I have a lot of moving experiences in the last three or four years that also involved changing a country. During these times, packing your wardrobe to fit into a 23 Kg bag is a headache. These are the times when I realize that I have a lot of clothes and a lot of them are used rarely. Born and brought up in India, we Indians cannot think of throwing unused clothes into the garbage. We prefer giving them to the needy . But that made me think about the consequences when the clothes are thrown in the garbage. So in this article I am writing about how to love fashion but being a minimalist.
Recently I typed “are clothes in India recycled” on google, the immediate link showed me how used clothes from UK, USA and other countries are exported to Panipat in India on everyday basis. Any type of fabric like cotton, silk is all converted to yarn there which further is converted to blankets. These blankets are served as relief material during the disasters or are sold at their lowest prices to Africa.Reference link :-https://www.bbc.com/news/business-40352910. Yes, Africa is the biggest consumer of blankets, rugs for India.
Even the plastic bottles can be converted to yarn or fabric which is used for making jackets ,coats ,shoes or other not soft stuff.So somewhere in my head I assumed we are doing right. But this does not end here.
Introduction of fast fashion
What is Fast Fashion now? These are clothing designs that move quickly from the catwalk to stores to take advantage of trends with new collections being introduced continuously. I will name here the top fast fashion producers -Zara, H & M etc. They use the cheaper synthetic fibers which are difficult to recycle since they are made of 60% polyester. And to introduce these fast collections, manufacturing units are polluting the environment. This pollution accounts for 10% of the world’s total carbon emissions more than the international flights and maritime shipping combined.
The above mentioned vintage Panipat recycling units are competing with the cheaper man-made fibers like polyester for their consumers like Africa and due to suffered losses these units are closing. In return, damaged clothes are piling into big mountains. While some are distributed to the needy.
Due to covid, the export-import system stopped working and the clothes in every part of earth started piling. The second-hand clothing sector also suffered due to risk of infection. They could not sell clothes; hence their business is getting effected. H &M, Zara started this campaign to bring the used clothes and get discounts in exchange. But it is a very small proportion as the major amount is still going to the landfills. You know the real issue behind? Our consumption is increasing day by day. Reference link: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/fashion/buzz/height-of-fashion-clothes-mountains-build-up-as-recycling-breaks-down/articleshow/78425025.cms
Ways to become a fashion-loving minimalist
Little changes we can do on our side to help decrease this. Believe me ,I myself was a big consumer of this fast fashion.
1.Visit online shopping websites less
I know with the online shopping introduced; it is hard not to buy new clothes. Even it has become a good time pass to just scroll though phones and watch the clothing websites. It is ok if you can control buying them but otherwise you will end up buying something at the end of the day.
2.Repair instead of buying new
Whenever there is a reason due to which you cannot wear a top, a dress or any outfit, try to find it. If it is due to a hole or a damage, try bringing it to the tailor instead of purchasing a new one. Also, you can wear those things at home if possible. This way you can save your good pieces.
3.Become creative and style your same clothes in different ways
When I was in Gurgaon and I was shifting to USA, I realized I have a lot of clothes in my wardrobe. Some of them were just used once. Normally in every girl’s wardrobe, there are clothes that you use on daily basis and there are clothes that are just lying there in the wardrobe waiting to be used. Some you have kept ,thinking in mind, to wear on a particular occasion only. But I realized that I must choose buying new or not for any occasion . I can use use the same clothes in a different way.You can check out the below post for an example. And if I am buying the new clothes girl! then I must use it in the best possible way.
So I learned styling from Instagram, yes from the famous bloggers like Komal Pandey(https://www.facebook.com/komal.pandey.56) , thatbohogirl( https://www.facebook.com/thatbohogirlofficial) and I am using my clothes in the best efficient way possible.They will help you learn how to mix and match those pieces that you have not thought about using yet. And this way I have improved the way I style my clothes with buying less and saving my money. And this has helped me to be a Fashion-loving minimalist.Try to think of a top which you have not used and find similar on youtube or Instagram how the bloggers are styling it. It will help you give an idea.
4.Carefully Buy New Clothes
Being a fashion-loving minimalist is not easy. I am a person who gets an impulse of buying new clothes every month. I am very frequent visiting these fast fashion websites. So what I do sometimes is adding the item to the cart and just forget about it. It gives some amount of satisfaction.I also watch the videos of the bloggers mentioned above and buy pieces that are versatile. Versatile pieces are those which never get out of fashion.For an example ,buy a basic white shirt. It never go out of style and can be wear in multiple ways.
5.Do not throw old clothes in dustbin instead:-
Donate the clothes that you do not need
I have come across some Indian organizations that help in getting rid of your old clothes. Some of them are named here -Salvation Army,Oxfam, Bharat Seva Ashram , Ramakrishna Mission. Also there are a lot of NGO’s that also accept. Please keep in mind that they should not be torn otherwise they can go to the landfills again. I remember using a “Thread up” app in USA, you can order a donation box for free at your mailing address whenever you realize you cannot wear some clothes. It really helped us when we were shifting our home to a different state in USA or when we were moving back to India.
Resell the clothes that you do not need
The same “Thread up” app that I used above for donation in USA is also used for reselling clothes. When we were leaving our house in Phoenix, I remember ordering a donation box and a resell box that they mail for free. So you need to just put your clothes into them, you get already the mail address of the company with it and drop them to FedEx or any other mail service. They check and sell those clothes on your behalf and give some amount of money. No doubt it is very minimal amount, but at least they are not becoming landfills. In India, there are reselling apps known as Olx, Postmark , Elanic , Facebook Marketplace. But here you have to take care of selling them by yourself instead of depending on the company.
I also suggested this Threadup app to a lot of people in our society in Indiana. And some were quite happy after using them.
Swap your clothes with your sisters/friends
When you and your sisters/friends are living in a different city or in a different neighborhood , then you can swap your clothes. Because someone’s else clothes are new to you.
This concept is new to me and I am still learning to become a fashion-loving minimalist. I also fail sometimes , got caught in the trendy sales but still try to become one.
Read more about styling:-
Complete Guide to buy Indian Ethnic Wear:-
https://www.theexplorerdiary.com/complete-guide-to-buy-indian-ethnic-wear/:-
Cheap & best way of being Trendy. This is the best utilisation of our limited resources and this is all we teach in economics to our students also.
I am very happy to read this. This is the kind of manual that needs to be given and not the random misinformation that is at the other blogs. Appreciate your sharing this greatest doc.
Hello there! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I genuinely enjoy reading your articles. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same topics? Thanks a ton!
Your style is so unique compared to many other people. Thank you for publishing when you have the opportunity,Guess I will just make this bookmarked.2