Most of the concern around the current scale of the fashion industry is because it is producing beyond the natural resources available and people are repeat wearing their clothing far less often than last millennium. If much less was produced and the quality was better then there wouldn’t be such catastrophic problems.
I like the idea of a circular economy whereby fashion items can be enjoyed by a new wearer when no longer being worn, rather than being hoarded in wardrobes, ending up in landfill or incinerated. It is estimated that in London 23% of clothes are unworn and there are 123 million items of clothing out of circulation. That’s an awful lot of clothes that could be worn by someone else. It seems all the more abhorrent that so many clothes are under-used knowing that vast amounts of water and frequently exploited human resources were used during their production, let alone the pollution and damage done to the planet. I like the idea of repairing, adjusting, re-styling, upcycling items or just keeping them going longer, defects and all. In addition, I am keen to share my knowledge of what to look for when buying clothes, the importance of choosing things you will keep wearing, how to look after garments and to push for better textile recycling when garments are beyond wear/worn out. There are lots of independent projects underway to transform the textiles in unwanted clothing into new clothes but as yet they are not cost-effective to become mainstream. If we want a better future then we need to be prepared to spend a bit more to buy clothes made from recycled materials and with less pollutants. Every item kept out of landfill or not incinerated is a victory.
As someone who has hardly ever, until recently, bought secondhand clothes I started to think why not. It’s definitely not because someone else had already worn them or they weren’t current season but more because I was fussy about what I liked and how things should fit. Buying secondhand is much more time-consuming; scouring lots of charity or vintage shops, when it’s just too random that what you like will be your size. Even with my finely tuned fashion skills and ability to alter, I don’t feel comfortable guessing what something photographed on a hanger online is going to look like on my body or that it will arrive in a condition fit for the price. The fact that I have worked with fashion so long I am familiar with how inconsistent sizing and fit is and know this is further complicated by the fact that some things shrink and others grow with use. Add in the fact that most fit models, who designers base their prototypes on, are so-called “perfectly proportioned” size 8 /10, 5’7” or 5’8”, which I am not. I think there is a real need in the market for a more personalised way of buying quality second-hand clothes and am keen to develop a new model. Would you, like me, love to be able to look online and buy amazing fashion items for a fraction of the price of what they were when purchased new, with impartial descriptions, accurate measurements and information about which body types they might best suit. That you could work out with your own measurements, or those of a favourite fitting garment, whether it would look good on you before buying and therefore make more informed choices.
I am keen to encourage people to choose well (whether new or used) and keep wearing or to rediscover what they already have and keep wearing. For years I’ve mainly been a discerning purchaser of quality new things that I have kept wearing a long time, repaired, looked after and then eventually given to charity or sold on. While buying secondhand or rediscovering what you have has less impact on the environment, to have a successful circular economy you also need people buying better quality longer lasting clothes in order to have good items to sell or give on, and people buying garments made from recycled materials. If consumers of new products choose better quality, longer lasting garments, that hopefully have been made in a non-polluting way with recycled or more eco-friendly materials, then it sends a clear message to the fashion industry that they need to prioritise quality and sustainability to succeed in the future. On my website there is lots of information about how to choose better for your lifestyle and budget. We live in an age of diversity where we all have very different lives and just like there isn’t a one size fits all in clothes, everyone has different needs or expectations when it comes to clothing.
Fashion is fun, highly creative and can be a great way to express our own uniqueness and individuality if we want. At the end of the day we all need to dress and buy clothes, so whether you are obsessed with clothes or just wear things to be dressed or comfortable, we all still need to make choices about what we wear. It’s equally fine to be someone who buys new quality more eco-friendly items and keeps wearing them, looks after them, then donates or sells them, as it is to be someone who buys practical things and keeps wearing them until they are threadbare and no longer able to be repaired, or someone who only chooses mainly second-hand clothes to have the least impact. There is no such thing as truly eco-friendly clothing, all new clothing has a negative impact on the environment. Even so, no matter how much more ethical a product is, it is not sustainable if it only gets worn a handful of times. Surveys have been done that have found on average people are only wearing garments seven times before getting rid of them. The majority of information about fashion sustainability has been developed within the industry and looks at sourcing more environmentally friendly fabrics, recycling materials and rarely looks at extending product life or wearability which is what I am particularly interested in raising awareness of.
My new venture is about giving back to society by educating and inspiring people to make more sustainable clothing choices. As well as trialing what I believe is a safer, easier way to purchase secondhand clothes and upcycling things I plan to provide consultancy on fashion sustainability and quality. I will continue to add information on how to choose clothes that last better, how to look after your clothes and upcycle things as well as raising awareness to improve an industry which has become so much faster, cheaper and wasteful over the last 20 years. The end result is that we have become accustomed to see clothes as something we can easily change and dispose of and this needs to change…we need to slow it down!
