How knowing our personal style will help us to become conscious consumers

During 2020, I developed a campaign called #WardrobeForClimate. This was aimed to educate my community in social media about the impact of fashion in the environment. But, it was also a way to boost our creativity while we were lockdown by mixing and matching the clothes we had. The most sustainable clothes are definitely the ones we already have. And during that time, I understood the importance of having timeless and functional pieces, as well as, knowing your personal style. This was a great experience for me to become a more conscious and responsible consumer. However, with the TikTok era and the psychological pressure of fashion in social media, the over consumerism is being back on track. But, the planet is still being impacted and social labor justice in fashion is still being demanded.

The idea of conscious consumerism was pretty much an illusion after the pandemic. According to Fashion United, the fashion industry returned to pre-pandemic shopping levels and e-commerce stores like Shein and Amazon became the top-visited websites for purchasing apparel. The Chinese brand Shein specifically has exploded in popularity due to TikTok trends and Instagram reels. Speeding up fashion cycles, which surely means an increase in discarded clothes.

Seasonal trends cycles changing a little bit faster than usual and showing off how trendy we are in social media has made me wonder for whom we are dressing nowadays. The fashion industry is still a polluter and with a higher demand on clothes there is a higher impact on social and natural resources. Therefore, dressing to impress in social media is not working for good.

That made rethink the idea of #WardrobeForClimate, where dressing for success with a personal perspective could be better. The focus of fashion as consumers should be aimed to practice circular strategies as a way of investing and saving in fashion. Investing in ourselves by embracing our personal style and saving resources (social, natural and even economics) by making conscious and responsible choices when dressing.

Reducing the amount of textile in landfills, tackling the greenwashing in the secondhand market, avoiding labor injustice and saving our personal money by decreasing our purchases are just part of the things that we could achieve by creating a wardrobe with timeless and functional pieces that relate to our personal style. Thus, from having nothing to wear perspective to reengaging with our closet by knowing our personal style is a way of making responsible choices about our consumption habits.