Two besties, one closet: redefining wardrobes
By Florenne Earle Ledger published 18/09/2024
Best friends Olivia and Nazia have been borrowing each other’s clothes for years– even going as far as splitting the price of items and buying them with the intention of sharing. Their friendship has actually been strengthened through wearing each other’s clothes. It gives them more opportunities to experiment with style without spending money or committing to trends. It sounds great, right? Why don’t more people approach shopping and dressing through the lens of community like Nazia and Olivia?
Our socialised need to "own" things for ourselves and have certain items to control how we're perceived pushes us away from wanting to share and open up our wardrobes. Whering is passionate about community and circular fashion, and since launching Whering Social we’re keen to make sharing and seeing inside your bestie’s wardrobe easier than ever.
Sharing clothes is more than it seems– it's sharing part of your identity and experimenting with someone else's. With social media pinning so much of our worth on our self-image, it's becoming harder to be open to sharing your wardrobe and borrowing from someone else. It was great to catch up with Nazia and hear about why she enjoys sharing clothes and what barriers we need to break to normalise community wardrobes in our consumerist society.
Why did you start sharing clothes?
There’s more choice in your wardrobe without having to commit to buying a new outfit or commit to a new style, you get to explore that with your friend. Back at uni it always used to be fun swapping clothes. We’d go on a night out wearing each other’s clothes and it was fun because we got to try something new.
Knowing that something looks good on someone else means it can also look good on you. Sometimes I feel like people think certain styles or certain patterns only work for certain people and you can get in your head about it, but through sharing clothes you learn that you both look good in the outfit in different ways. So it makes it a bonding experience too!
We also started sharing clothes out of pure laziness. Sometimes I would be staying at Olivia’s and it would just be easier to wear something of hers. It’s more exciting to wear your friends' clothes as you get to experience a new style without having to commit to it. I’ve worn Olivia’s clothes and I feel like they look better than my own clothes I was wearing at the time.
What do you like about sharing clothes?
It’s free! I don’t have to spend money on new clothes. As me and Olivia have similar body types it means I can borrow her skirts or her jeans. And also what I said before, you can try a new style without splashing the cash. Sometimes I’ve borrowed something of Olivia’s and realised it really doesn’t suit me, but I’ve not spent the money on it so it doesn’t matter.
Sometimes it just funny sharing clothes. I’ll just turn up at her house in her top and she’ll be like “Oh I haven’t seen that top for ages”, or she’ll wear my jeans and I realise I forgot she had them. In a weird way I think it’s brought us closer as friends. It’s nice when someone compliments you on something and it belongs to your friend, I can be like “Oh this is Olivia’s”. I don’t know if people think that’s weird but I always feel like I need to give her credit for it because she was the one that bought it.
Should people share clothes more?
I do think they should. Within our group, it is widely accepted to wear each other’s clothes, especially for occasions or going out, but with me and Olivia even just for day-to-day life we share clothes because that’s what our friendship is like.
What’s interesting is that [heterosexual] men don’t really share clothes. I was talking to my boyfriend about this and he said he wouldn’t really think about it, and that he feels like men don’t really do it in the same way as women. I feel like men should consider borrowing clothes and they could have a more shared experience with their male friends, but I think it’s just to do with how we’re socialised.
Why don’t people share clothes more?
You might just have different body types. I offered a top to my friend to borrow but she said it wouldn’t fit her just because she has a bigger chest which is something I should have thought about before I offered it. I think for some people sharing clothes could trigger body dysmorphia– sometimes if I think something looks good on Olivia and then I try it on and it doesn’t look as good or doesn’t exectuate a certain part of my body it can be difficult.
There is a part of it that you don’t want to ruin their clothes, but with Olivia I don’t mind if I spill something or stain something because I know she really wouldn’t mind and I wouldn’t either, but if you don’t know someone as well I can see how that would be a bit of a barrier. I once borrowed a top from my friend Jas who I don’t know as well and the whole night I was worried about spilling something on it.
What’s your favourite item that you share?
Our favourite item that we share is this blue dress. We both think it’s quite elegant. It was bought with the intention of sharing. Olivia came up to Manchester, and she was going on holiday the week after. We were joking that we needed to find a holiday dress for her, and we went into this vintage shop and saw a really pretty dress which was blue and green and fits Olivia so well. I doesn’t fit me as well so I have given it to her for an extended period of time but when I wear it I style it more as a long skirt with a top over it as it suits me better that way.
She used to have this multi-coloured crochet top that I borrowed all the time at uni. I used to wear it on most nights out and it would just stay in my wardrobe for months even though it was actually hers.
I loved hearing about how opening the doors to each other’s wardrobes has actually made their friendship stronger. It’s lovely to see something like circular fashion bringing people together and starting interesting conversations, leading to socialised behaviour preventing some men from sharing their wardrobes.
Join in the conversation with us and let us know on our socials if you share clothes with your friends, and how it’s changed your wardrobe, style or even your friendship for the better. You can also email us if you’d like us to share your story! team@whering.co.uk.
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