Lately I’ve been thinking a-lot about being a part of the clothing industry and feeling increasingly uncomfortable. So in trying to reaffirm my stance on clothes, and what they should and shouldn’t be I put down some thoughts.
We do not need rails and rails of clothes. We don’t need entire rooms for wardrobes full of items we barely wear. We do not need an entirely new range of garments every few months, weeks or days. We do not need to buy something brand new for every single ‘special occasion’
But we do need clothes.
Clothes keep us warm, they keep us dry, they shield us from the sun, they can protect us. Clothes keep us modest. Clothes also help us communicate who we are, they reflect our personalities. Clothes can help us feel confident. Clothes can make us feel fabulous.
We need clothes that meet the practical purposes of every day life, and the not so everyday life, and sometimes life in extremes. We need affordable clothes that we love, that we want to wear over and over. Sometimes we need clothes that we can rent and lend and share because sometimes we only need to wear that item for a short time, maybe its a special occasion, or maybe our tastes have just changed.
Our clothes should be valued, as should the lives and wellbeing of those who make them. Our clothes should be made from sustainable resources, be made to last, and to be repaired so that when outgrown or no longer needed, they can be passed on and reused again and again and again.