Five simple words assemble to form the most over-used and exaggerated sentence of modern times.
“I need to go shopping!”
How often do we say it with the emphasis on need? I know I hear it all the time but what the hell is so important that compels us to shop so damn much! Last weekend my nine-year-old daughter, Lucia exclaimed dramatically : “Mummy, I need to go shopping!” I was genuinely surprised. Naturally, I asked her what on earth she could possibly NEED that she didn’t already have? “Oh nothing really, I just wanna go shopping” she quipped.
That’s when I discovered she equates clothes shopping with an excursion, a fun day out. Wait what! Where would a child of mine get that idea?
The truth is we are incredibly privileged and don’t actually NEED more clothes and shoes. Yet somehow, remarkably, most of us don’t realize this fact. We in the West have been taken for a very long ride, conned into believing the answer to our woes is awaiting us at the Mall. Decades of desire for a happy fix, that cheeky little pick me up, a buzz, a high, a reward for just being me, is arguably the reason Mother Earth is suffering such enormous devastation right now. This mostly middle-class delusion is also directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of poor souls, living in abject poverty or worse, bondage.
You know how it goes…Perhaps I’m bored or fed up with work and deserve a treat, maybe the children are getting on my nerves, Hubs and I had a fight or my BFF broke up with her boyfriend and needs consoling. What about the ever-popular new season shopping? The mere fact that the weather has changed gives us the rationale to buy a bunch of new clothes – I mean seriously?
The truth is, most of those times I went shopping I didn’t actually need anything. My urge to buy something new was in fact, a knee jerk reaction to a negative feeling buried deeply within myself. Buying new clothes, a bag or shoes simply masked that feeling, hiding it away for another day when it would surely return.
Is it a coincidence that while the Planet is being poisoned by a small number of large corporations – the rest of us are constantly distracted with the lure of a thrill from shopping?
SAY GOODBYE TO RETAIL THERAPY
As I consider another pop-culture phrase, RETAIL THERAPYÂ it occurs to me how we’ve come to measure our level of happiness and success by shopping bags.
I confess to once taking photos of myself swinging multiple designer shopping bags in a pretentious bid to brag. Looking back, it sounds utterly ridiculous and to be honest is more about my feeling of self-worth or lack thereof, than narcissism. I’m sure I wanted to convey a sense of accomplishment that I didn’t truly feel.
On the contrary, all I really NEED every now and then is a little alone time and some space for myself. A moment to relax and think, reminisce on the true joy in my life or even just zone out for a while. Whatever you want to call it, meditation or contemplation, looking at something old with new eyes is the cure for those frantic feelings, not shopping.
Although I probably always knew this deep down, it took many life lessons and decades of self-evolution to be one hundred percent authentic. O.K I’m no Buddhist, I still slip occasionally, but at fifty-two I’m pretty bloody happy with who I am and more importantly, I’m not afraid to speak the truth. Modern life can be chock full of anxiety if you allow it too much headspace. One could surmise this is intentional, perpetuated for profit by a few powerful, greedy corporations. How else can a billion-dollar company continue to grow without fuelling our insatiable appetite for consumer goods? And what is this fuel? Well anxiety of course!
Anxiety is a great motivator, just look at the driving force of social media. Social media, particularly Instagram, has amplified our impulse for keeping up with the Jones’ to obsessive levels. *As I admire the fabulous dress on the beautiful Woman, living the awesome life, I open another tab, click and buy that very same dress – because subconsciously, I want to be her and wearing this dress is a step closer to my goal.
It doesn’t take a Master’s degree in psychology to unpack that mess, does it?
Indeed so much about the climate crisis makes me increasingly angry, now that I know more detail of how it came to be. I can’t even look at Zara without feeling riled. Zara’s intentional yet subtle manipulation of its customer could be considered fair game in a democracy that runs on capitalism. However, rampant, unregulated capitalism IS the root cause of absolutely ALL OF IT. Make no mistake, if you break it down to a simple equation –
hypercapitalism + megaconsumer = climate crisis.
And no I’m not anti-capitalism. You don’t have to be anti just because you disagree with certain aspects of its practices. The capitalist system should be great, working hard deserves to be rewarded. However, being rewarded for working your employees hard is not the same thing. Is it? Hypercapitalism is extreme capitalism at the expense of traditional values. Core values such as kindness and empathy, make us Human. Values that sadly appear in short supply of late.
Of course, Zara isn’t wholly responsible for capitalism running amock but in terms of conspicuous consumption within the fashion industry, Zara is my personal trigger. I see Zara worn with pride across all socioeconomic levels and THAT my friends, is what makes Zara ubiquitous or perhaps insidious is a better word?
In any case, being popular with the rich makes Zara phenomenally popular with everyone else and that didn’t happen by accident.
WHAT IS A CONSCIOUS CONSUMER?
Can someone please tell me why Zara, H&M and the other brands that manufactured at Rana Plaza weren’t charged with anything? Of the forty-one people charged only Sohel Rana, the factory owner, went to prison. How is that justice? Rana Plaza collapsed back in 2013, despite numerous concerns raised by people who worked there. This tragedy should never have happened yet 1,134 people were killed and over 2,500 seriously injured. Still Zara et al continue business as usual, supplying the masses with even more clothing nobody actually needs.
While the horrific safety conditions have been somewhat improved (apparently) since then (Over 200 brands signed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh) Bangladeshi garment workers pay remains woefully below a living wage. This coupled with the sheer volume of garment production makes forced labour and child labour still very much alive and well. Brands such as H&M, Gap, Walmart, Tesco, Inditex, Primark, Aldi and Lidl are all directly responsible for this situation. Since they pull billions in annual revenues they could certainly afford to triple wages and stop child labour altogether but they don’t. Back in 2013 H&M publicly promised to raise all it’s garment workers’ monthly wages to a living wage but still haven’t done so. Why is that? More greenwashing from the master methinks.
For a fashion lover like me, this is personal. I can’t turn away from the people of Rana Plaza, or any other garment worker for that matter. After all, I’m still wearing clothes they made and that means something to me. The very least I can do is show my support for them by no longer shopping at those stores. Why do I feel those stores ar responsible? It’s very simple really, every business has a duty of care to its workers no matter where they are in the supply chain. If the company can’t keep track of conditions in its supply chain (as NIKE often claims in its lame defense) then it must employ or outsource additional experts to regularly audit each and every factory. Take a look at the factories Everlane use to see how it should be done.
Let’s be frank, Zara and other fast-fashion retailers are STILL conducting human rights abuses within their supply chain and STILL not taking accountability for it. And where ethics are absent you can rest assured sustainability is also ignored. I’m pretty confident the two go hand in hand so it makes even more sense to quit fast fashion to save the Planet. To be fair, for my part it isn’t a tough call. So what if I don’t get to buy the next must-have puffy sleeve, wafty, summer dress? Giving up fast fashion is the easiest thing I ever quit.
*Although I’ve shared this brilliant documentary before, you may be new here so if you haven’t seen The True Cost yet, please watch it.
With so much fake news nonsense flooding our daily lives, I believe now more than ever, the onus falls on us to educate ourselves. The truth is usually harder to stomach but there is real power and freedom in knowing it. That’s why it’s essential to support filmmakers that are often struggling to produce these important stories. One such film is Life Nor Germ that you and I can support directly through its go fund me page.
I QUIT FAST FASHION FOR GOOD
Something shifted in me during Fashion Revolution week this past April which has become somewhat of a personal metamorphosis. First I decided to quit fast fashion until such time that those brands switched to sustainable and ethical practices. Then as I dug deeper into my research I realized the very definition of fast fashion made it impossible for them to EVER be sustainable.
I’d been looking at it all wrong! The entire business model for fast fashion relies on consumers believing they have to buy something new every week to be fulfilled. In turn, the brands’ job is to provide new designs as often as every two weeks, promoting exciting “new” drops and “must-have” pieces to satiate their customer’s perpetual desire. Ironically, there’s rarely any difference in the “new designs” of previous seasons which I guess makes the con even more shocking. If you scroll through almost any Influencer’s IG gallery to the same season a year before you’ll see the proof. More or less identical outfits captioned as exciting new buys. Ack, how dumb are we?
Over-supply is only possible with high-demand so making fast fashion circular would literally kill it. Giant corporations Inditex, Arcadia Group and Hennes & Mauritz Perrson that own the majority of the chain stores are racking up billions off a cradle to grave mentality. By definition, fast fashion is made to be throwaway, even dare I say it – SINGLE USE.
Let that sink in…
When the penny dropped for me exactly I couldn’t tell you, but now that it has, my mind is blown wide open. I simply cannot abide any of it EVER again. Stick a fork in me I AM DONE.
STYLE NOTES
This stunning Scotch & Soda silk dress I’m wearing in today’s post was kindly loaned to me by The Bias Cut. The Bias Cut is an online boutique with the highest ethical standards. You can rest assured, The Bias Cut takes great care and pride in only stocking labels with a clear sustainable ethos.
My fabulous red boots are from the member’s only TIBI sale last year. It’s really worth signing up for their newsletter just for this awesome sale, the savings are phenomenal. I’d never been brave enough to buy red knee-high boots before but this beautiful pair was such a bargain I thought it was worth the risk. Surprisingly, I wear them with so much more than I anticipated, it’s hard to imagine not having them. They truly elevate every ensemble.
The vintage bag is so old I genuinely can’t remember where I bought it. Only that it was a dusty old vintage shop in London, probably Notting Hill. Not so my wide waist belt which I bought from Blaire Eadie’s first range with Halogen last year at Nordstrom. I see she has another collection coming soon that looks quite lovely. You’ll be pleased to know that when I asked Blaire who made her collection she was completely transparent and sent me the sustainability/ethics report from Nordstrom and its partner, Halogen.
As always, thank you all so much for reading…
Lots of love,
MTx
Comments ( 26 )
Fernanda
I just want to say thank you for sharing this Michelle, I will share with family and friends. I always enjoy reading your posts, but there’s something deep and meaningful to this one and I believe it’s because you are revealing yourself, at the same time unmasking these big corporations of shall I say “cons”?
I am ever so grateful that is someone like you doing this, voicing it so loudly. It makes a lot of difference!
A little confession, I was reading your post on Instagram a couple hours ago and I commented but deleted half of what I was going to say, because I was unsure of how it could come across, but after reading this post i think i am in a safe place. I was going to say there that I shock when you posted back in April about quitting fast fashion.
I was shock and surprised in a good way because this movement was coming from you and starting from you I have hopes other upper middle class influencers will take inspiration.
Will they ever? I don’t know, but I have learnt that in our quest to change the world if we manage to inspire only one soul then we have accomplished the goal (that’s what I learnt in my Christian journey), and that one soul is oneself.
But Michelle you have accomplished so much more! Let me tell one think. Since meeting you on Instagram I have learned a lot. You have inspired me a lot and in many ways.
I remember thinking back when you announced quiting fast fashion “well it’s easy to go ethical when one can afford it!” I even posted something about that in one of your posts, and I still think that way, that’s why I say it’s so powerful that someone like you is doing this.
It carries more weight, in the sense that people look up to influencers like you and you teaching us it can actually be done and how it’s grandiose. People’s life and our planet safety are way more important than having more outfits in our wardrobes.
I was just happy that someone this fabulous would be my friend even if just a virtual one. But I now realise I have learned great lessons from you.
1- hard work
2- generosity
3- honesty and transparency
4- positive parenting
5- fighting for ones convictions
6- having friends from all walks of life, ages, and social (enjoying friendship, learn and mentor each other)
7- one doenst need a wardrobe full of clothes but a functional one. I have been carefully watching your matchings and outfits and learning how to do so. I am not a big consumer and rarely buy but even so I tend to buy cheap crap. I stopped that I have been actively looking into ethical brands. My sister told me last week, “your wardrobe looks so empty” I instantly replied “but I never feel like lacking outfits!” She said “wow you have inspired me i will do that too!” I was being honest!
What I am trying to say is this, your revolution has already made changes, it started with you, inspired me and now also my sister… I am talking about people I know and you know. What about the other 23000+ followers on Instagram? I hope I make sense. If you ever think this isn’t worth it remember that you have influenced at least one person.
MT
It’s taken me a few days to reply to your comment Fernanda because I’m completely blown away by it. Talk about making a difference, your words have hit the mark big time!
This year as I watch my blog traffic drop and my Instagram likes plummet I wonder if there is much reason to continue. Although I love writing about my passion, not just for sustainable fashion but really working toward a fully sustainable lifestyle, I still have to make some money from it. There just isn’t enough time in the day to blog for free. As much as I’d love to! So I decided to work as hard as I can until the end of the year, improve my writing and photography along the way and decide in January whether it’s worth continuing or not.
Your incredible support means the world to me Fernanda and you’re right, it does make a difference even if it is just one person. Thank you for reminding me of that and even if I do quit blogging we will still be friends, real friends.
Mx
Fatima Truscott
Holy shit balls MT! This is your best post EVER! I am sat here thinking HARD about everything you have said! Well done on being so honest. I can feel your passion friend and as an ally I salute you and as a mate I wanna give you a massive hug and snog! Love this, so much xxx
Gill
Excellent post Michelle. I echo Fernanda’s sentiment. Someone else to add to your inspired/ influenced list! It annoys me seeing people shopping wastefully. They just don’t get it, and hopefully with people like you opening people’s eyes the penny will drop. On another note, I’m in the same stage of life as you,, in one of your recent IG posts i thought your hair looked AMAZING!! What are you using, I’m in dire need….
MT
Aw thanks Gill 🙂
OK HAIR – Losing handfuls of hair was a major factor in me taking HRT. I don’t think anything else helped quite so obviously as the hormones, and it was almost immediate results! Have you had your hormone levels checked? I assume your in a stage of menopause? If you don’t want to take hormone replacement therapy you can try bulking up your hair with a product or you can use the clip-in hair technique. I’ve blogged about both of these, linked to posts for you.
Let me know what you think, M
MT
Thank you so so much Fatima, coming from a professional writer this means the world to me. I’ve always admired your writing so for you to say this, well… it’s encouraging to say the least. I worked really hard on editing this post because I wanted to make my point in a personal way but also accurately without getting bogged down in facts. I know you’ll agree, it’s also important to make my case without sounding condescending or judgey? But geez that’s tricky! Which is why I appreciate your comment FT, more than you know xx
MT
Teehee I love how you express yourself FT! Thank you so much for your support and encouragement. When I made the decision to focus my blog and Instagram entirely on sustainability there was a sharp drop in my following. I expected that but it still smarts a bit because I really want people to get on board. However, it’s incredibly inspiring for me to see your journey moving to sustainable fashion and if I had even the tiniest influence on that, it’s all worth it.
Thanks mate xx
Lisa the Sequinist
Your passion on this topic is so infectious, you have got me completely in line behind you. I also have never been a fan of fast fashion and have only bought fast fashion pieces that I wear and wear and wear (like that red faux fur Mango coat, ack!). I’m happy to take a NO FAST FASHION pledge with you.
Like you, I can feel the shift, and it feels as WRONG to support fast fashion as it does cigarette smoking. One kills YOUR health, the other kills the planet’s health. Honestly, this is one of your very best posts ever.
Socrates said “The unexamined life is not worth living” and until people wake up and realise the harm that their mindless and selfish decisions create, everyone on the planet will suffer. Thank you for this post, MT. xxxx
MT
Thanks so much Lisa, it makes me incredibly happy to read your pledge to stop shopping fast fashion. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone stopped? I think the industry would do well to reconsider its business model and wind down the ridiculous volume it produces or we’ll be seeing more bankruptcies like Forever 21. I don’t want people to lose their jobs, there’s really no need for that but you can be sure those shareholders won’t lose a dime. It a right-wing tactic to cry “the economy will collapse, people will lose their jobs and homes!” whenever the 1% are in danger of feeling the pinch. So very clever of them using fear to keep the masses in line and their flow of wealth intact. Ah but we could talk about this for hours right Lisa? xxxx
Nicola
Really good article Michelle.
I was thinking about meat the other day in a similar vein – I heard somewhere that 6 billion animals are slaughtered every year for food worldwide. And I was thinking that although growing up in the 1970’s our standard dinner was meat and veg there must have been quite a small portion of meat and most of the plate filled with veg because my mother could stretch a joint of meat from Sunday until Wed or Thursday. We didn’t feel hard done by and we didn’t feel hungry. The same marketers that sold us fast fashion have convinced us to eat eat more meat and bigger portions – cheap food and clothes mean we value the item less and prefer not to think about the suffering that has gone into the things that we buy and discard/ consume so lightly. Industry doesn’t want us to look too closely at their practices because when we do it makes it very hard to justify continuing to live that way.
MT
SNAP! I’ve been learning a lot about the mass production of meat too. I’ve been eating free-range for many years and only a few times a month but recently I reduced my family’s consumption from daily to only twice a week. Funnily enough they didn’t even notice. Then last September I went meat-free to see if I could stop eating it altogether. I slipped once when my friend cooked a roast chicken dinner. I actually forgot my pledge, realised what I was doing halfway through the meal! Anyway aside from that, the only thing I missed was my special spaghetti bolognaise but I’m determined to find a meat substitute that works for that recipe. I think this is a great topic for discussion, perhaps I’ll put it in my Instagram. Thanks for your thoughtful comment Nicola x
Nicola
I went veggie a few years ago and after a month asked the family if they had noticed anything different about the food I was serving up – they hadn’t! Like you I had been gradually increasing meat free meals and had built up a rotation of veggie food everyone liked . I can’t imagine eating meat now. I’m now phasing out dairy and eggs and that’s mainly fine although I miss croissants!
MT
That’s brilliant Nicola! I’d love to get to that point soon too which I think is definitely possible. The kids are easy although my Husband is tougher to crack. Brought up on meat and three veg every day is a hard habit to break but I’ll keep working on him 😉
Shakor
Please #support for ” Life nor Germ ” A film based on the #RanaPlaza tragedy, via @Kickstarter @LifenorGerm https://t.co/zH4qR2RMQi
Anna
Michelle, great article as always. These days it seems that buying more and buying bigger is a phylosophy of our life. We don’t just need more cloth, but we need a larger house, a bigger car, and yes, even a bigger piece of meat on our plate. No. We don’t need all of this. We WANT it. People value themselves by the size of the things they own. Somebody might need a house 3000 squire feet for 5 or more people to live in it, bit if it just for two persons, why? And do I really care if somebody wears the latest trend of clothing? Honestly, no. I value her or his integrity the most. And you have plenty of it!
MT
Exactly this! I think in terms of clothing, we have taken the self-expression aspect and made it about showing off. Where once our clothing style was an extension of our personality now it’s about how much money we have. It’s so silly when you think about the consequences of this but I guess most of us didn’t realise any of that for a long time. No excuses now though right?
“There is no beauty in the finest cloth, if it makes hunger and unhappiness” – Gandhi
No Fear of Fashion
I am constantly battling with myself since you started to talk about this subject. Of course I was always aware but not to the level you have brought me.
So I do not shop Mango, Zara or H&M anymore (although my very. very sustainable niece who has a company in printing sustainably T-shirts, says they are really shifting).
But I cannot deny that I have to many clothes and shoes. I give a lot away to women who have less money, trying to ease the burden of guilt. And I am now creating new outfits with the things I already have.
However I am not where I want to be. That service you have of renting clothes! Gosh that would be the answer for me.
Greetje
MT
Your honesty is so refreshing Greetje! You always blow me away by how open and accepting you are, not just to change but to the struggle with change. I think you’re doing great on your changes to sustainability actually, keep it up! Your niece is right in terms of some brands moving toward sustainable practices but they are all very far from where they need to be. If they started at this pace 10 years ago yes maybe they’d be on track for the 11-year deadline but these are mostly pledges, promises, goals to do certain things by a certain year. Take Zara pledging to 80% renewables in all its factories and shops by 2025. 80% really? And why does it take 5years? It’s tiny steps to appease at best, greenwashing at worst. They all do it and that riles me, it’s unacceptable. Yet our governments in the west allow them to do it. If we don’t come down hard there’s no reason for them to push these changes through any faster. These corporations do not have ethics, they have a bottom line.
No Fear of Fashion
I agree to a certain extend. For one, it isn’t easy to change a big company in such a way and two: the consumer has been given a voice with all the transparancy, the social media, the comparising through internet and that scares the hell out of companies. Yes they have a bottom line (and share holders who only want to see more money) but they also want to survive. Sustainability is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity and I think a lot of companies in the west know this. So I am less negative for the future. As for my honesty… I don’t have to force myself to being honest haha. That is just me through and through. Wouldn’t know how to be otherwise.
Cathie
Michelle, I always enjoy your blog and usually learn something. Just had to comment on the traffic drop off, you do seem to be posting less so that may also be contributing, not necessarily the sustainability side of things. I don’t think I’ve ever commented before but keep going if you can because every single voice can make a difference. Definitely consumer society needs to change. My daughter has been working in retail, higher end, but still new drops every two weeks. It is insane, nobody needs that many clothes and the sooner we all realise that the better.
MT
Hi Cathie,
I know you’re right. It’s been a vicious circle for me personally. Late last year I made a concerted effort to blog (& Insta) regularly in an effort to build my audience back up after the slump that occurred when we moved Stateside. It wasn’t successful so I had to get a part-time job to supplement the loss of income. Well that turned into much more and now I’m a bone fide Newborn Baby Photographer! I love it but I don’t want to do it full-time because that means I can’t blog anymore. Although I’m only working 3 days a week I’m struggling to keep up with my content because I create it all from scratch myself (including the images) so it is a lot of work. Add to that the 3-month summer break the kids have here and…well you get it I’m sure. If I was getting paid at least a minimum for my blogging I could then afford to free up time in other areas like the house cleaning etc. It’s ironic since I started focusing on sustainability I love blogging even more than ever!
But you’re so right and now you’ve made me think. I have to keep pushing a little longer for what I love is worth fighting for.
Thank you Cathie xx
Elaine
Michelle, I am a new reader and fan of your blog! I so admire the topics you are addressing around all your life decisions. In a very short time you have opened my eyes to the real cost of my wardrobe full of clothes. I am actively changing my shopping habits in all areas of my life. I do hope you will be able to continue blogging on some level…. even if occasionally…. I so look forward to your thoughtful writing.
Elaine from Vancouver, Canada
mireille
What a great reminder! I am trying to be more conscious of my shopping habits and buy less or buy more second hand. I still need to do better!
http://www.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com
Chrissy
Hi Michelle. This is my first visit to your blog and I’m intrigued…first by the beautiful print dress, complimented by a fab pink belt and red boots! But your message is thought provoking and challenging. I do recognize when I’m trying to distract with shopping, however, I needed this reminder. Also, I wasn’t aware that Alidi (we are talking about the grocery chain right?) is on the fashion naughty list! I’ll be bookmarking your post. “Fast Fashion” is something I’ve thought more about. Again, thank you…
Chrissy
Granola & Grace
MT
Hi Chrissy, Welcome to the club! It’s wonderful to meet new sustainable activists and conscious consumers, thanks so much for leaving a comment.
Yep, I’m afraid Aldi is a no-no…So many brands are playing sneaky buggers, we have to be diligent and always ask who made my clothes. For that matter “where did it come from?” is my new mantra and I’m not afraid to ask.
Jones Brown
Most people take shopping as an excuse and a fun day out but not as a necessity. But when you consider whether you require to shop or not based on need, you can understand what you are doing wrong.