I first wrote about my one year shopping ban six months ago (you can read about it here) and by then I was already converted but now I made it! A whole year without buying new stuff! You’re probably hoping I’ll say how excruciatingly difficult it was, how I missed going shopping and I felt sort of less inside. But it is totally the opposite! There were no ups and downs to that year — just ups!
At the end of 2019 I had just moved (again!) and the airline had lost all my luggage so I spent over three weeks with pretty much nothing, just the clothes I had on me. Of course I was upset and angry but at the end of that month I was like “huh… I have no stuff, this is interesting.” I ‘d gone to shopping centres with other people and it had started to make me really uncomfortable. I got cranky and annoyed every time I was in one of those madhouses. Feeling huddled by the amount of people that were in there, disgusted by the prices staring up at me and pressured by all the advertisement that marketers were trying to force down my throat. Every time I picked up a garment I heard myself saying “ugh!” Because I just couldn’t believe the value for money that was in front of me. €130 for a jacket that every third person is also going to have? €50 for a dress that I’ll grow tired of in a few months? Even €15 for a T-shirt seemed ridiculous to me. It just wasn’t worth it as I knew it was gonna stretch out after a few wears and I decided it’s not okay to buy something with such a huge ecological footprint that is only gonna last a couple of washes. I had had enough.
So when 2020 rolled around I thought “could I do a few months with no shopping? What about a whole year?” I am a committer if anything and easy tasks don’t tickle my fancy. I knew it was going to get difficult at some point. I still had to go to shops with someone if they asked for my help and I am still a woman after all so obviously I saw things that I liked but I used reason and reminded myself “it’s crap, you know where it comes from.”
I’d picked up thrifting years prior but back then it was more like “here’s a charity shop on my way, I might as well pop in.” Oh, but the thrift stores of 2020 had no idea what was coming… I took all my frustration about fast-fashion out on the second-hand retailers. (In a good way!) It’s almost like I decided “I’ll show you, Zara! I’m gonna buy all these used clothes and it’s going to make such a difference that you’ll go out of business!” I like to think big… *shrugs*
I did become an expert on shopping vintage though. I’d rummage all the stores as often as I could and I’d become obsessed with finding one-off pieces for a bargain. Have you seen my closet? And I didn’t stop at clothes, I also decided to redecorate my apartment with old stuff, to go with my “old lady clothing style”. It went through a mid-life crisis if you will and it got the red convertible that it had been craving.
My flat used to be all-white Scandi, clean and minimal. Just like everyone else’s. It wanted to fit in and blend in. But because 2020 was such a tumultuous year for me internally I had to express it externally, too. I scoured the internet and exchanged all my furniture. Twice! I kept swapping out the pieces until they felt right. Now, with the exception of my bed which I’d bought the year before, no piece of my furniture is younger than the early seventies. I also started adding colour, slowly at first with cushions and bed linen but by the end of the year a 70s rainbow had exploded in my home – I painted the walls cotton candy pink, wallpapered in yellow and gold and got soft furniture in green velvet.
Now, there are exceptions to any rule, certainly. I still bought a few items from commercial shops but I only did so after I couldn’t find suitable ones second-hand or for hygiene reasons. For example I bought new workout gear and underwear for obvious reasons, a pair of gloves after unsuccessful thrifting treks and some picture frames for artwork which’s measurements were just too out of the box for a standard frame.
All in all, as the months flew by, I found myself more and more obsessed with finding everything I needed or wanted, already used. I went as far as to even buy old candles from 1980! I searched for months for a small reading lamp to go above my bed and I was really close to just going out and buying a new one when I stumbled across two used ones in the same week. I also now buy books used or in the form of an e-book. Although I still am pulled towards a bookstore whenever I walk past one.
I am so determined to find everything second-hand that at one point they just happen to stumble in front of me. And as the year drew to a close I thought “this is my new normal. This should be everyone’s new normal.” There is such an over-pour of stuff in the world and so many people and economies are suffering because of first-worlders’ decisions to get new things due to social or peer pressure, because of advertisements and longing to fit in, that we are quite literally running out of space on this planet. So why not reuse and rebuy and relove the things that are already made and help reduce the ecological footprint that is currently stepping on our throats depriving us of air.
So my 2020 resolution to not support commercial retailers for one year has turned into a new way of life and I’m happily taking this once-a-challenge into 2021 and making it a lifestyle from now on. Bite it, fast-fashion.
Here’s some films if you need some inspiration to start your journey to slow-fashion, or in case you just want to know more of what’s goes on behind the curtains:
If you know of any more, please drop a comment below!