greenwashing is prevalent in sustainable fashion blogging community. One can buy excess from certain brands and greenwash it. One can buy excess second hand and green wash it. One can hoard resources in large closets and green wash it. One can be stuck in a endless loop of buying+culling and green wash it as a minimalist closet.
  • OOTD makers might consume for the sake of posting on instagram and less for the sake of themselves.
  • “I repeat outfits. I am not ashamed”. To pat yourself on the back for repeating something after weeks/months/years, …. Please check your privilege. Know that it is the 10% behavior. A majority of humans go through life while repeating outfits during the week/month. They are consuming sustainably by default.
  • Single use outfits still exist. Weddings, graduation, prom, bridesmaid, vacation wear, night out in town wear, …
  • Instagram popularity gives each social media user, a proportional mouth piece. Who currently owns the narrative of sustainable fashion ? Is it dominated by women who can afford to buy from certain clothing brands ? Is it dominated by women who consume sustainably ? Do we make it harder for women who consume sustainably to be seen and heard ?
  • In general, I think Twitter is a better medium to learn about sustainability. Here is a list of scientists complied by Dr. Katharine Hayhole. ( She is a legend. Do follow her work. )

Potential Advantages of the OOTDs

  • OOTDs are not dramatically different from the format of mainstream average fashion bloggers who consume enough to make 100s of outfits over their life time. Everyone can play the game.
  • An outfit is what folks who live along side you see when they look at you from afar. In some sense, it’s representative of what you wear from the view point of the semi-strangers in your life.
  • It’s simple and easy to blog. One click and you are part of the game. You do not have to immerse yourself in the craft. You don’t have to deal with the numbers and sustainability quotient of your consumption. You don’t have to write essays on personal style. It’s the fun side.

AND ME ?

  • I want to learn about how much of my closet I truly wear. I might think I wear it all and love it all, in my imagination. Are my assumptions backed by numbers ? I would like to find out.
  • I can be a lazy dresser. Can I use OOTDs to force myself to wear everything I have ?
  • Can I use OOTD to pay attention to the upkeep of the garments ? For instance, clothes last longer if they are allowed to get a day’s rest between wears. I am trying to not wear the same jeans every day. I am teaching myself to hang the pants inside out after each wear to let them dry. I am teaching myself to not wear the same shoes on consecutive days. Maintenance routines that I used to ignore are not being tracked in some sense.
  • I have excess amount of shoes. Can I truly wear them all like I claim I do ? Is it a soft no or a strong no ? Will the numbers help me let go of my shoe hoarding habit ?
  • I am looking for answers. At the end of the year, I want to know if recording OOTDs made me “consume more” or “want less”. I presented my biases and understanding in these lists. Was I wrong about everything I wrote in this post ?