What Happens When You Stop Buying Fast Fashion?
Skirt by ThankfulRose on Etsy
I’m over four months in to not buying fast fashion! I caved and bought some pants, and then I bought a hoodie. I also ordered a few tops and some jeans! OY VEY! Breaking up with fast fashion is not easy. Especially when you love updating your look often and enjoy browsing all the latest styles!
Fast fashion is a huge contributor to greenhouse gasses. If you want to reduce your carbon footprint, one of the best ways is to stop shopping so much and to focus more on using what you have. Fast fashion is terrible for the environment! Just on the production side alone, endless chemicals and waste are spewed into the environment. People are paid mere pennies to sew the garments that people buy. If something only costs $10 to buy, you can bet that the person who made the item was barely paid at all for their efforts.
Sweatshops still exist, and the USA is the biggest contributor to keeping them going. We want to buy things on the cheap. I’m not pointing fingers here, because the dollar doesn’t go very far these days. I shop sales too! I look for discounts on goods all the time. Reality is though, I have a wardrobe full of clothes that I’m not all that excited to wear. Stores have mastered the art of making you feel like you aren’t good enough unless you buy a new dress or jacket. But the truth is…we don’t need all the endless clothes to be fulfilled!
What happens when you stop buying fast fashion…or clothes in general?
You save your heard earned money! Suddenly I have cut my budget in half, which means my husband and I can pay down debt faster and have more money to get by on.
You have less tedious laundry chores to do. I mean, I have heaps of clothes. And when I was buying more I would stew over the fact that every time I bought more things it would just add to my weekly laundry pile.
You start focusing more on actually doing all the things you had put on the back burner. You start to focus on becoming who you want to be, instead of just shelling out money to shop all the time. A big wake up call here…you were not just born to buy things. I know that sounds stark, but the entire economy is focused on everyone paying money for things they don’t really need.
You begin to have more free time! If you are a big time shop-surfer, and believe me I used to be; when you stop wasting so much time browsing online shops you have more time to pursue your passions, live a life you love and go after your dreams.
You begin to focus on what matters most to you! That is the greatest gift of all. Once you disengage from being a cog in the consumerist machine, you start to have a lot more say over how you are going to spend your life! What I’ve come to realize…which should have been a no brainer in the first place…is that the people in my life and my creativity matter most to me. Shopping is just a way to meet a need, it shouldn’t be a hobby to fill your time!
You let your values lead the way, and make more conscious decisions about how you spend your time and money. I have a friend who prints t shirts! It is his art, and I choose to support his t shirt business. I also choose that I don’t want to shop from stores that don’t care about people or the planet. When you take a break from buying things that you were addicted to buying, it leads the way to living more closely to your values. And that feels so incredible!
It’s funny when you realize how duped you have been by consumerism! You can completely lose touch with who you are and what matters most to you! Now, that being said, my own personal convictions tell me that it is ok to shop second hand because that keeps clothes out of the landfill and extends the life cycle of garments. I will also continue to support upcyclers. I love me some upcycled clothes! And I love sewing and altering clothes too. When you shop second hand and support upcyclers, you are making a difference for individuals instead of the corporate machine. And what’s not to love about that!
