Written by: Kamila Ciebielski
In a modern closet, you will find 3 different versions of a closet staple. Not just a plain white shirt, there is a plain white, black, blue, turquoise, green, a lighter green in order to match that one jacket, pink for Wednesdays, and red when you feel like a badass, but red isn’t your color so you barely touch it.
The concept of a closet staple is now just a geriatric term for simple clothing; closet staples are now the latest trendy clothing item you can get your hands on. In today’s society it feels like fashion is something on the to-do list rather than self-care, just keeping up with the trends. According to GoodOnYou “Videos tagged with #haul on TikTok have cumulatively been viewed more than 49bn times as of writing, and that number increases every minute”, when you are continuously influenced by media in seeing influencers showing off their clothes, you are wired to want the same. I understand the argument of everyone wanting to keep up with the trends, believe me I do too, but the problem is trends supporting and advertising super-consumerism. The trend life cycle is five stages, and it used to take about 20 years to fully cycle through. Now cycles are moving months at a time.
I asked 10 friends a couple questions and these were their answers:
Have you ever shopped at Shein, Romwe, Temu, any notorious fast fashion establishment?
10/10 said yes.
If I asked you to define the effects of fast fashion would you be able to truly define the word?
4/10 said yes.
Do you feel a kind of stress in order to keep up with the trends?
8/10 said yes. (two males said no)
Do you wear at least 65% of your closet every month?
3/10 said yes. (common answer: bored of closet, or they rewear their favorites)
Fashion is self-expression and there is beauty within fashion, personally I adore clothes and I am always looking for a way to express myself. Yet, there is a difference between expression and trend-following. There needs to be a change of mentality to try to find clothes that are representing you, not Alix Earle and Sofia Richie. “Textile production contributes more to climate change than international aviation and shipping combined”(GoodOnYou), there won’t be many trends to follow if we aren’t able to breathe enough air in order to survive. According to NASA humans have raised carbon dioxide by 50% in less than the last 200 years. With the fashion industry being one of the biggest contributors, we might have to sacrifice a couple off-the-shoulder-looks or mini purses in order to let our future generations persevere. My advice? Go thrifting with your friends, get creative and learn how to sow, make fashion fun, not a task to keep up with.
Image from Earth.org