Change, reflected through pottery choices. Phasing out little blue dresses and low-rise denim are salient events in my style journey. They are causing a whole lot of churn in my mind and chaos in the closet. Navigating it with least waste, is a personal style goal.
was told : “It’s just stuff. don’t overthink it. Get rid of it later.”
In my head : Sigh! ecological ill-literacy or apathy !? “Just stuff”, is systemically making the planet inhabitable. “Love people, not things” quoters should learn about the interconnections in the ecosystems and our place in it.
Some humans are overgrazing and cooking up the planet. In 2023, after experiencing significant climate chaos, we still use words “rid” casually. We are still bragging about number of trash bags full of clothing we let go. Spring cleaning is upon us. Instead of celebrating the end of hibernation/waking up of life, it’s become the peak disposal season. In the olden days, one would deep scrub their home, wash woolens, mend holes, up-cycle what cant be mended, air out rooms after the long winter, wipe the windows, cleaned rugs and change out linens – back breaking domestic work. Today, it’s synonymous with throwing out stuff in loads and feeling good about the temporary empty space. Before I go through my stuff and question if something I am bored of is disposable too, perhaps some introspection is in order.
I am currently sitting by the window admiring the wild life outside. The winter rain storms poured life back into our landscapes. They say that birdsong is one of the first indicators of an improvement in the ecosystem. We cant step outside without noticing the new life and shiny-healthy-happy trees. We open our compost bin for an hour in the morning so that our humming bird can feast on the insects. She never forgets the location of a food source and comes back every single day. Leave it open for longer, and the wood-rat gatecrashes this feast. Every single plant has had a growth spurt and we live in a constant exhilaration of this new life in the garden. I cant help but think about living responsibly on this land and my consumption. I still haven’t gotten over the pair of Officene Creative burgundy oxfords that I let go last year. They were high quality – divine leather, breathable, Goodyear welted, protective toe caps, not cheap, European elitist, purchased after considerable saving of pennies, … attributes that would earn membership into the menswear quality discussion clubs that discuss blazers down to the stitch. After 400+ wears, they remained perfectly wearable. All the rumors of good quality were true. However, I was tired of them. I started wearing them on puppy walks, when it rains and into the snow. Donating them felt like a kinder way to give them a second life, then ruining them on purpose. Counting the number of wears in my spreadsheet was supposed to help. “I wore these shoes for 2 years of my life in the last decade while my other shoes hardly get worn”, became the excuse backed by the spreadsheets. Not even boxing them for a year and bringing them back, was a compromise I could stomach. I wanted them gone and off they went. Clothes no longer fall apart on me. I fall apart on them. Emotional durability is the last remaining link in the supply chain to personally solve for. I forgive myself for wasting a pair of shoes, but cant forget the waste. It clashes with my version of ideal self. What does it take for me to wear something into the ground ? Some scenarios to check out of this hedonistic treadmill :
- Retire interest in fashion. Adopt a uniform and never look around. Develop an aversion to shopping. Wear what I have, happily ever after. ( Not happening any time soon.)
- Having just enough and not being able to afford more. ( I wouldn’t wish for scarcity on myself. Not ever. I can do a tighter budget with the help of my partner and reduce my exposure to fashion.)
- A spiritual epiphany where stuff becomes insignificant.
- Go on a shopping fast and break the fast by buying that one fantasy garment of my dreams. Repeat year after year. I wont dare let them go. ( I do like the idea of being that woman who saves up for years and buys that one fabulous coat when she finds it. She only buys that one garment that year. That’s my version of ideal self from miles and miles away.)(Also, does one need exorbitant money spent on a garment to wear it into the ground ? That sounds more like a bug in the head than a viable solution.)
- Shopping my own closet and creating a capsule to rotate through. ( Can try.)
- RealReal banning me. ( That would drop my shopping to a zero and make me treasure what I own.)
- Vipassana meditation. ( We all know what needs to be done. How to do it, is a skill. Meditation trains the mind. )
- The easiest : Spring clean my wishlist. In the equation : “Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot”, refuse and reduce get ignored while recycle gets glorified. Reduce needs, not reduce stuff by throwing it out after overconsumption. The less I buy at this stage of having, the lesser the premature discarding I will participate in.
Spring cleaning : 2023 guidelines
- Do not throw out usable garments. Keep them for as long as possible and challenge yourself to introduce ex-favourites into outfits.
- Consult the spreadsheet. With a 100 item closet, it is entirely impossible to remember everything and do justice to everything owned, without some intervention. A low tech solution is to glance at the closet-wear-count spreadsheet and consider the least worn items when picking an outfit for the day. Another low tech solution is to create a capsule and rotate it out every 2 months.
- Start hand washing the sweaters on weekends. Pack out the winter closet. Clean the closet and all its surfaces with soap. Do some actual old fashioned cleaning.
- Increase the snooze time on everything in the wishlist to 2 months. Any sooner, should be called an impulse purchase. Prioritize blue denim search over other categories of garments that I don’t really need.
- Update closet spreadsheet. Condition leather goods. Take some OOTD photos and write blog posts on style. I just discovered the joy of wearing blue denim ! There is lot to share. Writing is pleasure. Writing steals time away from shopping that otherwise can pull me in. Writing keeps me out of trouble. It holds me accountable. Write the damn blog.
- Repeat these lines as needed : slow fashion is when we stop asking “what’s the next find” and start enjoying when we have.
- Declutter the wishlist.
- Forgive yourself if you stumble. Sustainable living is a practice. Good habits aren’t binary.
Recommended Reading : Emotional Durability.
Good Read : When Maria writes about clothes.
I loved that article about emotional durability… incidentally I was just thinking about it earlier this week, as I happened to be appreciating some old things I kept around and feeling relieved I did not give them away even though I had gotten tired of them. It makes sense to give a bit more thought about why I hold on to certain items, and understand what emotionally resonates with me when I’m thinking about buying something. Currently I have fallen out of love with my Oxford shoes, probably because I now work from home and I associate them too much with work. But I do like occasionally conditioning them and remembering how much joy and use I got out of them, and trust that I will wear them again some day when my lifestyle undergoes another shift.
Loved reading this. As someone who spends too much time idealizing and dreaming, I’m always tempted to redesign my whole wardrobe when elements of my life, interests, and values change — as if having the perfect clothes will help me step into new and better versions of myself.
Some things that have helped me increase the emotional longevity of the clothes I have and reduce turnover:
Creating an “onboarding” and “offboarding” process for items acquired and decluttered. I have a complicated ritual of photographing and logging items into my spreadsheet when I first get them, along with a sheet where I account for items decluttered, why I’ve let them go, and where they went. I find this method of tracking makes me feel more accountable to my belongings, as well as adds a layer of friction before I add something new/let something go.
Recording outfit notes and journalling about my clothes. I started my blog initially as an experiment to write a tribute to each item of clothing in my closet. I’ve kind of paused this exercise, but see myself returning to it. I found it meditative and romantic to record the stories, build the lore, and have an active dialogue with my wardrobe.
In terms of shopping, I’ve been trying to curb this online shopping habit I’ve picked up during the pandemic and buy primarily secondhand and in person (more specifically from shops in my neighbourhood). I’ve found this practice of “fishing from my local pond” more grounding and a good way to sandbox my consumption. Plus it adds a layer of emotional ties when you can pick up an item and be transported to the place and time where you first found it. Your meet-cute, if you will.
Being inspired by people that love their clothes and wear them for a long time – like this guy (https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2023/apr/13/don-letts-forever-fashion-when-i-wear-this-shirt-now-how-do-i-feel-slimmer-than-i-ought-to-be).