The idea took hold when I had returned home laden with bags after a spontaneous pop in to the local opp shop. My partner said exasperatedly “Next time you buy clothes, you’re either going to have bring home more coat hangers or give some clothes away, because I have run out of space to hang them all.” Well that got me thinking. I do have lots of clothes. Perhaps it is time to put a pause on the acquisition. Can I go the whole hog and not buy new clothes for a whole year?
It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done it, when I travelled overseas back in 2005-2006 I thought nothing of wearing the same two pairs of field trousers* and same two t-shirts for a year (it helps when you live in a tent in a reserve far from clean humans!). Also, in 2018 I travelled for 6 months without buying new clothes, but living out of a hiking pack in the Amazon definitely lowers the dress standard**.
There is a distinct bimodal pattern in my expenditure: cheap and numerous (not always well-fitting) items from opp shops, and expensive, hand made colourful dresses from markets. A lot of which aren’t particularly suitable for work. I don’t enjoy going in to actual clothes shops, and find fast fashion mostly ugly and deplorable, but of course do buy most of the basics and sportswear (mostly sports bras and cycling shorts/ leggings) from actual shops.
So, what would I like to achieve in this year without buying new clothes? And in what order of importance? Roughly:
1. Reduce needless consumption – buying things leads to more resources being used, and we’re all aware of our unsustainable use of the Earth’s finite stash.
2. Save some money (handy at the onset of 2021 when I was actually between contracts)
3. Take the time to think about whether I actually need new clothes, and if so, how my future purchases might be more considered and targeted, rather than spontaneous - this might help with objectives 1) and 2).
Please note I’m doing this for myself only, and I do not wish to suggest that others necessarily need to do similar. In fact, my partner AND my father both said they’d join me in the year of no new clothes, which is pretty pointless given that neither of them actually go into clothes shops more than several times a decade. And if my mother continues to kindly buy them socks for Christmas each year, then this is unlikely to change in a hurry. I’m doing this experiment to see what no new clothes for a year would mean for me. Would it be difficult? Would I learn anything I hadn’t initially thought about?
Behavioural science teaches us that to achieve a goal, it helps to tell your friends and family and have them help keep you accountable. My friends’ reactions were good points to consider.
“What if you have a job interview? Or a wedding to attend?” I’ve been to many of both in the last few years, so have got those scenarios covered.
“Surely underwear don’t count? You can buy the essentials, right?” Well, as it turns out, my undies are looking embarrassingly worn through. I have a stash that I bought after returning from 6 months away at the start of 2019, so they’re only 2-and-a-bit years old, so its sad they’re wearing out so quickly. So I confess that I did in fact buy a couple of new pairs this year.
But one of the outcomes of this experiment, now over seven months in, is that I will wear the clothes I have until they are quite worn, rather than hang them in the back of the cupboard when they’re semi-worn through and buy new ones. I plan to wear the current lot until they are truly beyond redemption, then add them to the rag pile before buying anything new. Like the pyjama shorts my mum sewed for me *ahem* when I left for university***, that became threadbare and split all the way through.
Australians discarded over 800,000 tonnes of textiles in 2018-19, 90% of which came from households, and most (84%) of which ends up in landfill (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2020). Scarily, Australia’s waste is on the rise: the 2018-19 figures showed a 10% increase in all waste since 2016-17. Waste textiles often contain synthetic fibres that shed plastic microfibres in the environment, including waterways (Carney Almroth et al. 2018). And while I love natural fibres, producing these also has impact. Cotton production can deplete water supplies and impact water quality; particularly problematic for much of the world’s cotton is produced in water-limited areas (Chapagain et al. 2006). Cotton production drives land use change and loss of biodiversity, as found in parts of Africa (Baudron et al. 2009). More evidence that just buying less is a big priority. A good place to start is to just wear what you already own, for as long as you can.
“You can still buy clothes from the opp shop, though?” Well I hadn’t really decided on this point, as that wouldn’t address the original impetus for the experiment (don’t add to the overfull cupboard). But I have bought a couple of things from opp shops and I have decided that on the scale of things I could do worse.
“What if you find a dress with a Black-throated finch pattern on it?” Well obviously that’s an exception because I would *need* to own that dress!
So will I last the full year? Yep (hypothetical Black-throated finch-patterned dresses aside), easy. I worry some days that I look a bit scruffier at work than would be ideal, particularly since the moths attacked my beautiful winter woollens leaving them with holes. Luckily my workplace has a fairly relaxed dress code, which I realise isn’t the case for everyone.
Although the fanciest tops I own are all opp-shop finds.
I may have to buy some new shoes as the current lot are definitely on the way out – some I’ve had repaired several times already. Shoes weren’t included in my experiment, because with my enormous clodhopper feet, shoe shopping is traumatic and I only do it when absolutely necessary. So for me it isn’t something I have to cut down on.
The first seven months have generally gone by without much notice, so I’ll see if this changes by the end of the year.
Further reading:
*On the off-change there are any Brits reading this, I have made the mistake in the past of using the word “pants” in conversation when I meant “trousers”, which was not suitable for polite conversation in British English, I discovered.
**Oh the simplicity of living in the forest. If only we could do that again for a stint – minus the parasites though.
***This time period does not need defining. Needless to say, it was quite a few years ago.
References cited
Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2020. Waste Account, Australia, Experimental Estimates. Reference period: 2018-2019 financial year. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/environment/environmental-management/waste-account-australia-experimental-estimates/latest-release.
Baudron, F., M. Corbeels, F. Monicat, and K. E. Giller. 2009. Cotton expansion and biodiversity loss in African savannahs, opportunities and challenges for conservation agriculture: a review paper based on two case studies. Biodiversity and Conservation 18:2625-2644.
Carney Almroth, B. M., L. Åström, S. Roslund, H. Petersson, M. Johansson, and N.-K. Persson. 2018. Quantifying shedding of synthetic fibers from textiles; a source of microplastics released into the environment. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 25:1191-1199.
Chapagain, A. K., A. Y. Hoekstra, H. H. G. Savenije, and R. Gautam. 2006. The water footprint of cotton consumption: An assessment of the impact of worldwide consumption of cotton products on the water resources in the cotton producing countries. Ecological Economics 60:186-203.
Well done. Look forward to hearing how you go