How to Be a Slow Fashionista using your Existing Wardrobe
The slow fashion movement is a revolutionary movement which aims to shake-up the current state of the fashion industry and its unsustainable and unethical practices.
What has amounted from this movement is a rise in the number of ethical and sustainable fashion labels, featuring an increased range of sustainable and ethically made pieces that assure us of safe working conditions and fair wages. However, it is understandable that shopping from ethical and sustainable fashion labels can be a significant jump in price, in contrast to prices that you may be used to from fast fashion stores.
Generally, the typical fashion narrative begins with what we ‘need’ to buy in order to be fashionable. However, slow fashion is not just about buying more ethically and sustainably, it’s also about shifting our mindset towards clothing. So, how can you begin to adopt the idea of slow fashion without buying? Below, I discuss some tips to help you get into slow fashion with what you already own in your wardrobe.
1. Analyse the contents of what is currently in your wardrobe
A somewhat common occurrence for when you’re out shopping for clothing is that you usually see something that catches our eye. You then fall in love with that piece, purchase it, and then bring it into your wardrobe. However, after a few months, you find out that you hardly ever reach for that piece because it doesn’t match the other pieces in your wardrobe or does not fit you in the way that you wanted it to.
By analysing the contents of what is in your current wardrobe, you can get an indication of the amount of clothing that you own, as well as the types of clothing that you appear to gravitate to. A good way to achieve this is by taking everything out of your wardrobe and placing it on to your bed or a flat surface to visualise your wardrobe in its entirety. When I first did this, I was shocked at all of the pieces that I owned, and whilst I’ve made efforts to reduce the number, I find that there are still some unnecessary items in there. Some people may benefit from counting the exact number of clothing items they own, but if you’re not wanting to know this, then it’s okay to skip this step.
From here, you can start to put the pieces back into your wardrobe. By putting back each piece one at a time, you may pause to think whether you actually still like the item or when you last wore it. You may find then, that creating a few piles for the clothes that you don’t want to put back into your wardrobe to be beneficial. I suggest to have one pile to sell, one to donate, and one for trying on again. Doing this process of going through your wardrobe thoroughly enables you to feel like you’ve done a rebuild of your wardrobe, without adding any new pieces into it.
2. Learn about the different fibres and fabrics of your current pieces
What’s the first thing you look for when you’re holding a piece of clothing that you potentially want to own? The price? The label? The design? How it fits? These may be important, but we commonly forget to check that other little label which has the fabric composition and care instructions on it.
Fabrics are generally classed into three categories: natural, semi-synthetic, and synthetic fabrics. Fabrics such as cotton, wool, silk, and hemp are classed as natural fibres. Viscose, rayon, modal, and lyocell are known as semi-synthetic, and fabrics such as polyester, acrylic, nylon, and polyamide are classed as synthetic. Environmentally, synthetic fabrics have the highest environmental impact, as they do not biodegrade. Semi-synthetics are mixed in their environmental footprint; they are derived from natural sources such as wood pulp and bamboo, and their eco-friendliness is determined by how the fibres are processed in order to turn them into fabrics. Generally, natural fibres are the best option for the environment because they are biodegradable and have advantages such as being breathable.
Often, you’ll find that fabric compositions tend to have a blend of either natural, synthetic, or semi-synthetic fibres, which can combine the properties of each fibre type to make garments more comfortable or durable. The problem with this however, is that it makes it difficult to recycle or break down blended fabrics. Generally, if I find a blended fabric, I look for ones that are primarily natural/semi-synthetic, so that way it still has a level of breathability.
3. Embrace your most worn items in your wardrobe
For some reason, whether it has stemmed from the Instagram fashion culture or fast-fashion itself, it’s somehow ‘taboo’ to wear an item more than once to say, a fancy occasion, or more generally, more than once a week.
I say, let’s flip this mindset on its head, and embrace wearing your favourite items over and over again. How good is it to say to someone that you’ve worn a particular item so many times that you’ve lost count?
Like the 80/20 rule in fashion, which states that we wear 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time, what if the clothes we owned were all our favourite things ideally? I know that I’d love it if everything in my wardrobe was my favourite. However, this is a hard thing to achieve, so don’t be too hard on yourself if everything is not your favourite. You might own items for a particular purpose, for example work clothes. They might not be your favourite, but you wear them a lot and they serve a purpose.
4. Adopt the mindset of slow fashion itself
Slow fashion after all is a movement in itself, which embodies the mindset of shifting the way we shop and perceive the fashion industry. The next time you’re out with your friends shopping and they ask if an item is pretty or not, you could ask them to consider whether they genuinely like it a lot, and whether if they could wear it often enough with existing pieces in their wardrobe?
So, slow fashion is not just about purchasing clothing more mindfully, but it is also about our attitudes and behaviours towards the clothes that we wear. Let’s embrace the idea of connecting with our clothes on a meaningful level and learning to love and value our clothes like we once did, as opposed to looking at fashion as a trend-based disposable entity.
