Sustainable Challenge: A Year of Only Second Hand Clothing
Last year, as 2022 ended and I began to think about what I wanted to change in my life in 2023, I came up with a challenge for myself that had just a few simple rules. The most important rule was: to not buy any brand new clothing for an entire year. If I needed to buy anything at all, I would have to thrift it, find it on Facebook marketplace, or swap/trade for it!
Why did not buying any new clothes for a year feel important to me?
Towards the end of 2022, I began learning a lot about the current state of our global fashion economy.
The more I learned, the more I wanted to know…and the more I knew, the more troubled I felt about so many things.
I was troubled by the common practices of most major retailers in the world (things many of us already know like how the fashion industry exploits fashion workers in the global south, is one of the leading causes of pollution on our planet, and produces poor quality clothing, not designed to last and thus promoting more endless consumption of cheap clothes, etc etc), but I also became troubled by my own apathy towards mindless consumption of fast fashion up until that point.
But, as Maya Angelou so wisely said: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.”
And finally, I knew better. And it was time to make some changes to DO better.
A woman searches for used clothes amid tonnes discarded in the Atacama Desert. Some 59,000 tonnes of clothing arrive each year at the Iquique port in the Alto Hospicio free zone in northern Chile. [Martin Bernetti/AFP]
Read more about the Atacama Desert textile dumping ground here: https://shorturl.at/suyBL
Where was I getting my information?
As someone who is married to a journalist, I know the importance of consuming information from reputable sources.
I poured over articles and blog posts from reputable non-profit organizations like: The David Suzuki Foundation, Fashion Revolution, re/make and news sources such as: CBC, The New York Times and more.
I read books from the library, like: The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg and The Conscious Closet by Elizabeth Cline
But the number one source that I connected with and learned so, so much from is the Clothes Horse Podcast and her website and instagram account.
Taken from the Clothes Horse website: “The global fashion industry is worth about $2 trillion and it employs roughly 75 million people. Yet few people know about its impact on the planet and the people. Clotheshorse is a podcast that decodes and demystifies the fashion industry, its secret language, hidden strategies, and so much more. It is hosted by Amanda Lee McCarty (she/they), a fashion professional who has worked in the buying department of some of (fast) fashion’s most iconic brands. She–along with her industry friends–breaks down how our clothes are really made and sold and the work we have to do to change it. Clotheshorse is the podcast for people who love clothes but hate capitalism.”
I HIGHLY recommend checking out Amanda’s podcast and instagram account if you’re even the tiniest bit curious about what’s happening in the fashion industry behind the scenes these days.
You will be shocked…and angry, and sad, and furious, and inspired…to make some changes in your own habits! If anything, the series below on why new clothes are kinda garbage is a must listen.
The Challenge
A Year of No New Clothes: The Rules
I am allowed to thrift, borrow, trade or buy from Facebook Marketplace for items.
New socks and underwear are allowed, if needed.
Try to also only thrift shoes, if any new shoes are needed.
If I can’t find it second hand when I think I need it, I must wait until I find what I’m looking for second hand to purchase.
So, what did I learn?
I learned SO much during my No New Clothing year. So much, in fact, that I have written a separate blog post on this topic to keep this post from getting too long.
Check out my blog post below on the surprising lessons I learned doing this challenge last year! I honestly wasn’t expecting to learn so much about myself, my shopping habits, or my personal style during this last year of sticking to second hand clothing!
And, you guessed it, this challenge ended up being so valuable for me that I’m now onto year two of this challenge for myself, so I’ll do another post at the end of 2024 about what I’ve learned in two years of not buying any new clothing!
Let’s have a discussion!
And as always, I am so curious to know what you think about this concept! Have you challanged yourself to this idea or something similar before?
Have you been learning more about the impacts of the fashion industry on our planet lately?
Let me know in the comments section below, I’d really love to have a discussion about all of this with whoever else is interested!
Last year I challenged myself to not buy any new clothing for one full year. I was allowed to shop second hand if I needed anything, but the goal was to make a clean cut from my mindless consumption of fast fashion, once and for all. Here’s how that year went, and what I learned from my challenge!