If you want to kick your 2025 in a more mindful way, here are four actions to take to be a sustainable fashion leader.
Reading about the impact of global fashion production on the environment can make one feel overwhelmed, defeated, and morose. Solutions are either zero fun and slightly dystopian (adornment is environmental injustice so abandon it and let’s all wear a one-piece worksuit that Central Command will replace upon request) or out of reach (problems are too big; solutions are not here; it’s too late, the world is over already) that one can feel like giving up. But that isn’t necessarily true. Consumers hold many of the cards in solving this problem. Here are four actions that you can take now, to have a tangible impact where you live, to become a sustainable fashion leader.
- Buy way less clothing, but make it really good clothing. Consumers can officially purchase five new items a year and stay within nature’s boundaries. Let’s pause and think about this for a moment. If you bought five new amazing items of clothing each year, what would they be? Go up in spend, quality, aesthetic, status, all of it. If you started a dream capsule wardrobe what would be in it? Go buy those things, and only those things, over the course of the next year or two. Separate and related, you could end up with a lot of money in your checking account if you ask yourself different questions before buying something. Also, stand in your power. Don’t let brands tell you what you need to look like and feel how you want. Take a minute and decide this for yourself. You will spend less money overall if you buy fewer things that are meaningful to you.
- Try to purchase textiles made up of only one fiber. Closed loop fiber-to-fiber textile recycling is happening to about 1% of clothing today. We can hope that with investment, consumer support and industry collaboration in fiber-to-fiber textile recycling will increase, but know that the reality is that most of your clothing isn’t going somewhere awesome when you are done using it. In general, the technology that exists today can address clothing made from one fiber at a time (100% cotton, 100% polyester, 100% wool, etc.) If you aspire to be a conscious consumer, then buy products that today’s recycling technology can handle, and stay away from products that have multiple fibers in the care label. This includes items with multiple recycled fibers. Sorry.
- Wear your clothing a lot. Today, consumers wear what they buy about seven times before they are done with it. As a 30-year apparel veteran who has overseen quality assurance for large global brands, I can tell you this is way fewer times than clothing is “supposed” to be worn before it is at its end of life. Even crappy brands are signing up through the garment quality testing standards for many more wears than seven. If you invested in an article of clothing, then do the clothing, and yourself, the courtesy of wearing it enough times to make it worth the consumption of natural resources that went into making it and the money that you spent to obtain it. When you are selecting the clothing you plan to wear, consider its aesthetic versatility. If you won’t wear it 30 times, then you should definitely pass on it. Even if your best friend who you haven’t seen in forever, and with whom you just had a boozy lunch, is telling you to just buy the article of clothing, hug them, tell them you love them, and let them go enable someone else’s consumption. Maybe you’ll inspire them to join you as a sustainable fashion leader, too.
- Mend your clothing. Search for 15 seconds on your social media platform of choice to find all kinds of tutorials on how to fix every possible defect. Teach yourself how to do basic things like replace a button, mend a hole in your jeans, or darn a sock or sweater. And if you still feel like you need expertise, put an ISO into your local FB group. You will quickly find people in your community who can mend your things. Additionally most dry cleaners have a mending resource on site. You can also check out a number of online mending services. Old Flame Mending is a great mending option based in Pittsburgh. They have events and offer classes, too. Mendit is an app that connects menders with people in need of mending. Cool. Be willing to pay something to keep your clothing looking good.
We can all start 2025 with optimism and agency by taking action today to become sustainable fashion leaders. Resolve to spend your money only on well-designed, well-made things that you know you will love. Wear the hell out of them. Take care of them. And if you’re interested in learning more about how to run a clothing swap in your neighborhood, join the Circular Thrift community to use our swap playbook to guide your way.
And of course, Happy New Year from Circular Thrift!
