A fact even worthy of mocking*
But make sure they last:
things are used up too fast...
And the fashion industry is shocking!
The Earth is piling up with waste,
to reflect we, the buyers', haste
Materials need a new life
to put us out of this strife
Recycle and create to your taste!
*By Nancy Sinatra and later, Jessica Simpson (in addition to others) in the song "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'"
Original set of limericks by me. Ironically, the usually humorous genre of the limerick (one of my favorite styles of poetry) has been ignored here for the sake of the message!
So, the story with these boots: bought them at an outlet shoe store for a fraction of full price, genuine leather and Valera Grossi brand. I really love the reddish color and well-cut shape of these, and the details make them quite unique. Of course I had tried them on and walked around in the shop before buying, but nonetheless I did discover upon more extended wear that they were quite constricting to my right foot, in particular an odd bone I have on the inside of my right foot, below and in front of the ankle bone. I'm not sure if it's unusual, but I have a very pronounced bone there.
I was a bit disappointed, these being perhaps the nicest and otherwise highest quality pair of shoes I've ever bought. But, there was a solution!
I took the boots to a shoe and bag repair shop, where they kept the right boot for a couple of days to put it on a stretching machine. These are typically used to make shoes wider, and although that wasn't exactly what I needed (as it wasn't the bottom of my foot that was the problem, but the middle) the treatment did make the boots more roomy, and I can now comfortably wear them! Yay! They also do other things like stretching the calf area of boots, re-heeling and re-soling shoes, and also repairing bags.Another time a little while ago, my mother had some shoes to give me, but the heels were too high for me to comfortably wear (not due to ability to walk, but due to my already tall stature!). There was a shoe repair shop in Auckland that could even cut down the heels a bit so that I could wear them.
Unfortunately, most of the shoes I have bought up until recently have been poor-quality cheap shoes, like the ones pictured below from Cotton On that I recently had to dispose of. I really liked the style of these shoes and it's a shame they couldn't have lasted longer.
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| They've got holes in them... |
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| And styled for work with my elephant-print socks! |
Sadly, this is the story about a lot of clothes today, and even more sadly, the fashion industry is geared to make people behave like this. Trends come and go with alarming speed and the notion of a "classic style" is old-fashioned or boring. Even classics that are always in style need "updating", according to today's fashion standards.
"Fast fashion" is a huge problem in today's first-world countries. I am as guilty as most people in this, and I have bought loads of things that I have only ended up getting rid of.
Now I am on the quest to live a more minimalist lifestyle (which I'll no doubt write more about later) and this includes cutting down on clothing, shoes, and other items, as well as making sure I am buying quality items that will last for a long time. We must curb the desires for fast fashion and trend-updating!
The other alternative we can start implementing is buying ethical. Sadie's Wardrobe is a lovely little blog that is focused on ethical fashion, and where you can buy things that are made ethically. I've linked in her post containing "The Life of a T-shirt" infographic, which is full of some startling facts about clothing manufacturing...over 20,000 tons of cotton is consumed globally per year...and growing the cotton for a single t-shirt requires 2,000 liters of water, plus 5,000 liters of water for the manufacturing of that single t-shirt, not to mention laundering and dying the shirt too.
And, every year in the USA, 11 million tons of textiles end up in landfills. This is astonishing, and humbling to know that we waste so much. It's just inexcusable to think that people in America (and other developed countries too) are throwing out so much material that could have been put to good use by people who really need it in the third-world. How can we live with ourselves, knowing that?
Luckily, the infographic (really, go and check it out!) also gives some ways we can help, like swapping clothes, recycling, donating, line-drying our clothes, and more. And also luckily, there are a few companies that want to change this. Seamly.co, who I've mentioned before, use entirely deadstock fabric (that has been discarded from factories or other companies). They also specialize in versatile garments, meaning you don't have to own as many different pieces - I love this idea, and it really helps with the goal of wardrobe minimalism! I've already got their Versalette (which was definitely an investment) and have recently ordered a couple more pieces from their shop (with a discount voucher gifted to me for participating in their Versalette Challenge. Yes, despite all my anti-shopping posts, I do still shop.) Their pieces are a little more expensive than what you'd buy in a popular chain store, but the costs are all justified in that everything's made in the USA, and by hand, by the very small team of people running the show. It feels good to be wearing fabric that otherwise would have been wasted, and the Versalette I got was absolutely top-quality and so worth it. I'll be sure to write more about them when I receive my next order!
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