Never-Ending Fashion Can Come From What You Already Have.
By Camilla Castro Abadia
Have you ever found your wardrobe to be “boring” or thought that it is time to give your closet a whole new start? Relax, you’re not the only one. I was in the same situation too. Standing in front of my closet looking at all the old things, both worn and unworn, I often think how great it is to refresh my wardrobe.
Well truthfully, that’s not always the answer.
And I am not saying to refrain from going shopping at all. However, buying new things all the time can lead to the feeling that the only way to stay fashionable is to keep shopping. Everyone can learn to use the existing clothes and sewing for making an interesting item out of 2 old shirts.
I am someone who tends to keep too many clothes, and I have to learn to avoid feeling like I need to buy another item of clothing whenever I open my closet door. and one of my ways of dealing with this is actually to look at my items and see how they fit with everything else. The goal is not to think that particular items can only look good when worn together, but to open myself to new styling opportunities.
I have noticed that this is something quite common for people these days. As someone who worked in retail, I was surprised to see how many customers came to our store to get a piece that would complete a specific look. Of course, one can understand the need to have a birthday outfit, but there is no point in buying shoes and searching for a matching top before knowing what the occasion is.
I know for sure that these people have a piece of clothing in their closet that would look good with that new purchase, but people feel a certain pressure to be always fashionably dressed in the latest items. Another aspect of society that constantly pushes people to buy new clothing is the excessive emphasis on overconsumption in fashion. Visiting a social media platform, one consistently encounters fashion influencers bringing a massive haul from SHEIN, with boxes piled up in stacks of 20, or boasting about wearing something just once and never twice. This raises the question: are they truly fashionable? Wouldn’t one be more impressed by the fact that a person reused an old clothing item and created a whole new look by pairing it differently instead of creating a new outfit with new clothes?
I can give you an example. Somebody once asked me how I was able to wear the same denim pants twice when I had them both styled differently. That is precisely my point. The jeans didn’t change, I didn’t have to buy another pair because I simply looked at my clothing item from another angle. For me, personal style means the creativity you have in using what you already have as opposed to how much you are ready to spend.
People seem to become so used to seeing their clothes styled in a certain manner that they forget about the potential of those pieces. Think about it: how many times have you put on a particular top with the same jeans two or three times and then stopped wearing it because you were bored with it? But did you try wearing it over a shirt or the other way around? A lot of times, the issue isn’t that our closet is empty. It’s just that we quit trying to find fresh ways to use what we already have.
Fashion is meant to be a source of creativity. It’s about experimentation, even if the result is something different from what you had in mind. There’s no need to invest in a whole new wardrobe to refresh your style. Just spend some time in front of the mirror looking for combinations you would have never dreamed of otherwise.
I think we’ve lost the element of experiment in all of this.
Imagine what will happen when I ask you to take ten random items from your wardrobe and make as many combinations with them as possible. At first, it may seem like you can’t create much. However, in fact, this is where creativity kicks in. The purpose is not to create different outfits. Instead, the task is to see how many identities the same clothes can adopt.
However, what if we could take this creativity a step further and change not only the way we style our clothes but also the clothes themselves? Another topic that I think more people should know about is modular clothing. You may have come across it online without knowing there was a concept for it. The concept behind modular clothing is that it contains different parts that can be fitted together or removed from each other using various fastening techniques including snaps, buttons, zippers, and so on. You take the pieces apart and change their arrangements depending on the effect you want.
Picturing a jacket with removable sleeves that can be made into a vest. Or pants that can be turned into shorts and then connected to another compatible piece of clothing to create something new. Instead of spending money on five pieces of clothing, you may create five different outfits from fewer pieces of modular clothing. What I find particularly interesting about modular clothing is that in this case the traditional view about clothing as something that should keep its original form may change.
There are many clothing items that cannot be designed in a modular fashion, and modular items must share a few characteristics in their construction. Nonetheless, I think about all the potential options this concept opens in our understanding of clothing. It makes me think about something else: why is there so little of this approach in everyday fashion? If brands are capable of introducing dozens of new fashion collections every year, then why don’t they pay more attention to the design of the clothing that is intended to grow with the person wearing it?
And, even if you don’t have anything modular in your wardrobe, you can always look for the potential of the clothing that you already own. Take some time to learn basic sewing skills. Cut up an old shirt. Add lace to a skirt. Use an old pair of jeans as a new fabric source and make something completely new. Even something as simple as changing the buttons on the jacket or adjusting the fit can help you learn to appreciate clothes you already had. That is not to say that everyone needs to become a fashion designer. But I do think everyone should take the time to create something rather than just consume.
In the world we live in now, trends come and go rapidly. Something you bought three months ago might already be considered out of fashion. And when do you get a chance to find out what you like if you ride the trend wave all the time? It’s fine to buy new clothes if you really love the piece you’re purchasing. That being said, there is a difference between purchasing a piece that reflects your personal style and buying something just because it is trendy at the moment. No one needs to buy a whole new closet just because a new trend emerged on social media.
I believe that the most fashionable individuals in the world are not the ones with the largest closets, but the ones able to transform something ordinary into something unique. A person has the power of re-inventing the same jacket into ten different outfits and for this reason he/she can impress people much more than a person who has ten jackets to create ten outfits.
In the end, being fashionable is an art and one’s wardrobe can be regarded as material for such an art. The essence in one’s creativity. So every time you look at your wardrobe and feel like there is nothing to wear, you need to set yourself a challenge. Pick up ten pieces that you already have and see how many outfits you can create from them.
And maybe that’s what makes fashion never-ending. Not the endless cycle of buying and replacing, but the endless possibilities of creating something new from what was already there.