Let’s talk about the commitment to only buy 5 clothing items in 365 days. The campaign has been formulated by Tiffanie Darke and it’s based on scientific calculations from one of the latest reports of the HotorCool.org
There are things you should know by now: the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit set by the 2015 Paris Agreement which sets an aspirational target of keeping the average global temperatures below.
The G20 as a “mix of high- and middle-income countries playing different roles in the production and consumption of global fashion.”
Concepts like Net Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Climate Neutrality, and Just Transition are macro issues that make the fashion system a wicked problem. Policy changes are necessary and for that we can become advocates for Governments, public and private entities, organizations, factories, producers, middle-men, manufacturers.
But what can we do?
ONLY BUY 5 new THINGS
How do we resize our wardrobe and our consumption habits and inspire others to do the same? We are active citizens before being consumers and our individual choices have an impact. Any collective decision, movement, proposition, stance
[it] starts from one
I say let’s be disruptive and loud, there’s no silver-bullet, we aren’t looking for perfection, nobody really knows what they are doing, just take up courage and do it, with all imperfections, errors and mistakes.
Why?
A PERSONAL REASON
Set a task.
I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, I don’t do well with lists, I am a right-brain person who functions with creativity and the unpredictable. Numbers, lists, and mathematics bore me, I become disenchanted within seconds.
To my salvation, to offset that impulsive effervescent right-brain side, I can be a rigorous planner and give myself tasks such as graduating with a master’s degree during a pandemic with both a full-time and a part-time job.
I learned to visualize the part of the day that I spend awake as if it were a 100% battery. You know you can use 20% more of your brain every day, so you can keep that battery well-fed. And I am not talking about “busyness” for the sake of showing that you have shit to do, showing off productivity, above & beyond blah blah blah, I mean purposefully setting a task and using the energy waves of your neurons to complete it. It’s something as practical as baking a cake: you start with the ingredients, follow the instructions, and then you have to complete in the oven. Can’t leave it half-baked.
AN ENVIRONMENTAL REASON
We have to snap out of the deceiving system of being addicted to buying for the sake of buying and falling for socially influenced territory.
What’s allowed
Mending, alterations (by now you need to have a seamstress, a tailor, and if you are lucky, a designer friend who will lend their talent and crafts which you will pay for)
Underwear, lingerie, socks
Renting (I am more of a borrower, but will leave it as an option because who knows)
Swapping (I count on this a lot)
Caring and repairing
What’s not allowed
Gifts (think about the unwanted gifts that your friends received for Christmas, they could screw you up)
Second hand
More than 5 new (to your closet) items, I mean there’s no way around it.
how
Some of my advantages, or at least I’d like to think as so:
I gave up fast fashion in 2015
I only buy second-hand, whether it’s basics or luxury brands, so I wonder if my rule of buying second hand only after having sold an item from my closet will even out the count?
I only buy 1 new thing a year, the earlier I choose the better it is because I have expensive taste and I will probably have to save up money for it.
I am an early riser (I don’t know why, but I find it advantageous in many situations. I will leave it here, I probably will come back to it during the year).
I switch seasons in my closet, I wrote a chapter in the book about it. In short: every 5 to 6 months you have a rejuvenated closet, it feels good, helps taming compulsive buys, allows for changing shit up with the seamstress.