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Following on from my post about fast fashion I thought it would be a good idea to do a little list of different tips to help you boycott fast fashion.

REPEAT your outfits. Nobody cares if you've worn something once or one hundred times. A statistic I recently read said: "If you double the number of uses per garment life cycle, you could reduce carbon footprints by almost 50%".

UNSUBSCRIBE from emails. Ordered something off ASOS last month? Bought a pair of shoes from an online store? Anything like this where you get those annoying emails with offers, deals and reminders. Emails showing the latest garments. The temptation goes away when you stop receiving these pesky reminders.

CHOOSE ETHICAL brands. Research before you buy, have a look online or locally for a more sustainable option. For example I wanted a new bag, but looked online and found Baggu which was made of recycled cotton. Even shopping at a smaller business will help create less demand for fast fashion brands, whilst also supporting a smaller business who will appreciate your purchase. On a personal level, you'll make that person happier than some chain who's in it for the money.

SWAP your clothes with friends or attend a clothes swap event. If you don't have any clothes to swap, just ask to borrow or lend someone a piece for a while.

WEAR WHAT YOU OWN. Dig through those clothes that you have hiding at the back of your wardrobe, go all Marie Kondo and have a clear out (save items for clothes swaps, good items for charity) and organise your clothes so you can see what you have, and wear items you haven't worn in a while. Restyling them with something you now own.

FOLLOW others who are on a journey to becoming sustainable. Social media can have its benefits and finding other people in the zero waste community online can be really helpful in finding out alternatives, facts and information.
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SETBACKS
Nobody's perfect. I work in a very open, old building (that is really cold in winter), and have been suffering from the cold pretty badly (even wearing thermals too). I needed thicker jeans and whilst I had been holding off buying any for a long time, I caved. I bought a pair of New Look jeans out of convenience. The labels states 'made using less water' but if I'm honest I didn't choose these because of this, as the damaging consequences of this whole brand won't be solved by one range of their garments using less water. Whilst it is good that they are noticing consumers demands, it is essentially greenwashing. We're all on our own routes to being more sustainable, and I want to be honest about the steps I'm taking and to document these throughout. Whilst I haven't bought any fast fashion items in many many months, this one was a necessity to me in my situation. I wear these jeans everyday for work and they have definitely had their life cycle worth already! I'm unlikely to change clothing sizes and if anything needs to be repaired on them, I'm now quite handy on the sewing machine, so they should last me a long time.

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I hope that these ideas can be useful to help inspire you to stop buying new where possible, and if available to you, choose a more earth friendly approach to shopping. Additionally, to give you a little reminder that nobody on their way to being eco friendly is perfect, it's all a learning process! 💚

No you don't need that new dress, that new jumper, those shoes you'll only wear once. Really, you have another choice and the planet will thank you for it.

Sustainable fashion is something I am super keen to learn more about this year. I have only been dipping my toes into this topic by following other people on social media who post about this, and finding alternatives to buying clothes from fast fashion brands.

It is a huge throwaway industry. Companies produce such mass quantities of items and these big brands don’t even contribute to paying workers living wage. Some brands (e.g H&M) are catching on to the environmental demands and now have ‘conscious’ ranges which as a consumer we believe is them making positive changes and progress...WRONG. Whilst they do this range they are still producing hundreds of other garments alongside this, so how is that sustainable in any way!? Just by having a few items 'conscious' does not account for any other issues, even considering why certain items are so cheap. Another tip when you’re shopping is to check what materials clothes are made from as most are made from synthetic materials (eugh plastic really is everywhere). 

We are brought up in a culture where we feel that we need to buy a new dress for the next party we have. Or maybe that we can't wear that dress worn to a party last week again. We see people on social media platforms wearing lovely clothes (hardly ever wearing the same clothes twice in posts), so it's no wonder we think in this way. I was like this too and I am starting to tell myself not to buy new. I'll tell you now, with New Look clothes staring at me all day it requires a LOT of willpower. You also save money when you stop and really ask yourself if you need it. Think about how else you could spend your money, maybe save it and spend the money on a piece of clothing that would last longer, and contribute to better ethical standards. (more on this another day). (I will acknowledge that I am in a privileged position to be able to choose where I can buy clothes from.)

In this particular situation that has inspired me to write this post, I found myself trying to find a dress suitable for a black tie event. This meant that my options were to either:

-Wear something I already own

-Buy a new dress

-Buy secondhand (thrift/charity shop)

-Borrow from someone

As I don't own any long dresses, I reached out to friends and asked if anyone had one suitable for said event and then bingo - a close friend had a long black dress which I could try on, and luckily it was the perfect fit. Popped a pair of heels that I already own and voila!

If you take anything away from this post please let it be this:

The most sustainable fashion is wearing the clothes that you already own.

I'll be blogging more tips and info very soon!

(Totally irrelevant photo as I couldn't choose just one image to suit the whole blog post. It was a high tide sunset at the beach across the road. Bliss.)