Hi!
Thank you for visiting but I have moved.
I have migrated this blog to a new address. You can find all the old and new blogposts on dressesndreamsblog.
See you at the new address...
I am very new to blogging, having started only in October 2017, and in the initial months, it can really feel like you are talking to an empty theatre. Even though I started this blog with no expectations of an audience, it can get lonely.
So when the wonderful Lucia from Travelifesto nominated me for the Blogger Recognition Award, I was overjoyed.
A big thank you to Lucia, your nomination means a lot to me.
To tell you a little bit about the Blogger Recognition Award, it is meant "to inspire new bloggers, review each other’s work, find new blogs and say well done. A virtual pat on the back which will prompt us and others to go on to find other new blogs, take advice, give some back and so on.”
Now a quick confession, I received this nomination in mid-December 2017 so I am a little delayed. December seems to have gone by in a rush, but I did want to honour the nomination so here goes.
So when the wonderful Lucia from Travelifesto nominated me for the Blogger Recognition Award, I was overjoyed.
A big thank you to Lucia, your nomination means a lot to me.
To tell you a little bit about the Blogger Recognition Award, it is meant "to inspire new bloggers, review each other’s work, find new blogs and say well done. A virtual pat on the back which will prompt us and others to go on to find other new blogs, take advice, give some back and so on.”
Now a quick confession, I received this nomination in mid-December 2017 so I am a little delayed. December seems to have gone by in a rush, but I did want to honour the nomination so here goes.
Accepting the nomination comes with the following rules:
- Write a post about the award
- Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog
- Write a brief story about how your blog began
- Provide two pieces of advice to newbie bloggers
- Select 15 blogs to nominate
- Comment on the blog of each nominee and provide a link to this post
So let's dive in...
The story of dressesndreams
To be honest, I didn't know anything about blogging when I started dressesndreams. I decided to start a blog one day, wrote a post and published it with little thought to blog design and none to promotion, SEO, content strategy.
Of course, I did a lot of things wrong and made many mistakes. But in hindsight, I am glad it happened the way it did. If I had begun reading about blogging I would have made lots of plans, dreamed some big dreams and then become too overwhelmed by the informational cascade to actually follow through with my ambitious plans.
Starting small helped me to make mistakes without worrying (too much) about them. My audience was primarily friends and family so if I was making mistakes it was in front of a teeny tiny audience.
Over the past months, I have been learning more and more about the world of blogging and how to reach out to wider audiences, dos and don'ts etc. But what remains important to me is the message I am trying to get across through my blog... which is to create awareness about minimalism, sustainability and an ethical approach to fashion.
My advice to new bloggers
The first piece of advice to anyone who wants to start a blog or has just started out (hello there!) is to just go for it. I don't mean to tell everyone to leap before they look the way I did, but don't overthink it. Don't plan so much that you forget to execute.
There are literally tons of posts you can read about blogging, tutorials and webinars you can take or Facebook groups you can join. Don't get overwhelmed by it all. If you feel like you are drowning in information (some of which will be contradictory), just go with your gut on some of those things or make a pro-con list and start making decisions. Once you have made a decision, move on to the next item on the agenda and begin to execute your plans in a real and tangible way.
Secondly, don't get pulled into doing things that you aren't ready to do or don't fit your budget. Whether it is a self-hosted website or an expensive domain name or that $100 tutorial package someone is trying to sell you repeatedly.
You are the best judge of what will work for you. For e.g. I am not yet ready to invest in a DSLR camera or hire professional photographers to take my pictures, so it doesn't matter if a blogger with 100K followers believes that it is essential to growth. It's ok to grow slowly (especially if you are doing it as a hobby like me). Find your pace and don't get drawn in by grow-quick schemes if you are not ready for it.
Now for my list of 15 nominees
Before I get to my nominees, I just want to add a quick note. While blogging is (largely) a solo activity, the blogging community is truly a community in every sense of the word. I am so grateful for the help and support I have received in the past few months and I truly hope I am able to pay it forward. So if you ever have anything you think I could help with please feel free to reach out to me.
Moving on to the nominees, some are new friends who have been super supportive and write amazing blog posts that I love to read. Others are blogs that I like to read and hope to become their friends soon. Here's the list in no particular order.
Maud from My Passion Projects
Rebecca from Uptown Oracle
Ariana from Just Ariana Blog
Bexa from Hello Bexa
Brittany from Chic on Wall St.
Lindsey from Momma Fit Lindsey
Dani from Suffering Wanderlust
Sophie from Glow Steady
To all the nominees, congratulations! I look forward to reading your posts soon. Please feel free to share your links here so that we can go and read the post once it is up on your blogs.
Minimalist fashion can seem like just another newfangled movement from afar. Worse, it can seem cultist. And nothing makes people run in the other direction faster than a perceived attack on their sanity or an invitation to join some strange movement with weird rules and rituals.
As someone who stays far away from lifestyle gurus and anyone who promises to change my life, I completely understand the apprehensions a new concept can bring in people's mind. Especially if it necessitates drastic changes in one's way of living. My typical response is "I am pretty happy with my life and don't need to change it, thank you very much."
I stumbled upon minimalism by accident while researching capsule wardrobes. I had just come out of another festive sale season and was feeling overwhelmed and unhappy. The call for me came from within and not from some external life coach claiming to show me a new path. Even today, I read a lot about minimalism but I do it objectively and incorporate only what seems reasonable; and that gradually.
As someone who stays far away from lifestyle gurus and anyone who promises to change my life, I completely understand the apprehensions a new concept can bring in people's mind. Especially if it necessitates drastic changes in one's way of living. My typical response is "I am pretty happy with my life and don't need to change it, thank you very much."
I stumbled upon minimalism by accident while researching capsule wardrobes. I had just come out of another festive sale season and was feeling overwhelmed and unhappy. The call for me came from within and not from some external life coach claiming to show me a new path. Even today, I read a lot about minimalism but I do it objectively and incorporate only what seems reasonable; and that gradually.
You can read about how I stumbled upon minimalism here.
Overhauling one's life in a single sweeping gesture is not practical, or even recommended (at least not by me). Even if it worked for someone else and they could turn their life around with one drastic step, this is definitely not a one-size-fits-all world.
So do you need minimalism in your life right now?
In my opinion, we could all do with minimalism in our lives. But that's just my opinion. So let's dig a little deeper.
Do you have more clothes, shoes, belts, bags, accessories or jewellery, than you know what to do with?
I would look at all the stuff I owned and wonder how I still didn't have anything suitable to wear for the occasion. This would happen frequently enough to stress me out. Important work meetings, casual get-togethers, alumni events, weddings, parties, weekend getaways and vacations. How in the world could anyone have a closet that was unmanageable while still feeling imperfectly dressed?
To decode your personal style and answer the question of what to wear read this post.
Do you buy things in anticipation of future needs?
Historically, we are taught to save for a rainy day. Resources are scarce and we want to get the best use out of them. Money is one of the most precious resources in our minds today, so we want to grab the best deals and stretch the use we can get from the (seemingly) little money we have. Sales and discounts, quite obviously, prey on this mindset. Buy at cheaper prices today so that you don't shell a bomb for the same thing tomorrow.
The reasoning seems so solid and unarguable that we have been following this logic for a couple of generations now. But shopping during sales make sense only when we buy things that are definitely on our list. Impulsively buying clothes or shoes (or anything else for that matter) simply because it caught our fancy in the moment and the price was appealing creates clutter. Without realising it, we become hoarders. And then we complain about not having enough space to stay organised.
Do you go shopping (online or in-store) out of boredom?
I would do this so often, it was not even funny. Everyone from my mother to work colleagues would roll their eyes every time a new delivery came with my name on it. I had a couple of popular shopping apps on my phone and would "window shop" whenever I found a few minutes to spare.
On weekends, it was always easy to choose a mall trip over any other activity. Thanks to living in a metro city, malls are easily accessible, have convenient parking facilities, movie theatres and food courts. They seem like the perfect place to go when you have no other plans.
You think you can just window shop and return home empty-handed. But simply exposing yourself to a retail environment every week sends subliminal messages to your brain. You dream up things that you suddenly need, although you were quite happy without them. A disposable income becomes your enemy because you don't think the purchase is making a dent in your savings.
Do you trade short spurts of glee for long-term happiness?
The truth is that retail therapy does reduce residual sadness and makes us feel happy. I know it is surprising coming from me, but a study conducted at Ross School of Business, Michigan proves this. And it's ok if you indulge in a spot of retail therapy on rare occasions to uplift your mood or pull yourself out of a rut. The problem occurs when shopping becomes a cover up for the problems we do not want to face.
If you find yourself resorting to retail therapy frequently, then take a step back and evaluate why you need to shop so frequently. Chances are, the reason will not be because you need that much stuff.
At my lowest point, I would shop because I was sick, unhappy and stressed out. I was suffering from severe vitamin D deficiency which left me with little strength to do much. I would stress over the lost opportunities in my career and open a shopping app to take my mind off my problems.
Deliveries of new clothes would give me short bursts of enthusiasm and happiness. I would wear the new clothes and receive compliments that boosted my confidence for a few minutes. But the effects were short-lived and I would relapse into listlessness once again.
When I slowly got better and regained my strength, shopping became less important and I deleted the apps and unsubscribed from newsletters in an attempt to get over my addiction. Although I did not know about minimalism at the time, I had, at least partially, recognised the problem and looked for a solution.
Do you constantly find gaps in your closet that you need to fill?
This was my excuse for shopping so much. There was always something I "needed" to buy. T-shirts or shorts to wear at home, shoes to wear during monsoons, flat sandals for the daily commute, stilettos for work, new denims to replace the old and fading ones, expensive designer clothes to wear to parties and events I would not even attend.
My sister once asked me how I find so many deals online. I told her that I keep my eye out for sales and go and browse through their collections. There is always something I need so browsing helps jog my memory.
I had effectively stated the problem without even realising it. Continuously browsing through department stores or daily online deals will reveal things you "need" except you didn't really need them until you saw the deal.
Do you shop for others in an attempt to satiate your own need to shop without feeling guilty?
In all honesty, I have done this and maybe I am still guilty of it today.
While I fully committed to minimalism for myself from day one, I would accompany my mother when she went shopping. This became a sneaky outlet for me to shop for her instead of myself. Fortunately, my mother is not really into shopping for clothes, so she would only pick what she needed and fit her budget. It took a couple of shopping trips for me to realise what I was doing and I am still learning how to control my impulses.
Do you promise yourself that you will not shop for X and then go shopping for Y?
There is a scene in Sex and the City 2 where Carrie admits to cheating on fashion with interior decorations. It makes for a cute dialogue but not much else. I know so many women who resolve that they don't need anymore shoes and will not go shopping. Next thing you know they are shopping for something else.
Shopping addiction is in fact insidious. It creeps upon us gradually and takes over all aspects of our lives. If it isn't clothes then there are shoes, jewellery, accessories, cutlery, dinner sets, furniture, furnishings... the list really is endless.
So take a step back and ask yourself these questions. If you answered yes to one or more of them, then maybe you do need to adopt minimalism in some form.
Minimalism will not solve all your problems or make them disappear. What it will do is reduce stress from a few aspects of your life.
What do you think about minimalism? Do you have any questions and concerns. Let me know in the comments section below. I would love to hear from you.
There's something about shoes. The right pair can elevate and complete an outfit and the wrong ones can stick out like a sore thumb.
Marilyn Monroe said, "Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world."
And thus the chase begins. We want "the right shoes" for every outfit and occasion to complete every look perfectly. The quest for perfection takes over and we find gaps in our shoe collections. The familiar voice in our heads says, "If only I had something to go with this outfit, it would be perfect".
Chasing Perfection
Since childhood, we are conditioned to chase perfection. Whether in school or work or even in our personal lives, perfection is the gold standard we use to measure ourselves and others. Don't get me wrong. Perfectionism is not necessarily a negative attribute. However, when extended to some aspects of our lives, the results can be less than desirable.
Our wardrobe is one such instance where seeking perfection can be counter-productive. The urge to find gaps in our wardrobe and fill them up with things we don't need or use regularly takes over. Eventually, we end up with cupboards full of things that we think are needed to complete our outfits, while simultaneously having that sinking feeling of "I have nothing to wear".
Our collection of shoes are prone to this behaviour as much as clothes, handbags and other accessories.
Read more on how to approach minimalist fashion as a beginner here.
Recognizing the problem
When I was selecting pieces for my 10x10 microcapsule wardrobe, I focused only on clothes and excluded shoes, outerwear and handbags. Compared to my bloated wardrobe of clothes, the others did not seem like a problem. My shoe rack appears pretty small and balanced when placed against my clothes. So I assumed that it did not require attention.
Read my review of the 10x10 microcapsule wardrobe challenge here.
Two things changed my mind recently.
1. While researching the slow fashion movement for my last blog post, I began thinking of minimalism in conjunction with sustainability. The imagery of waste generated from clothes and shoes we buy and dispose of without much thought haunted me. Reducing waste requires a lot of conscious thought and it broadened my purview to include shoes in my minimalist fashion wardrobe.
2. As you may be aware, I share minimalist fashion tips on my social media pages. Some of them revolve around optimising outfits with a limited collection of shoes. This got me thinking about how many shoes do we really need to put together a complete outfit that can work on multiple occasions and clothing types.
Working on the solution
The answer, of course, does not lie in some magic number that will work for everyone on this planet. Rather, we should look for some guiding principles that can help in creating an optimised shoe wardrobe that is minimalistic and sustainable.
My 4 steps to creating a minimalist shoe wardrobe
Step 1:
Start by thinking about your lifestyle and health needs. When it comes to shoes, comfort is key because ill-fitting shoes can lead to shoe bites, blisters and a bunch of gross problems that no one wants.
Similarly, the wrong type of soles or height of heels can create health risks like knee pain, twisted ankles, backaches and more. So put your lifestyle and health first and shop for what you need today rather than some aspirational lifestyle that features in your dreams.
Step 2:
Think about the type of clothes and colours you wear most often. If you wear formals to work then you need only a couple of staple formal shoes for work. If you wear casual dresses or jeans most often then you are good to go with a couple of comfortable footwear options. If the gym or sporting activities are a regular feature of your life then you would want to add a pair of appropriate shoes.
To decode your personal style for an optimised and minimal wardrobe, read this blog.
Step 3:
Be cognizant of all the weather appropriate shoes you need. I live in Mumbai so a pair of rainy shoes are a must for the monsoons, while I can work with the same collection of shoes for the remaining months. In places with more extreme weather variations, you may need to accommodate for each season. Keep these factors in mind but be honest with yourself about your actual rather than perceived needs.
Step 4:
Finally, put together a list of all the other occasions that feature less often in your life. For me, these include weddings, parties or picnics and the very rare hike or resolution to hit the gym. You already know what you like wearing to such events and keep a maximum of one option each for those rare occurrences.
My optimised wardrobe for shoes
Formal - 1 Black stilettos + 1 Nude Coloured Heels
Casual - 1 pair of slippers
Semi-formal - 1 pair of multi-coloured heels
Special Occasions - 1 strappy metallic coloured high-heels
Rare Activities - 1 pair of sneakers
Monsoons - 1 pair of rainy shoes
That brings me to a grand total of seven pairs of shoes that can cover all the possible scenarios in my life.
I then decided to count the number of shoes I actually own today.
Formal - 1 pair each of black stilettos, black sling-back heels, nude kitten heels
Casual - 1 pair each of black pumps, nude pumps, yellow strappy slippers
Semi-formal - 1 pair each of multi-coloured stilettos, multi-coloured kitten heels, powder pink heels, Indian slippers
Special Occasions - 1 brown ankle length boots, 1 sling-back metallic stilettos
Rare Activities - 1 pair of sneakers
Monsoons - Yellow strappy slippers mentioned above
This brings my total to thirteen pairs of shoes. That's six pairs more than I actually need. It is not a horrendous number, which is why it didn't seem problematic to me at first. But when you whittle down to the most basic question of whether you really need them, the answer is a resounding no.
So what should you do with the extra pairs?
Honestly, at this point, my thoughts were, "ok I really need to keep this in mind for the future but is there anything that I can do now?" There are a few things that you can do, although they may not seem like much at the moment.
No shopping
I will start with the obvious, don't shop for shoes until you work your way through your current collection. This simple step will reduce wastage and make your wardrobe more sustainable.
Share
You can ask siblings or BFFs if they want anything from your collection and give them away if that suits you. I am lucky to share the same footwear size as my mother and sister and the three of us swap or giveaway our shoes to the other at times.
Donate
If there are any pairs that you don't foresee yourself wearing in the long-term future but are in wearable condition, then figure out if you would like to give them away. To be honest, I could not bring myself to giveaway a bunch of expensive shoes right away, so I did not take this route.
Store
Carefully store the shoes you need only for rare occasions so that they don't get damaged by moisture and dust. The sneakers that I bought two years back when I joined a gym are carefully stored in a cloth bag with moisture absorbers so that they can be pulled out and used when I go on vacations and need comfortable walking shoes.
Do you think that your collection of shoes are more than your needs? How would you approach the problem? Let me know in the comments below.
Chasing Perfection
Since childhood, we are conditioned to chase perfection. Whether in school or work or even in our personal lives, perfection is the gold standard we use to measure ourselves and others. Don't get me wrong. Perfectionism is not necessarily a negative attribute. However, when extended to some aspects of our lives, the results can be less than desirable.
Our wardrobe is one such instance where seeking perfection can be counter-productive. The urge to find gaps in our wardrobe and fill them up with things we don't need or use regularly takes over. Eventually, we end up with cupboards full of things that we think are needed to complete our outfits, while simultaneously having that sinking feeling of "I have nothing to wear".
Our collection of shoes are prone to this behaviour as much as clothes, handbags and other accessories.
Read more on how to approach minimalist fashion as a beginner here.
Recognizing the problem
When I was selecting pieces for my 10x10 microcapsule wardrobe, I focused only on clothes and excluded shoes, outerwear and handbags. Compared to my bloated wardrobe of clothes, the others did not seem like a problem. My shoe rack appears pretty small and balanced when placed against my clothes. So I assumed that it did not require attention.
Read my review of the 10x10 microcapsule wardrobe challenge here.
Two things changed my mind recently.
1. While researching the slow fashion movement for my last blog post, I began thinking of minimalism in conjunction with sustainability. The imagery of waste generated from clothes and shoes we buy and dispose of without much thought haunted me. Reducing waste requires a lot of conscious thought and it broadened my purview to include shoes in my minimalist fashion wardrobe.
2. As you may be aware, I share minimalist fashion tips on my social media pages. Some of them revolve around optimising outfits with a limited collection of shoes. This got me thinking about how many shoes do we really need to put together a complete outfit that can work on multiple occasions and clothing types.
Working on the solution
The answer, of course, does not lie in some magic number that will work for everyone on this planet. Rather, we should look for some guiding principles that can help in creating an optimised shoe wardrobe that is minimalistic and sustainable.
My 4 steps to creating a minimalist shoe wardrobe
Step 1:
Start by thinking about your lifestyle and health needs. When it comes to shoes, comfort is key because ill-fitting shoes can lead to shoe bites, blisters and a bunch of gross problems that no one wants.
Similarly, the wrong type of soles or height of heels can create health risks like knee pain, twisted ankles, backaches and more. So put your lifestyle and health first and shop for what you need today rather than some aspirational lifestyle that features in your dreams.
Step 2:
Think about the type of clothes and colours you wear most often. If you wear formals to work then you need only a couple of staple formal shoes for work. If you wear casual dresses or jeans most often then you are good to go with a couple of comfortable footwear options. If the gym or sporting activities are a regular feature of your life then you would want to add a pair of appropriate shoes.
To decode your personal style for an optimised and minimal wardrobe, read this blog.
Step 3:
Be cognizant of all the weather appropriate shoes you need. I live in Mumbai so a pair of rainy shoes are a must for the monsoons, while I can work with the same collection of shoes for the remaining months. In places with more extreme weather variations, you may need to accommodate for each season. Keep these factors in mind but be honest with yourself about your actual rather than perceived needs.
Step 4:
Finally, put together a list of all the other occasions that feature less often in your life. For me, these include weddings, parties or picnics and the very rare hike or resolution to hit the gym. You already know what you like wearing to such events and keep a maximum of one option each for those rare occurrences.
My optimised wardrobe for shoes
Formal - 1 Black stilettos + 1 Nude Coloured Heels
Casual - 1 pair of slippers
Semi-formal - 1 pair of multi-coloured heels
Special Occasions - 1 strappy metallic coloured high-heels
Rare Activities - 1 pair of sneakers
Monsoons - 1 pair of rainy shoes
That brings me to a grand total of seven pairs of shoes that can cover all the possible scenarios in my life.
I then decided to count the number of shoes I actually own today.
Formal - 1 pair each of black stilettos, black sling-back heels, nude kitten heels
Casual - 1 pair each of black pumps, nude pumps, yellow strappy slippers
Semi-formal - 1 pair each of multi-coloured stilettos, multi-coloured kitten heels, powder pink heels, Indian slippers
Special Occasions - 1 brown ankle length boots, 1 sling-back metallic stilettos
Rare Activities - 1 pair of sneakers
Monsoons - Yellow strappy slippers mentioned above
This brings my total to thirteen pairs of shoes. That's six pairs more than I actually need. It is not a horrendous number, which is why it didn't seem problematic to me at first. But when you whittle down to the most basic question of whether you really need them, the answer is a resounding no.
So what should you do with the extra pairs?
Honestly, at this point, my thoughts were, "ok I really need to keep this in mind for the future but is there anything that I can do now?" There are a few things that you can do, although they may not seem like much at the moment.
No shopping
I will start with the obvious, don't shop for shoes until you work your way through your current collection. This simple step will reduce wastage and make your wardrobe more sustainable.
Share
You can ask siblings or BFFs if they want anything from your collection and give them away if that suits you. I am lucky to share the same footwear size as my mother and sister and the three of us swap or giveaway our shoes to the other at times.
Donate
If there are any pairs that you don't foresee yourself wearing in the long-term future but are in wearable condition, then figure out if you would like to give them away. To be honest, I could not bring myself to giveaway a bunch of expensive shoes right away, so I did not take this route.
Store
Carefully store the shoes you need only for rare occasions so that they don't get damaged by moisture and dust. The sneakers that I bought two years back when I joined a gym are carefully stored in a cloth bag with moisture absorbers so that they can be pulled out and used when I go on vacations and need comfortable walking shoes.
Do you think that your collection of shoes are more than your needs? How would you approach the problem? Let me know in the comments below.
Slow fashion is a growing movement in the world of ethical and sustainable fashion. When I first began researching minimalism, I came across a few posts that explored ethical or sustainable fashion. The concept caught my attention because it is a natural ally of the minimalist fashion movement.
To find out how you can adopt minimalism head over here.
Read more on how you can approach minimalist fashion here.
What is slow fashion?
Trusted Clothes describes slow fashion as an ethical manufacturing process that puts the welfare of labour and environment at the centre. This means environmentally safe manufacturing processes, fair wages and working conditions for labour and better quality materials. The net positive for buyers is high-quality products and greater value for money in the long run. Of course, the supply chain becomes more expensive leading to higher ticket prices on the end-products.
Why is slow fashion important?
Let's face it, one of the reasons we shop impulsively is because of the relentless messages of sales and discounts that are bombarding us in the digital and real world. Cheaply produced clothing, shoes and accessories available at unbelievably low prices that create an urgency to grab the best deals at that very moment. We do not stop to think how things can be sold at such throwaway prices in today's day and age of rising inflation.
How does a fashionable top cost less than a week's supply of groceries? The answer is because that super stylish top is made of crappy materials and created by workers in sweatshops who are paid way below sustenance wages.
Being conscious of these facts can help us make an informed decision that takes several factors into consideration beyond the cuteness of the top and the enticing low price tag.
Slow fashion and minimalism
Like I said before, slow fashion intrigued me because it fits so well with a minimalist wardrobe. Buying less affords you the luxury of buying high-quality and in turn, there is a higher return on your investment. When you decide that less is more, space is created for other thoughts and actions in your mind and your wallet. A more conscious consumer is born.
If you really think about it, would you rather buy ten dresses that cost a pittance each but become unwearable after a few washes? It would keep you in a vicious cycle of shopping where the effective cost is higher than the low price tag that lured you.
3 reasons to adopt slow fashion
High-quality - Slow fashion focuses on creating high-quality goods that last longer and give you more value for money. Since slow fashion brands are not chasing the next purchase cycle within the short span of a few weeks, they are vested in delivering quality goods almost by default.
Have you experienced disappointment when that new pair of shoes or handbag was damaged beyond repair after a few uses? I once had a lovely pair of high heels that essentially broke after a grand total of 3 uses. High quality ensures that you don't experience that kind of heartbreak.
Have you experienced disappointment when that new pair of shoes or handbag was damaged beyond repair after a few uses? I once had a lovely pair of high heels that essentially broke after a grand total of 3 uses. High quality ensures that you don't experience that kind of heartbreak.
Anti-human trafficking - We don't usually think about the people who make the things we buy and use. Especially in case of big-name brands, we assume that the creators were of legal working age and were paid fairly.
Recently messages from Turkish workers were found inside Zara clothing that stated 'I made this item you are going to buy, but I didn't get paid for it'. They were employed by a third-party outsourcer that shutdown and owed its former employees salaries and severance pay. It is highly likely that Zara was unaware of the situation. But the messages bring to light the kind of practices employed by factories.
Cases of underage workers, sweatshops with horrible working conditions and wages below sustenance are frequent if not rampant among manufacturers trying to meet the fast fashion cycle.
Slow fashion creates a positive workforce that is paid and treated fairly across the supply chain. Wouldn't you rather know that the products you love so much were created by happy people who lived healthy lives?
Environment-Friendly Manufacturing - The fashion industry is a highly polluting industry due to the huge amounts of toxic waste generated from synthetic fibres and artificial dyes. They also consume large amounts of water in treating synthetics creating a net negative impact on the environment.
And what happens to the items they create? Synthetic fibres are not biodegradable and end up in landfills, polluting the earth with no good way to dispose of them.
The recent news of hazardous air quality conditions in New Delhi which forced the city to remain shut for several days is only one example, but it forces us to sit up and take note of how our small decisions are impacting the planet and making cities uninhabitable.
The recent news of hazardous air quality conditions in New Delhi which forced the city to remain shut for several days is only one example, but it forces us to sit up and take note of how our small decisions are impacting the planet and making cities uninhabitable.
Slow fashion, makes use of natural fabrics like cotton, silk and jute as well as organic dyes which are biodegradable and non-polluting. The softness of cotton or the luxury of silk or the durability of jute provides class and comfort without destroying the world we live in.
How can you join the slow fashion movement?
The first step is to reduce consumption. We can stop buying into the shopping frenzy created by retailers and buy good quality products that last longer.
Wear out your clothes, shoes etc. as much as possible.
Donate anything that is in a wearable condition that no longer fits your lifestyle or size.
Share and swap with siblings and friends.
Buy and use vintage clothing.
Refashion or upcycle your existing wardrobe to get more out of them.
When it comes to buying from ethical brands, I will be honest, it is not super easy and requires some research. You will have to find local brands that are committed to creating sustainable fashion goods. Start by researching the brands you already buy and wear. Ask these questions
Wear out your clothes, shoes etc. as much as possible.
Donate anything that is in a wearable condition that no longer fits your lifestyle or size.
Share and swap with siblings and friends.
Buy and use vintage clothing.
Refashion or upcycle your existing wardrobe to get more out of them.
When it comes to buying from ethical brands, I will be honest, it is not super easy and requires some research. You will have to find local brands that are committed to creating sustainable fashion goods. Start by researching the brands you already buy and wear. Ask these questions
What are the materials they use? - Synthetic fabrics like polyester and rayon are a sure sign of a non-sustainable model.
Do they outsource production? - This can lead to the third-party skimping on fair labour practices.
Where are their factories located? - Production in high-risk developing countries could be a sign of unethical worker treatment.
What is their cycle of introducing new products? Shorter cycles mean a fast-paced production and you would want to dig deeper.
What is the life you get out of the product? If your possessions are becoming unwearable in a short amount of time, chances are that you are a fast fashion victim being compelled to buy frequently.
There are quite a few brands that are inherently in the slow fashion zone. We only need to find the ones that suit our fashion and lifestyle needs while reducing our carbon footprint in the world.
Another great method is to buy natural fabrics and have them tailored to your liking either by a designer or even the good old dressmaker. This puts you in control of much of the production cycle and gives you personalised wearables that are unique and can't be bought off the rack. And because it is a slower process, you automatically shop less.
Whatever your chosen means, being mindful of what we buy and wear will benefit us in the short term and future generations in the long term.
What do you think of the slow fashion movement? Do you see any potential barriers to adopting it into your life? Do you know of any ethical brands that you would like to recommend. Let me know in the comments section below.
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