This blog is going to be all about my efforts to cure myself of my shopping addiction, using my creativity, skills and imagination to find a new way to furnish my need to always have something new and fresh in my wardrobe.
I'll also be adding posts on my allotment vegetable growing, preserves and drinks making, crafty creations and anything else imaginative I manage to get up to that keeps me away from the shops !
But first ... to the Question!
After reading an article in the Guardian "Making Do and Mending my ways" by Rebecca Smithers, where she wrote about her addiction to retail therapy, I asked myself this question " Could I go a whole year without buying clothes?"
"No Way!" was my first reaction to the concept, "Why Bother?" was my second thought ... I ran upstairs to the Boudoir and opened up (one of) my wardrobes for a quick stock check ... the wardrobe for 'just' dresses ... I counted about 70 of them ..... then I drew back the curtain covering my 60 boxes of shoes. I looked over my shoulder to see a rail full of macs and skirts and before I could go into our own bedroom and start looking through my 'second' wardrobe, I'd already answered my question.
There's not much chance of me having to run around starkers if I stay away from Zara for a year now is there???!!!
The 'dress' wardrobe
So, it's official ... I'm a hoarder. Admittedly, a lot of my purchases are from Charity Shops and flea markets so, as Jesse J says .."it's not about the money money money" but there's no denying it ... I don't really need more clothes. I just can't resist the temptation to 'pop' into Selfridges or 'just have a quick look' at Brand Alley. After all, online shopping is not real shopping is it? Trouble is, some of the stuff that is sitting in my wardrobe (s) still has the tags on and remains unworn (shame on me). Marks and Spencer's reckon a whopping 92% of people cling on to stuff they'll never wear! One of the issues I have is that as I can fluctuate in weight, I have a couple of different sizes of clothes in there, so a key aim is to find a happy medium size wise where most of my stuff fits well and maybe say goodbye to the stuff I was wearing at 18!
The shoe shelves!
A bit of History
Most of us know about the "make do and mend" movement that started during WW2. There was a massive shortage of supplies in the UK due to the sinking of ships trying to bring supplies across the channel to Blighty. During this time, British clothing manufacturers were commissioned to make uniforms as a priority. This led to a shortage in 'civilian' clothing as clothes rationing was introduced in 1941. The Ministry of Information started the "Make do and mend"campaign in order to help women get the most possible wear out of theirs and their Family's clothes.
Tips included were; how to wash and iron more carefully to make clothes last longer, re-knitting woollens to save materials, darning clothes, using patterns for making clothes out of curtains and tablecloths and many many more. All these tips were put into practice and the British woman became an expert at making something out of nothing!
How is this relevant to todays society?
Now, I'm not suggesting we should all start building bunkers in our Gardens or start using gravy browning to draw seams on the back of our legs .. I've not gone completely bonkers (yet)!
I do think though that we live in a throwaway society. Clothing has become so cheap now, as high street retailers squeeze supplier's margins harder and harder so that you can buy a brand new top for the price of a pint! Why should we bother looking after our stuff or repairing/customising it when we can just buy another one? Fashion magazines encourage us to abandon "last years" styles and buy new ones so we can be "on trend". Heaven forbid we might be seen in a Pocahontas shawl when the look for this season is 'Future Sailor!"
I'd like to see if we can still be 'on trend' without having to keep buying more and more cheap throwaway clothing. I'd like to see if making, upcycling, reworking, customising and plain old rediscovering my existing clothes could liberate me from this constant need to go shopping! I loathe shopping malls, yet i feel compelled to go and see "what's in". I have started to doubt whether constantly buying stuff actually brings me any happiness? If it does, it seems to be short lived and it's not long before I'm trawling the shops or the net for something else. If "Retail Therapy" was a head shrink, I'd have changed my doctor by now. Could doing things differently actually be more satisfying?
So, I've decided to take the plunge. I'm not going to buy any new clothes for the whole of 2012! GASP! There, I've said it!
Instead, I'm going to Make. Do. And Mend! I'd love to share my experience with you and hope that you might find some ideas you can use yourselves. In these uncertain times, we could all probably do with hanging on to our hard earned cash, I'd like to come out of the experience as one of those ladies we all envy who manages to buy quality rather than quantity and is happy to do that!
Wish me luck guys ... I'm gonna need it (I've already seen a dress that I want)
Leona X
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