Do you have a sustainable wardrobe?

Lately, with so much access to global information, we have inclined our habits towards more sustainable ones. The ironic part is that you are probably reading this blog post while wearing one item of clothing that you bought from a fast fashion store.

It is easy to think that big companies should be held responsible for their actions; what about us? The facts are: companies grow because there is demand from consumers. Fast fashion companies have implemented a new way of consuming, but they didn’t inform us of the consequences. This has not only given us the green light to buy more clothes and throw them away after two uses as if they were disposable. It has also given us a false sense of what is sustainable. Many of us think that just because we have bought all our clothes from sustainable brands that makes our closets sustainable. It does help, but if you have too many clothes, buy and throw away clothes regularly, it doesn’t matter were your buy- your closet is not sustainable.

The authors of the book Style That’s Sustainable: A New Fashion Formula states that most clothing that people buy from fast fashion stores are only used seven to eight times. Nowadays we only keep our clothes half the time compared to 15 years ago. On average, especially women, only use 40% of the clothes in our closets (Wardrobe Crisis, 2016).

An excellent tip to have a sustainable closet is to follow the 30 wear rule popularized by Livia Firth, co-founder and creative director of Eco-Age and founder of the Green Carpet Challenge.

The rule is simple, every time that you are about to buy a new piece of clothing, ask yourself if you will use it more than 30 times. This rule helps you select high-quality pieces. When you feel the fabric you can deduce if it will last more than 30 washes. At the same time, this rule helps your clothes last longer in your closet. Most likely you only use an item of clothing certain seasons and only repeat that item a certain amount of times. So if you do the math you will have that item more than a year; this will help you to buy less and reduce your waste. This helps reduce your carbon footprint.

With this simple rule, you will start to become a responsible shopper. Remember it takes more than just buying from sustainable brands to really have a sustainable closet. Buy less, use your clothes more, take care of them so it lasts longer and only buy those items that you really love.

Had you heard about the 30 wear rule? Do you any tips on how to have a more sustainable closet?