I grew up with a love for second hand/vintage clothes. When I was in my teens and began making my own money, I spend it on preloved items. I loved anything that was a little different. I even went through a period of wearing what can only be described as granny dresses, with my army boots.
I also get into making my own clothes, my mum had a sewing machine and she had made clothes for me and my sisters, so it seemed like a natural for me to do the same. I made dresses out of old curtain material, the more psychedelic the better and tops out of odd socks. I had my own style and wanted to stick with it.
I never really went along with any styles that were in fashion. Fashion to me was about self expression, not about following a trend. I really felt no desire to 'Fit In' to the world that was portrayed around me. I didn't like how people treated each other and the natural world around them.
To this day, I still prefer preloved clothes, especially because I know the true price of fashion and the affect it has on our natural environment. It creates huge amounts of waste and pollution. With up to 80% of hat has been created, ending up in the dump, because fashion trends are changing all of the time and so many feel the need to stay, up to date and trendy.
Toys I made, from some of my daughters old baby clothes.
I tend to wear my clothes until they are beyond repair and even at that, I try and hold onto to most, to use in upcycling projects. For patches or cuntcraft for example. I have even made toys out of my children's clothes. I am lucky to live within a community, where clothes swaps are held, a few times throughout the year. So even if you grow out of something, you can swap it for something different.
We also have the community Boat, where people leave clothes they no longer want for others to take home with them. I am in the process now of off loading a bit, going though my clothes and deciding what I really love and what I can let go, so that someone else can enjoy it.
It really upsets me, that so many people, spend their money on clothes only to wear them once or twice. I remember a friend telling me that she knew of some people who instead of washing their underwear just bought new ones every week. Can you imagine the amount of waste that those people are producing.
If you look at the way at which textiles are meant, you will discover how damaging it is, how it plays a huge part in degrading the soil. How the fashion industry, is one of the world's largest uses of water, using anything from 20 trillion to 200 trillion litres every year.
The fashion industry is the second largest consumer industry of water, requiring about 700 gallons to produce one cotton shirt and 2 000 gallons of water to produce a pair of jeans.
So much fashion is made using plastic fibers. With, the washing of clothes, releasing up to 500 000 tons of microfibres into the ocean each year. This is down right shocking if you ask me, but yet who is really talking about it. When people talk of fashion, it is all about what is trendy and not about how destructive it actually is.
Don't even get me started on textiles made from animal skin. The pain and suffering that animals have to endure, so people can 'look good'.
I talk about it with my girls, so that they are aware of the real price of fashion. But it still doesn't stop them from desiring certain items that they see online, or someone wearing it in a movie. We don't have a T.V so they are not bombarded with advertising, but we do live close to a town so it is hard to avoid it.
My eldest daughter, who turned 13 in the summer, is finding her own style. She is happy to find stuff at the boat, but I have also given her some money so that she can buy herself some items of clothing. Like I said I will talk to her about fashion, but am not here to force anyone to do anything, including my children.
So far she has not experienced any peer pressure to look a certain way. But I know, that it does exist. I just feel lucky that I have never experienced it first or second hand.
I guess living how I do, keeps me and girls out of mainstream society. But at one point my girls will decide how they wish to live and then it is up to them, I just hope that they will remember what I have shared with them.
This is my response to the latest Kiss Blogging Idea. which is all about The Fashion Industry.
