Is It Worth It? Fast Fashion Reality

Hi girls,
Happy Sunday!

I am writing this post today from Gails Bakery in Hampstead as my internet is down – that’s why this post is a little later than normally published as I’ve been trying to fix it all weekend, I’ve given up in the end (I’m also hungover and it’s never a good idea to start trying to ‘fix’ things when hanging).

Anyway, it looks like Autumn is really upon us now; it was so cold yesterday evening! (Classic British small talk right now, sorry), and with the new season comes a new wardrobe. Personally I get super excited about switching my wardrobe around (I literally move my summer things to the back and bring my jumpers, velvet, boots to the front). I always get super excited this time of year as I get so fed up wearing my dresses and sandals and can’t wait to get into my cosy jumpers, hats and scarves that I’ve forgotten I own for the last 6 months. Then comes January and I suddenly get sick of my jumpers all over again – never satisfied!
The shops have their new season products in and it’s always exciting to see what trends the shops have really gone after and which they haven’t. One of the biggest trends this fall (I work for an American company so apologies for the American sayings sometimes) is leopard print. Now I’m not really a big leopard print kinda gal, I see it being portrayed so badly on cheap fabrics that I decided I was not a fan years ago. When it is done correctly then it looks fabulous, a silk midi skirt for example or pony hair trainers like I have below but it’s a print that has been over done too many times.

If you’re really feeling the love for leopard print this season then my advice would be to either invest in a piece that is slightly more expensive but you need to decide whether you’re ready to fully commit or take a more subtle approach to the print and go for accessories; a headband for example or trainers like mine (they are from trainer brand Maruti).

The other big trend this season is a cosy story – as in lots of layers, cashmere, scarves, big heavy wool coats (you get the picture). This is a fantastic trend that the shops have really gone after and it’s easy to tap into this as a lot of stores are stripping back and going for solid pieces in beautiful colours and good quality. This is an important trend that links to the economy and the state of the world right now. There are a lot of angry and somewhat scared people in the world at the moment, in some ways we’re living in uncertain times what with Brexit in the UK, people who appose Trump in America and in Germany Angela Merkel is hanging on by a thread. So us as consumers are re-thinking about the way we live our lives and spend our money. We’re buying good quality staple investment pieces that will last us a long time rather than buy now wear now which is fantastic.

A big conversation this year among the general public, celebrities and politicians is the impact we are having on our beautiful world, the amount we waste and how much more we could be doing to be more sustainable, all brought on by our national treasure Sir David Attenborough and his incredible Blue Planet 2 programme. If I look back at my childhood, we never did much recycling at home and it wasn’t something that was really promoted in school so I never really thought about it in great detail.
However this year I made the decision to stop buying clothes from the fast fashion giants such as Zara. This year so far I have bought 1 or 2 pieces from the high street compared to every month going shopping and spending a considerable amount of my salary on buy now wear now fast fashion. I just felt that I was spending too much of my money on bad quality clothing that lasts less than a year; you wear it a couple of times, wash it and it never looks the same. The fast fashion giants such as Zara are very quick to get the latest trend in the shops for next to nothing prices. When an influencer such as Kendall Jenner steps out in something amazing/controversial, the high street giant will literally organise a ship loaded with materials and factory workers who will make the clothes onboard while on route to the UK – shocking I know and you can bet the hard working people don’t get paid a decent salary.
Instead I have looked to vintage and pre-loved clothes – my form of recycling. I really think about what I want to buy before buying it, will I love this item this time next year, will it last until then? Driven by social media (I keep mentioning it in a negative way but I do love social media in some ways too!) we think we need a new outfit in order to go out, see friends or go away on holiday because we couldn’t possibly upload a picture of ourselves wearing the same outfit twice? RUBBISH! We should wear our clothes with pride and look at them with love that we worked hard to be able to afford such lovely pieces of clothing – that is something we should never take for granted. Below are some of my favourite pieces of clothing worn this past year, if you follow me on Instagram you’ll definitely find quite a few pictures of me in these…

So next time you go shopping and you’re deciding whether to purchase something, just stop for a second and think is it worth it? Is it just a fad trend that you’ll be bored of this time next year? Will it last you a long time? Does it go with a lot of pieces in your wardrobe and will you get a good amount of wear out of it? Is it just the unbelievable deal you’ll be getting on the price that is attracting you to buy? Is it just so you can take a picture of you wearing it with a beautiful view in the background? If the answer is yes to those then maybe think twice and put your money away for something more worthwhile. Then just maybe you’ll find at the end of the month you’ve got a bit more money than usual (always a nice surprise) and you can feel better that you’ve contributed in your own way to saving our planet just a little bit.

Giving you and our plant lots of love this Sunday afternoon,

Xxxx