Fast Fashion | Guilt, Wariness and Decisions

Hello hello and welcome to a post on the topic that everyone is talking about thanks to that documentary. If you haven't watched it, I sincerely recommend that you do as it provides some serious pause for thought. In a nutshell, our addiction to fast fashion is seriously harming the environment as well as affecting people's lives and health.

I was a little late to the bandwagon so I'd already seen a fair few people air their thoughts on social media and I knew it would make me reassess my attitude to fast fashion. Said knowledge meant that I made an ASOS order right before I sat down to watch it, purely because I knew I wouldn't want to make one afterwards. I feel like I need to admit that because this certainly isn't a post in which I'm going to claim to be some sort of saint.

Anyway, it seems as thought this is becoming a topic of contention; I've seen influencers claim they'll be completely changing their shopping habits, I've seen influencers accuse other influencers of being fake and jumping on the bandwagon and some have simply kept quiet, because at the end of the day it's their livelihood and they can't just up and leave it can they?

I'm going to split this post into three sections; guilt, wariness and decisions (bet you didn't guess that from the title did you?) because I felt that was the best way to get all my opinions across without them becoming a jumbled mess of 'lol what's she trying to say here?' which seems to often be my trademark.

G U I L T  |  I'm sure most people who've watched the Stacey Dooley documentary felt this. We are the fast fashion generation; we like to express ourselves through clothes, they're available to us at the click of a button for affordable prices and new trends that we simply 'must have' are emerging all the time. Even as someone who isn't particularly trend led, I still buy a lot of clothes. It's my hobby, a way of expressing myself and I actually genuinely enjoy getting dressed in the morning. 

So after watching the documentary, then looking at my bulging wardrobe (plus the clothes rail and six drawers of overflow) I did feel incredibly guilty. Obviously I can claim 'oh but I didn't know', 'why did nobody ever tell me?', but the reality is I have made absolutely zero effort to find out where my clothes came from, where and how they were made and whether the process was at all ethical. 

I'm going to make a mass generalisation here so please don't be offended if this doesn't apply to you, but I think a lot of us are guilty of being ignorant. We simply choose to ignore or not find out about things and then when we do, we express our shock and outrage so we uphold our reputation as good people. Maybe we are good people, but that doesn't mean we haven't been ignorant and lazy (including myself in this by the way).

W A R I N E S S  |  And here enters the wariness. Yes I feel guilty about my consumption of fast fashion and I haven't bought any clothes since watching the documentary, but it's true that people do jump on the bandwagon with these kinds of issues and then forget about them when the uproar dies down. I don't want to be one of those people so I'm almost wary about speaking out too much in case I cave and miss ASOS too much.

I'm also aware that there are plenty of eco-friendly and sustainable bloggers already who, quite rightly, would look at me as someone who has zero right to speak about this issue because of my fast fashion consumption. 

But at the same time, any discussion surrounding the issue can only be a good thing as can any change, however big or small. 

D E C I S I O N S  |  Which brings me to...what am I actually going to do about it?

Well I'm certainly not making any grand gestures. I've deleted the ASOS app though and I'm going to do no spend November. I'm going to start using charity shops a lot more (luckily there's an excellent vintage one ten minutes from my house). 

I haven't found any sustainable clothing brands that I'm particularly excited about yet, especially as they are all expensive (yes I KNOW the point is to spend more on less, but my brain doesn't work that way) so I can't say I won't be making the odd high street purchase because I will be.

I've always shopped my wardrobe anyway (my bulging wardrobe is because I hardly ever get rid of anything) and I'll be digging out more outfits like the classic in this post, which I re-wear every autumn.

In my opinion, it's not about stopping completely or anything drastic, it's simply about being more mindful; changing whatever you're in a position to change and not jumping down the throats of people who aren't doing the same as you. 

What do you think?

Amy x