Written by Naomi May
Stop spending and start saving your pennies and the planet by falling back in love with your wardrobe. This is the sustainable way to shop and enjoy fashion.
Despite what the fashion industry is desperate for you to believe, the most sustainable style already lies in the inner sanctum of your wardrobe.
In an industry that is peddled by newness, it can be easy to lose sight of the things you already have that both look and feel good. This is precisely why, in the same way that you’d aim to re-establish a relationship with a partner you might be increasingly struggling with, learning to fall in love with your wardrobe once again is a necessary step in terms of sustainability.
“My go-to piece of advice here is to schedule a date with your wardrobe,” Bianca Rangecroft, founder of wardrobe app Whering, advises. “I like to pick out all my favourite pieces and put them on my bed or on a rack. Then I look at the pieces I wear all the time – my trusty partners. Lastly, I reach for unusual pieces or things I rarely wear.”
With a moodboard that she collates and curates throughout the year, Rangecroft analyses the images she’s saved and then mixes and matches her everyday essentials with her more outré pieces to channel the inspiration looks she loves.
“Going through all these fun new combinations gives me an immediate spike of dopamine, and I usually try to wear one of them immediately – for example, if I have a date with my wardrobe on a Saturday afternoon, I’ll wear a new look on the Saturday evening and feel 100 times more inspired and excited to shop my own wardrobe again.”
When I’m on dates with my wardrobe, I like setting the mood with a glass of wine and some mellow music. When I find a look that I love, I take a picture and save it to an album on my phone. The key here is simplifying getting dressed without compromising on making a sartorial impact. Document your discoveries and make shopping your own wardrobe the best haul of all.
Rangecroft notes that her app, Whering, which she created after feeling disillusioned with the existing pieces in her wardrobe, is aimed at fighting precisely this form of fashion fatigue. The premise is simple. Upload images of every piece of clothing you own to the app, choose the occasion you’re looking to get dressed for and let Whering’s AI function digitally style you and prompt new outfit combinations that you might not have considered yourself.
“For me, the problem isn’t having nothing to wear, but having nothing new to wear,” Rangecroft adds, perfectly summarising a problem that a shopping spree in one’s own wardrobe might well be the tonic for.
Images: courtesy of Getty
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