Anti-shopaholic: stories of women who never buy new clothes
'02.04.2021'
Source: Womo
Many of us like to buy new beautiful things. True, we rarely put on a part, and some new clothes are sent to a dump with tags. This is bad both for the environment and for the life of seamstresses in developing countries, who sew it all for a meager salary, and for our psyche and wallet. The decision not to buy new clothes seems too radical to you? Some British women don't think so.
According to the public organization Wrap, which advocates a rational processing of waste, the "average life expectancy" of a garment in the UK is 2,2, writes Womo. In the wardrobe of the British hang around the thing things worth £ 30 billion
Maria Chenoweth from the public organization Traid: “Every week, the British buy 38 million units of clothing, and every week 11 million goes to the garbage. And we do not have the resources to continue to feed this "monster."
Chenoweth, whose organization advocates that fewer clothes are thrown away, believes that the way out is in second-hand stores.
How difficult is it to make a choice in favor of deliberate sustainable shopping? In the UK, clothing is the fourth largest contaminant after construction, transportation and food. More than half of the wardrobe items were thrown out for a year after the purchase — perhaps second-hand can save us from the madness of “high-speed fashion”.
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Boredom remedy
At lunchtime, Laura Cowdery loved to “walk” around sites selling items from Dorothy Perkins, New Look, Peacocks. Cowdery says she bought many items “simply because they were there.”
“I thought: oh, what discounts, free delivery, we must take. If something I bought didn’t fit, then I didn’t bother sending back - I kept it, ”she says.
Every month, Laura bought an average of three new items, about £ 20 about.
“And I had a huge pile of things that I didn’t wear, or almost didn’t wear, and which were worth a fortune. Some still had labels on them. "What am I doing?" - I asked myself and decided to stop it. "
Cowdery carried her “deposits” to the local swap shop, and three years later became one of his three leaders: 2000 units of clothing happily find new owners there.
Having got rid of unnecessary junk, the woman decided not to buy new clothes for a year.
“I thought that the year would end, I could buy a new one. But at the end of the year I realized that my attitude towards shopping changed dramatically. Now we are changing clothes in our store. So I can refresh my wardrobe without adding anything to it. ”
Unique style
Sarah Fewell always liked to change and "reinvent" old things. Since 2011, she has run the online store Identity Party on the Depop platform, where 10 million users can find 80-90's stylish things.
How did it all start? When Sarah was a second year student at London University, she found a wonderful dress in a second-hand store, which, as it turned out after the purchase, did not fit her. Already having a profile in Depop, she photographed the dress, describing it as "exactly like Phoebe from Friends." He was immediately bought at a very competitive price. Fuell continued to sell things through this site and for the release from the university she already understood that she did not want “real” work. Now her love for vintage items has become professional.
How is her business arranged? On Monday, she places the posts, on Tuesday - takes pictures, on Wednesday - downloads. On Thursday, she goes on commissions in Basingstoke, Newbury and Reading. On Friday and Saturday, too, takes pictures and posts. From that first dress she sold already 3 000 items of clothing, among her buyers are even those of her friends who considered the sale of used clothing a “niche business”.
Sarah Fewell says, "A lot of people are already sick of 'fast fashion' because so many clothes are really bad quality."
At the same time, Sarah Fuell did not immediately think about the environmental friendliness of her business: “It did not occur to me for several months that, when I offered to buy old things, I urge not to throw them in landfills, that is, to reduce environmental pollution. I realized this later, and now this principle is one of the main principles in my business. That is why I ask my customers not to throw the thing away if it didn’t work for them on our site after the purchase: it’s better to sell it again. ”
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11 years without new clothes
Zoe Edwards, a blogger and teacher of cutting and sewing courses, 11 decided not to buy new clothes years ago. She then worked in the studio, which focused on fast fashion and was responsible for the purchase of a headset. And a lot of this was thrown away, because sometimes the fabric was purchased less or the details did not fit the new collection. Such a waste of resources seemed unacceptable to Zoe. Therefore, she quit and began to sew clothes, teach cutting and sewing, and sell her products on the Internet. Over the years, 11 has bought just a couple of new things. And only underwear she buys a new one.
True cost
Tanya Arraiales, co-founder of Style Lend, a mutual rental website, was inspired by a documentary about the real price of True Cost items and refused to buy new clothes for a year. Was it hard?
“Sometimes I was nervous, because I was always a fashionista, and then I had to keep up with fashion, it was especially unpleasant, because at all events I could not make an impression due to the fact that I was wearing the latest fashion. But I decided to rebuild my vision for shopping. ”
A year later, Arraiales allowed herself to buy vintage items. A year later, she bought a few new things from "sustainable" brands. If it seemed to her that something was missing in style, she would rent things on Style Lend. “I began to see clothes differently. Style can be created without buying new ones. ”Cowdery also believes that buying, exchanging or renting things makes your approach to style more experimental.
Nevertheless, the volume of clothing of all types - new, old, trendy, vintage - is huge. The life of a second-hand is also not endless: for example, it is sold wholesale to developing countries, and then their landfills will be clogged with rags. We need new technologies for processing clothes.
And, of course, you need to remember that, as Zoe Edwards says: “Clothing is a way to express yourself, a way to tell the world about who you are. This is a tool for social interaction. And, like any social interaction, it requires thoughtful attitude. "
