When was the last time you bought clothes that you actually needed – not just wanted?
We currently live in a world where it’s impossible not to want to buy more, want more and have more. There are new clothes, new sales and new trends popping up every week, and social media doesn’t make it any easier for us to forget about the things that we don’t have.
But when do we stop to think about the question that (hopefully) lingers in the back of our minds; how much is too much?
There isn’t really a universal answer to that question.
Some people love having a small, capsule wardrobe, while others prefer living freely with entire rooms filled to the brim with clothes. However, we can all agree that there is a point where having too many clothes can start to cause genuine issues, not just for ourselves
Overconsumption of clothes has a huge impact on the environment. According to UniformMarket, it’s estimated that over 100 billion clothes are produced every year, and
from start to finish, the process of making clothes uses a lot of natural resources.
It’s not only the making of clothes, but the disposing of them that has another big environmental impact. Many people throw away their clothes, which often end up in landfills and can take multiple decades to break down.
Unfortunately, many fast-fashion brands also rely on exploiting workers to keep prices low, where employees face dire working conditions for very little pay.
It’s seems easy to buy a lot of cheap clothing from these brands, but supporting them doesn’t benefit the thousands of workers who are possibly being taken advantage of.
Also, majority of the clothing from these brands are usually made from very low-quality materials and produced rapidly, causing them to last only a few wears and end up in landfills.
Impulse buying and updating your wardrobe constantly can be easy when buying affordable clothes, but the cost of buying all of them begins to add up, and can cause immense financial strain for the buyers, and could lead to debt.
Buying new clothes every week can also lead to clothes losing their emotional and practical value, as people begin to devalue them due to having an excessive amount.
Overall, is keeping up with the latest clothing trends that important when we look at the effects? Is it worth destroying our planet and all our natural resources for a cheaper top?
Thinking through all the consequences of overconsumption can give you an unfamiliar perspective on how your choices can affect yourself and the world.
By Mischa Daya