Today is my blog-iversary: I was thinking yesterday that it must be about a year since I started this blog. I just looked and my first ever post was on October 25th 2020 – exactly a year ago today.
I am no longer terrified of sharing photos of myself
When I uploaded my first post, I was completely terrified, convinced I’d be trolled by people making nasty comments about my clothes or my looks. I have always loathed being photographed and must have one of the lowest proportions of selfies on Instagram. One year in, the number of even mildly unpleasant comments is zero. Needn’t have worried. I now even have a selfie stick. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d type.
My blog is still very amateur. I’ve done very little in the way of publicising it or optimising it for search engines. I haven’t set up a mailing list, or even gone beyond using a very basic Word Press template. Now that my blog is officially one year old, I feel ready to invest in making it a little more profesh – mailing list, or at least design upgrade, coming soon …
Besides getting over the mortal terror of sharing photos of myself, other things have changed:
My ideas about sustainable fashion have changed completely
Having bought exclusively pre-owned clothes in 2020, at the start of this year I experimented by buying the odd piece from the sustainable collections of fast fashion brands, such as these H&M Conscious Collection joggers. I do love those joggers. Lockdown would have been even less bearable without them, in fact. However, knowing what I’ve learnt about sustainability over the past year (on my masters postgrad degree course), I don’t want to support fast fashion brands any longer.
The main reason being that these clothes simply don’t last. The same is true of this Zara Join Life sweatshirt. I like its ruched style, the colour, the neckline – but it went bobbly really quickly. I’ve shaved the bobbles off, but it won’t be able to be worn for much longer.
Yes, Zara and H&M have impressive-sounding sustainability commitments to using recycled or organic materials, but it’s still highly unsustainable to manufacture clothes that barely last as only 1% of clothes are recycled: the vast majority go to landfill. Now I’d rather buy fewer clothes but choose better quality that will last years, including when shopping secondhand. It’s just too depressing to throw clothes out I’ve only had a few weeks or months. I fully appreciate that this is a very privileged choice and that constrained budgets mean that very many people need to buy inexpensive fast fashion.
I’m more aware of secondhand shopping pitfalls
There are lots of wonderful, genuine sellers on Depop and other platforms who just want to give their old clothes a second life while making a few quid. But there are also unscrupulous sellers who are making money by selling new and highly unsustainable cheap clothes on platforms intended for preloved pieces. I feel like this post from pant-wettingly funny IG account @depopdrama says it all:
I now make sure to check out sellers briefly: you can easily tell what they’re about from the number and type of clothes they’re selling.
Writing got easier
Writing my first post was agonising. I couldn’t think of anything to write apart from horrible clichés, and it took for ever. However, if you practice something, it gets easier. Who knew?! According to researcher Carol Dweck, Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset. They tend to achieve more than those with a more fixed mindset (those who believe their talents are innate gifts).
Thank you so much for being one of the people to read my blog during its first year 😊. I appreciate it so much.
Jen
#preloved #thanksitsthrifted #secondhand #makefashioncircular #sustainability #sustainablefashion
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