30th of March
How to Stop Buying New Clothes Every Season
It’s a new season, and that brings with it a whole host of fresh inspiration to our FYP and seasonal launches from our fave brands. In other words, it’s now more tempting than ever to give in to the flurry of advertising coming our way as we transition into spring. Isn’t it weird that just as we’re being encouraged to spring clean and reduce what’s in our wardrobe, we’re also being told we need these five new items in our closet to make us happy? But that’s beside the point… we all know how tempting it can be to have a total vibe change and become a better more stylish version of ourselves, but how do we combat this feeling?
Before figuring out how we can resist the desperate urge to buy a whole new wardrobe, let’s evaluate the cause: why do we feel like this?
The Cause
Not to go all anti-capitalist on you, but society is woven in such a way that it convinces us to spend money and buy things to improve our lives that, in reality, add zero value. But we don’t have enough words to go into all that, so let’s park that there.
Social media and media in general (films, TV, magazines) feed into the idea that we need to look a certain way, and the only way to achieve that is to buy more stuff. For some reason, a new season seems to mean that everything we already own isn’t good enough for the dramatic change in weather, so the only possible answer is to buy more clothing. We hope you can sense our sarcasm.
We know we’re preaching to the choir, and you probably already know all this, so let’s cut to the chase. Here’s our top tips on how to get that newness fix — without all the shopping.
How to Stop Wanting to Buy New Clothes Every Season
Get Swapping
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: do a clothes swap with your friends. It’s so easy to organise, and we know all your besties have a pile of clothes they’ve been meaning to sell. Grab everyone together and get swapping. It’s totally free and more fun than shopping, trust us.
If you don’t have people willing to swap clothes in your life, you can head to a clothes swap near you. As the world cottons on to the importance of slow fashion, it’s easier than ever to find a clothes swap in your local area or nearest city, so have a little google and see what you can find.
Take a Trip Down Memory Lane
We all have too many clothes these days, so make an effort to wear what you already own. Logging your outfits on Whering helps you remember outfits you’ve worn and loved, which is nice not only for the nostalgic vibes, but it also makes getting dressed ten times easier. Instead of ransacking your wardrobe, everything is in the palm of your hand, so your floor can stay clear of clothes or stay covered in clothes if that’s how it is.
We recently wrote about 5 reasons to track what you wear if you need further convincing!
Read up
One of the best ways to stop yourself making unnecessary purchases is to know the consequences of fast fashion. Lift your head out of the sand and read the truth about the fashion industry and consumerism. We recommend Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism by Aja Barber. It’s time to wake up!
Test Yourself
Wanna know how badly you really want new clothes? Test yourself. See how long you can go without buying anything new or set yourself the challenge of not buying anything for a month or two. This will allow you to see how ingrained it is in society to buy more clothes and it’ll show you how easy it is not to.
Invest in Transitional Pieces
If you really can’t part with shopping, we suggest investing in pieces you can wear multiple ways, no matter the season. That way, when a new season comes around, you’ll have less excuses to justify new purchases. If you invest in quality clothing, you might take a financial hit too — which will also stop you from shopping for a while!
Those are the ways we’ll be trying to resist the urge to buy more clothes this spring. If we missed a tip, please let us know (like, seriously, we need all the help we can get) on our Instagram or Twitter, @whering_.