Jenni, you more than anyone has made me think long and hard about how much, what, how and why I purchase something. I am sure others on this forum have also considered the truth of what you say and the impact of their actions on the earth and then adopted new ways of doing things. Nevertheless, I am sorry to hear you think your sustainable ways have somehow put a damper on the fun part of fashion. That makes me wonder what is fun for you about fashion? I am not sure sustainable practices necessarily have to dampen one’s fun with fashion but that may depend on your answer to the question above. I admittedly need time to consider further how sustainability practices affect the fun of fashion for me. They certainly have changed how I shop, and how I think about clothing.
It took a long time for me to refine my personal style. To my eye, some people have a natural gift and inherently choose items that complement their coloring, figure and personality. Not me. It took a lot of work and experimentation and I still don’t always get things right. Some of the fun in fashion for me in the past was experimenting and figuring things out. This type of experimentation, by me, was not a good sustainable practice. For a few years, I had an overly large wardrobe and closet bloat. I have minor guilt and shame associated with this however, I did my best to re-home items that did not work. Learning what worked for me was fun and also, strangely, has helped me adopt more sustainable ways of managing my wardrobe. I learned what does not work, and to pay close attention to quality details and the functional and practical aspects of a garment.
DD31 once said I have fashion functional fixedness and she is correct. I am not one to mix up my clothing into lots of different outfits; I struggle with capsules. I doubt I could limit myself to 5 clothing purchases per year as I easily burn through more than that in workout gear. Nevertheless, I currently wear and enjoy everything in my closet. Number wise, I still may have more than some. I assume this means I wear my clothing a bit less frequently and in turn, it lasts longer. For example, I have jeans that are 7 or 8 years old and winter coats that range from 15-30 years old and are still going strong. A good fraction of my wardrobe, maybe 80%, is on the classic/modern classic side, (I like Angie’s terms: basics and essentials). The other ~20% of my wardrobe are statement items. In the earlier mentioned experimentation phase, my wardrobe was statement heavy (~50-60%). A statement heavy wardrobe creates a lot of need for supporting pieces, it provides a lot of variety and certainly was fun. People may be more likely to remember statement items so I believed I needed a lot of them. I have since learned I do not need so many statement pieces and that I am comfortable with not being cutting edge/current. You may recall my trial with uniform dressing when I wore jeans and a grey sweater or tee every day of the week. When I did this, the fun of fashion was somewhat dampened. I learned that for fun and joy in my outfits I require color, statement items and, variety, however, I also discovered I am content with much less variety and color than I imagined. Also, I found that certain statement pieces are more repeatable and become part of signature style, an example of this may be eyeglass frames. Also, some essentials, like blue jeans for me, can also be statement items and hence become more easily repeatable for my style. When I wear signature glasses and change shoes and or jeans daily, my grey top and jeans outfit has enough variety. There is a fun factor for me and this uniform has become an easy and sustainable wardrobe base.
One sustainable practice I have not yet effectively adopted is buying resale. Given my height, fit is already hard, and the only brick and mortar resale shop in my community is the Salvation Army. I believe the items there should go to people that cannot afford them otherwise. I have tried looking at online resale but have not had much luck….yet. I’m willing to keep trying. It would not be in keeping with “buy local” as a sustainable practices.
My wardrobe has become much smaller through attrition. I replace worn items which typically includes 2-3 statement items per season. This is enough to keep things fresh and aids with variety. I have been knitting my own sweaters so I can choose the fiber, color and design. If I could sew, I would probably make many of my own clothes as well. Someday, if I have the time. I have done my best to adopt more sustainable and earth friendly practices. I agree we should do our best to reduce, reuse, repair, repurpose, recycle, and do whatever we can to protect the environment in all areas of our lives, not only wardrobe management.
Refining my personal style and learning that for me, fun in fashion comes with simple lines and design, classic pieces with a twist of color or a statement to pump up the look and with a small amount of variety has aided my commitment to use sustainable practices. I need fewer items. I keep them longer. What I wear needs to be practical, comfortable and meet one or more sustainability factors. I am content that there is consistency between what I feel and what I project to the world. I do not think everyone has the same source of fun in fashion, the same sense of style, etc. and because of this, what I learned that has helped me become more sustainable while maintaining fun in fashion may not be helpful to you personally, but I do hope my thought process is helpful to you or someone else here on the forum.
Happy 2025 Jenni!
