BeautDoozy | A Sustainable Wardrobe I

Editing With Consciousness

by Gabrielle Loesch

Seasonal shuffling of wardrobes are fun, as we review pieces we still love, some bought out of folly, and others we barely wore... but streamlining our fashion acquisitions is a whole other story. If we're doing this with a friend, the experience can be sprinkled with laughter and 'What the... was I thinking!?'

Or it can be zen like, with thoughts and prayers for the less fortunate who may inherit what no longer works for us. The problem, is that thoughts and prayers only achieve using our time with no ROI - return on investment.

They don't clean polluted rivers, don't feed hungry kids, don't buy education. So let's replace the pretense with authentic respect while we take action to unspoil the earth, one garment at a time. It may take a bit of practice to dispose of clothes and accessories the proper way, but giving them a second life surely cuts down on long-term devastation for everyone.

Let's have🍾 an afternoon 🍨 party with drinks 🍷 and tiny  🍥 elegant  🍣  canapés! 🍹 Invite a friend or two. One is better though, for opinions galore may fail the purpose of this bi-annual feat (every two years). And let's make sure to return the favor, we don't want to miss watching someone else's excruciating indecision, while we relax, sip, have a bite, and toss suggestions here and there.

1st RUNWAY - We group everything by color. Hanged and folded garments, all accessories, including shoes, bags, light weight outerwear, but we leave jewelry, heavy coats and jackets where they are.

By the way, multicolor is a group too, and some of us may add orange and pink items to the red pile. Here's an easy color theory to follow but it's optional because whatever we like is the main rule, right? And we can change our mind at anytime? Right.

2nd RUNWAY - Let's pick all the items we haven't used in the last 24 months, and put them in the . NO . pile. If we're still in love with some, this is the big moment. Drum roll🥁ll🥁ll please! We've got to let go. After all, it's been a couple of years or more, since we last showed these babies some affection. We don't need them to hijack precious space, and should they be asked, 'they' want to move on! Let's free ourselves from the illusion that perhaps, one day...

Back to reality. Next to the . NO . is the . ? .pile with everything that doesn't fit anymore or has a defect: missing buttons, undone seams or hems, faded colors, stains, ragged heels, and so on. The question is whether these items will be fixed or not - but we can't worry about this painful decision right now, our plate is full... of yummies, so let's take a break and savor the elegant finger food.

Before the pandemic and its provoked shift in consciousness, slow fashion  didn't get today's noise, as part of a remedy that's doable by each one of us, even if we feel like microscopic band-aids crushed by mountains of waste. As the story goes, when we throw back to the sea that sand dollar found on the beach, we don't make much of a difference overall, but that particular sand dollar sure is grateful!

We're not done yet but we've come a long way, so head on over to Part II or straight to Part III.