No New Clothes

I'm not getting on very well (or at all) with this year's resolutions, so it probably doesn't seem like sense to go adding an extra one, BUT this one sort of targets several good intentions in one go - getting thin, de-cluttering, getting creative, wearing brighter clothes. Put briefly - no new clothes.


I've seen a lot on the web recently about people who decided for sound ecological, environmental reasons to go for a year without buying any new clothes. My first thought was it was a bit of a gimmicky 'jump on a bandwagon' idea, with no relevance to me. After all, I don't buy throw away fashion, my clothes are of mostly a quality that will last for ages (apart from last winter's coat which wore out in four months! So, not shopping there again), and to be honest if none of us EVER bought new clothes the whole industry would fold.
Then I began to think I could apply it what I'd like to achieve this year.
Getting thinner - at first I thought that as an incentive I'd buy no new clothes till I'd lost some weight, then I realised I won't actually have to buy anything, that I have a whole wardrobe full of items that used to fit way back when, like these two fabulous skirts from Boden. They're in good condition (if they weren't I wouldn't have hung on to them), and still more or less my style of dressing.

For the last few years my criteria for clothes shopping has been simple, practical and no effort in deciding what to wear with what - black/navy trousers, plain or striped dark go-with-anything tops; a lazy, no thought required wardrobe, which suddenly seems so dull. One of my resolutions was to kick this habit, and go back to the more colourful clothes I used to wear (again see the skirts above in contrast to a recent washing line of dullness). You're probaly starting to see now how all these intentions fit together - get thin, instantly have  bright cheerful clothes to wear, and clear the wardrobe.
If it works, it's win, win.
If the whole weight-loss idea doesn't happen miraculously overnight, I'll raid the stash of yarn, lengths of material, and old clothes saved for re-modelling, that fill up drawers and cupboards, and get creative. So more de-cluttering.

As for every rule, there'll be exceptions - underwear, shoes and possibly band merch tshirts (because they're as much about helping musicians as buying new clothes) - but otherwise nothing new! As a New Year resolution it has one head start - so far, two months into the year, I've bought nothing.