How to Build an Eco-Friendly Wardrobe - Guest Post by Teresa Maria

When you realise it’s been 2 weeks since your last blog post…

Unfortunately, my Crohn’s resulted in another hospital stay, but the lovely Teresa Maria (a fellow Grow & Glow member) from Outlandish blog is bringing us a blog post today.

New Season – How to Build an Eco-Friendly Wardrobe

It’s the end of August, and the favourite season of all fashionistas is here: make way for Autumn!

When it comes to fashion and style, Autumn is a much more significant season than the start of a new year. This is when we start a new year at school, return to work from long, blissful summer vacations, and have the biggest amount of new ideas, and inspiration to bring them through.

While the Amazon rainforest burns away in front of our eyes, and the glaciers are melting away, as well as the unprecedented weather phenomena, I can’t help but wonder what can I do?

One feels so very small and helpless in the big scheme of things. But there are things that every single one of us can do! The number one thing is to drastically decrease the amount of meat we eat. The second is to make some big changes in the way we dress and think about style.

A new season often means a new wardrobe. But buying a whole wardrobe at a time like this simply isn’t okay. That doesn’t mean though that you’d need to compromise on your style.

This year I’ve been focusing heavily on sustainable brands and ecological ways of clothing ourselves. So, let’s start this process, of finding you a brand new wardrobe without hitting the shops, by upgrading our wardrobes.

Okay, I feel ya, I don’t want to open that wardrobe door wider than what’s enough for me to snatch out any shirt for the day either, but we can do this!

The prospect of going through all those crop tops that you haven’t found a bottom half to pair with, and facing all those dresses which you haven’t been able to pull on for years, is daunting. BUT we only have to do this once and we’re good for a long time.

This is capsule wardrobe taken to the next level and the Autumn clean (yes, it’s a new concept) for your fashion archives. With these 2 (oh yeah, just two!) very simple tricks you can get started on establishing a brand new style for yourself.

How To Build A Brand New Wardrobe

Step one: Creating three piles

Whenever needing to undergo a bigger organising project, it’s always best to start as simple as possible. With a wardrobe upgrade I would definitely start by thinking up three categories (go Sex and the City style, ladies: Keep, Toss, Sell/Charity) and going through my entire wardrobe assembling each piece of clothing to one of these corresponding piles.

Remember, don’t be sentimental and keep a practical mind; some of the clothes you have may be completely worn out, or haven’t fit you for years, and you only keep them there for the dear memories. Throw them on the toss-pile, just do it.

Then there are those pieces that you haven’t worn simply because you’re not sure what to pair them up with, or whether you can in fact pull them off without attracting everybody’s attention, like a lion let loose in London. These should go on the sell/charity pile immediately. If you haven’t worn them once, the chances are you won’t.

And then the Prime Group: the Keeps. These are items which are simple in colour scheme and shape, classic pieces, and those which you simply love and keep wearing over and over again. Make sure each piece you put on the Keep-pile is a piece that you can pair with the other pieces in the same pile. Put nothing on the Keep-pile for which you can’t think of a pair.

Step Two: Back to the Basics

After you’ve disposed of the tossed garments (H&M and other shops have recycling bins where you can drop the unwanted garments), it’s time to focus on the keeps. Hang them up and fold them neatly back to your closet, and pay attention to what’s there. Can you notice an absence of certain pieces?

Fret not! The point is that you wouldn’t go back to your old ways of rushing to the first online store that pops on your mind, but instead approach purchasing clothes with a new mindset.

For example, check out this article on how you can shop a tad smarter from now on. You don’t want to fill your closet with more tops you’ll never use made out of fabrics that fall apart in the first wash, right?

With clever shopping you’re left with extra money, which you can then spend to amp up the sustainable volume of your entire wardrobe.

Once you’ve got your wardrobe sorted, getting up in the morning feels that much better and easier. When you’ve got pieces of clothing there that mix and match well with multiple pieces you’ll be set for weeks, even months ahead.

To feel stylish doesn’t take too much of an effort, at the end of the day. Keep the shapes and colour palettes in check and add extra flavor with accessories and you’ll be one of the chicest fashionistas walking the streets any given day.