A Beginner's Guide
So you stumbled upon a news article, or a sustainable blogger, or some other information about how damaging the fashion industry is to our planet. Well, that's true.
Somehow, the fashion industry has found ways to decrease prices as inflation and minimum wages in the U.S. has increased. How have they done this? Well primarily through sourcing materials unethically and outsourcing production, aka paying unsustainable and unlivable wages to people with very limited resources to keep price points low. In addition, the fast fashion model includes overproduction, which means they are producing way more than enough of each product and they are flooding the market with new products nearly every week.
This in turn has created an industry that has very high carbon dioxide emissions, a high use of fossil fuels in creating synthetic fabrics, and high transportation emissions from a global production line. They also contribute a large amount of waste into our landfills and are using harsh chemicals that have negative human health and environmental consequences.
So, now that we know the fast fashion industry is unsustainable, what should we do?
Decrease your demand.
One budget friendly strategy you can take is to decrease your demand, aka buy less. Part of the issue with this industry is that they have cleverly marketed us into thinking we need tons of clothes and need to buy new clothes with each season.
However, we can counter this buy trying to be more mindful when purchasing. Chances are, you already have some clothing items that you love regardless of what brand they come from. Holding onto clothes for as long as you can is arguably the most sustainable choice you can make.
Learn how to mend, or find a tailor/cobbler you can use when your favorite pieces are starting to show some wear. This is often less expensive and a lot more environmentally friendly than replacing.
Try a capsule wardrobe.
One way to curb the urge to have an ever growing wardrobe is to do a capsule wardrobe challenge. This means choosing a set number of pieces from your existing closet and wearing them for a set number of days. In the beginning of my slow fashion journey, I did a 30x30 which means I chose 30 pieces of clothes from my existing closet and only wore those for 30 days. Another popular challenge is the Project333 which involves choosing 33 items for each season (3 months). If those seem too long, you can try shorter capsules like a 10x10 or 20x20 (# of items x # of days). I plan to do a longer post about capsules, but for now you may find this blog post helpful (I used this for my first 30x30!).
The capsules are a nice first step, because they don't actually ask you to get rid of any clothing in your entire wardrobe (just store them or move them in some way), you just simply work with a subset and try to style those pieces in new and innovative ways since you are limited.
Take a closet inventory.
Sometimes it helps to understand the sheer volume of your closet and to rediscover things from your closet you maybe forgot about and to pass along items that are no longer serving you. I don't think there is one right number of clothing items to have in a closet because everyone is so different and your local climate may impact what you need. However, I have found that for me personally, having a simplified wardrobe is extremely helpful and makes for a less stressful morning of choosing an outfit.
Shop secondhand.
Secondhand shopping is a great way to decrease demand from brands and avoid things from ending up in landfills, but also find great things for a great price. I like to shop at local thrift shops and goodwills when I can, but sometimes I find it more practical to shop online from resellers. There are sites like Depop, Poshmark, and ThredUp that often offer items from newer brands for a lesser price tag. In addition, there are Instagram accounts that cater to selling new sustainable brands at cheaper prices, like SellTradeSlowFashion, Noihsaf.Bazaar, and SellTradePlus. Also recommend finding local cute curated vintage selections and consignment shops, which can sometimes be easier to find great pieces.
Make a budget / Track your purchases.
I've started tracking my purchases and spending this year, which has really allowed me to evaluate each new thing I buy, secondhand or new. Because of this, I often find myself more hesitant to impulse shop or to resell/return things that I bought that I don't totally love.
While I still slip and overspend occasionally, it does help to know where I am starting from and how much things I will buy in the course of a year.
Buy from small-batch, ethical brands.
This is not for everyone and often comes with a much higher price tag than the rest of the options. But I wanted to throw it on here because it is a growing industry. There are brands that are making made-to-order and small batch clothing and are a great alternative to fast fashion. By creating a year-long budget, you may be able to see if you can budget for a more expensive item by not buying any other clothes for 3 months, for example.
But please don't feel bad if this is just out of reach for you right now. This isn't the only way to be mindful, and I don't think replacing fast fashion shopping with slow fashion shopping is really all that productive.
Learn how to sew.
I know this isn't practical for everyone and some folks may just not be interested in learning this skill. However, sewing allows me to sometimes curb my spending urge by instead getting inspired to make something similar I see in the store. It also is a lot more time consuming than just making a purchase, so I tend to value and appreciate these items a lot more than others in my closet. I'm also able to do most clothing repairs myself, which saves a bit of money when it comes to increasing the longevity of clothing.
Be forgiving.
Okay, last one. Just remember that no one is perfect, and it's not your job alone to solve the problems created by an entire industry made up of many, many rich people. Most of us will buy from fast fashion still at some point or another. Let's not be too hard on ourselves. There are so many reasons we buy the things we do and so many systemic reasons why we make our choices, so it's important to lay off the judgement of folks you do not know. Racism, sexism, classism, sizesm, ableism, and the-like are embedded in our lives and contribute to our decision making and are important to acknowledge before you cast judgement on someone else.
I think the key is trying to be mindful and make the best choices that we can, but really that looks different for everyone.
Start slow.