Have you ever bought 10 white t-shirts made of poor-quality fibres and then thrown them away after changing one every two days? Did you always feel like you're missing a piece of clothing in your wardrobe when you try to decide the outfit of the day? Did you ever discarded a garbage truck of clothes because they’ve finished their mission: you’ve already uploaded a good photograph wearing this dress to your Insta?
Well, if the answer to above questions is yes, you are not alone. With the alarming predictions around marine pollutions directly approaching the fashion industry, drawing attention to the issues like fast fashion, sustainable material etc. The demanded change to reduce our environmental impact is essential to everyone: it’s the time for us to reflect our buying behaviour.
Over-consumerism could have a subliminal influence on our buying behaviour, the consequence of such mindset is not only wasting our money on our cloth budget, but also raised the issue of destroying the marine environment on which we depend. Environmental damage happens in the details of our lives that we take for granted. While we are washing our clothes and reaping the benefits of a clean and comfortable wearing experience, a large amount of microfibre https://www.oceancleanwash.org/the-issue/ is entering the sea through the drainage system and being eaten by marine life. Yet the marine life is not obliged to pay for the pollution issue caused by human, all the pollutants eaten by the small fish end up as a blemish in our food chain. It is humans us who are the ultimate victims.
However, speaking of changing our behaviour, washing and buying clothes is an essential rhythm of our lives. Moreover, even if sustainable materials are actively promoted in the mainstream media, the problem is that sustainable materials yield clothes costing more. For example, Organic Basics underwear for women can cost between £50 and £75. For the average consumer, the question of how to keep their budget in mind and still contribute to marine conservation is being ignored.
In fact, there is no need for fashion lovers to feel powerless, as minimalism, a style recently advocated by abundant fashion bloggers, offers a methodology for the fashion and environment dilemma that is accessible to everyone.
Here is a checklist I summarised from tonnes of YouTuber and fashion bloggers that you can use to start your own minimalism lifestyle.
Firstly, a minimalism mindset.
Take a look at your wardrobe and find out which colour make up the largest proportion of your wardrobe. For example, if you are a person who like to keep things simple and positive, then your wardrobe is likely to be filled with lighter shades of clothing. The point is, find the tone of your dressing formula which could represent yourself, if you find it’s difficult to do so, then maybe the wardrobe is in a state of elemental overloading. A well-known dressing formula is to have no more than three indispensable colours throughout your outfit. They create a visual consistency and have approved in a way overload element often doesn’t.
It’s the same in a opposite case, decluttering your wardrobe. If you have ten pieces of clothing in the same colour, you can choose to eliminate five of them from your future shopping plans and replace them with two pieces of grey or light green, for example. The benefit of this is that it reduces your shopping budget and, imagine everyone in Liverpool Merseyside buying two less items of clothing each month, which would accumulate to be a major improvement for the environment.
Next, a practical consideration for your own sake
Calculate the overall price of your wardrobe:
Does it ever occur to you that every item of clothing is not very expensive, but the clothing budget is unusually large? This is where the minimalism mindset comes in handy again. Make a habit of purchasing good quality cloth that never go out-of-fashion for the price of three low quality fabric clothing, you would find your peace in the tides of fashion trend. Plus, you don’t need to be anxious for new clothes every seasons.
Reducing the need for the fast fashion industry while creating a new self-image and boosting your confidence is a win-win, why not intentionally seek for clothing that you could be wearing for a long time and still looks chic. In the meantime, we could create a healthy shopping chain and ease the burden on the environment.
Maybe we don't have the luxury of caring about the seemingly distant marine environment all the time, and we can't reduce the amount of laundry for our own social needs’ sake. But it’s not too late to switch our mindset to minimalism, opt a healthy lifestyle for the environment and ourselves as an alternative way to minimise the damage to environmental safety as a normal people.
Here are some minimalist wardrobe YouTubers for readers to use as a reference, and there's no reason why we can't choose to live such a win-win lifestyle. Be kinder to the marine system and your wallet, bring this lifestyle into your everyday life.
@Simple Victoria - YouTube Channel
@Nate O’Brien - YouTube Channel
@Malama Life - YouTube Channel
Or you could just input the key words of Minimalism in YouTube or Instagram, there are tonnes of style reference and suggestions you could follow and remember being ease to yourself. Make it simple and make it longer.