Rediscovering My Style // Slow Fashion On A Budget

It's been three years since I took part in slow fashion season and fully kicked my fast fashion habit to the kerb. In that time I've changed my shopping habits a lot; I've discovered some great slow fashion brands, I've been to clothes swap events, I've become a bit of a Vinted fiend and I've reworn my wardrobe a lot. 

It's that last point I'd like to focus on, because although I've not always been a sustainable shopper I have always had a bit of an issue with getting rid of perfectly good things. So while I've felt like I've been doing my little bit of good by rewearing my perfectly good clothes over and over I've not really been paying attention to how those clothes have been making me feel. Until now. 

I'd been thinking I was having some sort of new mum style crisis, but in reality I've simply been having a bog standard style crisis. Back when I shopped fast fashion my style always felt fresh because I was constantly buying new clothes and switching it up and it's only recently, three years into this slow fashion journey (if I can call it that without sounding like a pretentious knob), that I realised my style was feeling a little lost. 

My challenge is to rediscover my style in a sustainable way while on a budget of pretty much nothing because my statutory maternity pay ended last month and new clothes for me are so far down the list of priorities for me to spend my non-existent wage on. Sounds easy right? Well, I have come up with a few ways to rediscover my style on a budget (and by budget I actually mean pretty much for free). 

Sort my current wardrobe // As I mentioned in my last post about de-cluttering my life, I have a lot of clothes, simply because I keep a lot of them 'just in case'. I'm gradually having a fairly brutal clear out of my current wardrobe and managing to get rid of a fair few things simply by not overthinking it too much. While I usually just donate clothes, I'll be looking to mainly either sell what I no longer want or take them to clothes swap events, as I'll cover below!

Restyle my current wardrobe // I used to get a lot of joy from putting together an outfit in the morning and from finding new ways to style items in my wardrobe, however recently (and this is one thing I definitely can blame on being a new mum) I've been putting together the same uninspiring outfits over and over and not being particularly imaginative. Once my wardrobe is clearer and I can properly see everything I have I'm hoping it will become easier to reinvent what I do have. I'll also be looking to see if I have anything I can alter or customise to make what will feel like a whole new item. 

Searching for style inspiration // Something I've not done in a long time is actually look around for some style inspiration. I've been looking back at my own Instagram (vain AF) to find outfits where I know I was really feeling myself, pinning posts on Pinterest and saving Instagram posts of outfits I love then searching and favouriting similar items on Vinted. 

Vinted & Vinted balance // I've already started selling a few bits on Vinted and then building up a balance in my account to put towards some new (to me) items. When I've been favouriting items I've kept them in there for a while so I can have a proper think about what they will go with and how I could style them before I make a decision on whether to actually make a purchase (that doesn't actually feel like a purchase, but more like an exchange doing it this way!)

Clothes swaps // I attended my first clothes swap event back in February and have been to two more since. The items I take to these tend to be clothes that I don't really think are worth trying to sell on Vinted, but ones that are still in great condition. I've found these events great for experimenting with my style because I know that I can pick up slightly riskier items and then simply re-swap them at another event if I find that they don't quite work for me. 

I'm definitely not quite there with fully rediscovering my style, but I already feel much better simply by paying it a little more attention. Putting on a great outfit may be a fairly shallow way of gaining joy, but it's always been a small pleasure of mine and working out how to do it in a sustainable and budget-friendly way has actually been a fun little challenge!