Fashion or Style ? Dressing or Wardrobe ?

Via cracked.com

I always thought that fashion embodied the “buy and throw” philosophy of nowadays’ consumerism.

There are thousands of new different pieces of clothing on sale each month, made in China by underpaid workers. The collections change every couple of months and a fashionable piece is doomed to become out-dated in less than half a year.

A lot of women find their contentment in this system, buying new clothes every month and enjoying the fun to build new outfits.

In my case, I have never felt like buying cheap clothes and change every season fitted my lifestyle.

Like most women, I have always been conscious of my physical and sartorial looks. I have long searched for a style, and bought a lot of clothes in the process.

But I naively thought that I had escaped the clutch of consumerism.

Only when I visited and sorted out my cellar did I come across the cadavers of my previous compulsive purchases and style experiments. Piles and piles of useless junk. I had to become a conscious shopper, for I didn’t recognize myself in this wardrobe management.

In my quest for a conscious consumption fitting my personality, I have been thinking a lot about building a wardrobe. Carefully choosing clothes, finding key pieces and basics that would fit into any style, select little details that make the difference…

I recently read a piece about what is called “fast fashion” (can’t remember the source :/). Buying cheap clothes of poor quality all the time and throwing/selling them away after having worn them only a couple of times, just for the sake of “fashion” and “novelty”.

Then the article presented a new trend called “slow fashion”. A reaction against this excessive shopping addiction, or how to stop buying tons of cheap badly tailored clothes and go for a few high quality pieces.

It reminded me of minimalism. This art of simplicity that intrigues me most lately. I thought: “How can I apply my own appropriation of all these theories to change my shopping habits and build a wardrobe matching my personality…?”

To be continued…