slow fashion

Make Do And Mend: Looking After Your Me-Made Wardrobe

Jess1 Comment

When I made the choice to reduce my consumption of fast fashion, I also signed up to another pledge. I committed to looking after my existing ready-to-wear wardrobe.

My focus has shifted from trends to joy. Joy of fashion. Joy of garments. Joy of sewing.

I want to achieve something with my me-made wardrobe that many fast-fashion brands do not, and make my garments last.

Fast fashion brands like Shein, Pretty Little Thing, and Boohoo churn out poorly made clothes designed to be worn, wear out quickly, and throw away after six months so that you can buy into the next big trend.

Each piece of clothing is a stepping stone to the next piece and very little consideration is given to the longevity of our wardrobes.

With me made garments we invest time and energy. We put care into every step and create something that we want to wear and we look after it.

However sewing doesn’t mean throwing out your existing ready-to-wear wardrobe, I have RTW clothes that have lasted over 10 years with careful washing and conscious approach to their care.

Caring For Your Wardrobe

A quick test to see if you look after your wardrobe. Do you know what these symbols mean? Chances are you’ve seen them as you hang your clothes out or briefly as they disappear into the washing machine. I know that I didn’t understand them for years. Sometimes I still get confused!

These symbols describe how you should care for your clothes and yet most of us don’t understand them or just don’t read them. However they are the key to caring for our RTW wardrobes. To tell us what to do and crucially what not to do! What temperature to wash at. Whether or not it can be tumble dried. Even sometimes what temperature your iron should be.

Following these symbols prolongs the life of garments and therefore helps us to consume less. This article is not here to berate you, I’m not trying to tell you off because honestly who has time or energy for complex garment care.

When we do get to the point where mending is required, when a button falls off, a zip breaks, seams fray and split, we are more likely to throw the garment away or take it to charity than we are to fix it. The reality is that that is how we’ve been conditioned to engage with clothing and the fashion industry. But we don’t have to. We can choose to look after our clothes properly, we can even refashion our clothes to make new garments we will love for longer.

The Joy Of Mending

Put your hand up if you honestly like mending things. Whether thats for yourself or for others. No? No takers? Exactly, mending is a sewing chore.

It’s not fun, it’s time consuming, irritating and frankly most of us would rather be doing anything except sewing a button back on. Which makes it even more annoying that mending is a crucial skill and one that will make your clothes last almost forever.

Regardless of how boring mending can be it truly is a superpower held by sewists and dressmakers and one we must use. We can do mending easily ourselves if we put our minds to it. We have the knowledge to insert a new zip or fix a fraying hem. If you’re lucky you’ve got a sewing machine like mine that will attach buttons for you with no hand sewing involved!

My Top 5 Garment Mending Tips

  1. Don’t leave it. If you notice a seam starting to fray, a button becoming loose, fix it then and there.
  2. For patching tiny holes in garments or reinforcing newly sewn-up rips try adding a bit of iron-on interfacing
  3. Don’t be scared to refashion. If you’ve got a garment that has a huge rip or hole, why not considering making it into something else so it can return to your wardrobe.
  4. Consider visible mending with embroidery. It’s a fun way to customise a garment and add a bit of personality.
  5. Set aside one day a month to tackle the mending and refashion bag. Grab a cup of tea, stick something on the radio or the TV, and get sewing!

Living Without Fast Fashion: Why Do Brands Send You So Many Emails?

Jess1 Comment

It’s a grey, rainy morning in Surrey and I am sat at my desk deleting emails. I know, what a riveting start to a blog post. Since I gave up fast fashion I’ve got to find something to do with my time! The emails I’m deleting are the endless missives from desperate brands with eternal sales trying to make me buy their clothes. I hate to say it but in my weaker moments these emails work on me. I have to delete them without reading them because otherwise I will be knee deep in the French Connection sale before you can say ‘fast fashion’. The emails are a problem, particulary the frequency, but they are not the root, they are entirely symptomatic of the way we consume fashion.

I would argue that in a lot of ways purchasing has been reduced down to pure impulse. Very rarely do we consider what we already own or if we will even wear it, we just get tempting offers with bright ‘girl power’ slogans fired straight into our inbox telling us to treat ourselves. Due to advances in online shopping technology, its entirely possible to go from receiving an email to buying a garment within 5 minutes all on your phone. Of course you can unsubcribe, but often its not about not wanting to receive the emails, its more than most of us don’t even think about them.

What I’ve realised since making a concrete effort to renounce fast fashion is that, the email isn’t just an email. The email gives you permission to browse, it gives you the justification, ‘but there’s a sale on’ or ‘I’ll just look at the new collection’ and then before you know it you’re buying an entire winter wardrobe. It’s often not even about resisting the emails, its about becoming conscious of them and their purpose. It’s absolutely fine if you want to receive the emails and actually use them as a purchasing tool, you do you! But if you are trying not to consume then unsubscribing is the first step and as I do want to give up fast fashion and absolutely refused to be beset by fast fashion brands in my own home, unsubscribing is what I shall be doing.

As I’ve told people about my commitment to give up fast fashion, I’ve had some supportive reactions and some of genuine confusion. Let me get one thing straight, I love shopping and my friends know that. I actually find it relaxing although occasionally irritating when you can’t find jeans that would fit an average human female under 5’4″ with hip bones. Crucially though I like shopping in person, I don’t often buy clothes online and if I do I often regret it. My number one reason for online shopping pre-lockdown was for occasion wear. I’m definitely not an ASOS haul person. It feels dedicant and wasteful to buy that much online without even trying it on and to be honest it feels desperate. Shopping for me is an experience. It’s going out with my mum or my friends, it’s physically going into shops, touching clothes for quality, trying on new things and going out for lunch. Its an occasion. That’s most likely why I find these emails so jarring, they don’t fit with my experience of shopping. For me its not about convenience, if I go for a shopping trip the trip itself is an integral part of the experience. In a lot of ways it makes it easier, if I don’t go into shops, I wont shop, simple.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I am approaching giving up fast fashion as I would with a major life change, holistically. From figuring out my what my own style looks like to literally not budgeting in shopping money, I’m trying to find the ways that fast fashion has permeated my life and how I can make the shift. Removing myself from as many subscription lists are possible is my first prong of attack. As these emails do work on me, its vital that trigger to consume is removed. So here’s my first piece of advice if you’re trying to give up fashion as well, if you’re looking to start giving up fast fashion, start by unsubscribing from your favourite brands. It doesn’t matter if you love them, you can always visit the website of your own volition but remove the email trigger. It’s the same premise as stopping a snack habit by just not buying snacks.

Instead I am directing that urge towards buying fabric and then imposing a fabric limit. I bought a lot at once and now I have a couple of months worth of projects to work on. I am going to celebrate every make and ensure that come September I start making things appropriate to the season so I don’t have to go out and buy a winter wardrobe, another weak point of mine in the shopping calendar.

So after my marathon session of unsubscribing I’m going to make a cup of tea and start some sewing. I’ve got a massive project coming up and I can’t wait to get started. Build that excitement over every make the same way you do for a big purchase. The release is the same you’ve just got to train your brain and remember that no one, no one else will have what you’re wearing if its me-made. See I think that giving up buying fast fashion clothes is the easy part, disengaging with fast fashion culture? Now thats the hard bit.