Welcome to the final part of our little sustainability series here on the Wild blog. Hopefully you’ve been able to try out one or two ideas from our previous blogs on low-waste cooking and cleaning! As we head into March, full of hope, slightly more dopamine in our brains now the days are getting longer, it’s time to have a think about how you can bring sustainable practices into your wardrobe. Pull up your socks and roll up your sleeves, it’s time for…

Sustainable clothing 101

I will not buy any more clothes until I genuinely have nothing left to wear = I will get as much use as possible out of each garment I own already, then I will look into buying something else
The joy of bringing life to a top, or a pair of jeans that you thought were dead and gone is so underrated! Got a hole? Patch it. Embroider it shut. Stitch it up. You can make a very average t-shirt suddenly one of a kind! You could also start chopping clothes and putting bits together to create a new garment. For example, if you have a shirt with a very stubborn stain on the chest, you could cut the collar off and the cuffs and add it to a plain jumper you don’t wear anymore because it’s too boring and then hey presto! A new smart/casual jumper!
If you want to look into this kind of thing, Orsola de Castro’s book: Loved Clothes Last: How the Joy of Rewearing and Repairing Your Clothes Can Be a Revolutionary Act is a great place to start. Join her in her movement calling for change in the fashion industry! Say goodbye to short-term, unfulfilling relationships with the clothes you buy, and say hello to a long-term relationship, built to last

When I need something new, I will always buy second hand or eco-friendly clothes = I will buy second hand clothes or eco-friendly clothes whenever possible, but I will also be aware that this can be at a high price and sometimes it isn’t sensible for my budget.

It’s all very well promising to never buy from high street fast fashion brands, but if your socks are now more repair fabric than original sock, you might not be able to go all out on the super sustainable and recycled fibre versions of these things. This is, sadly, because they are not fully in the mainstream yet. Capitalism, consumerism, and a blatant disregard for the environment in much of our society means that lots of things are much cheaper than they ever should have been - workers and the planet have been paying the price for decades.
However, there is no shame in buying these lower priced, and not quite so sustainable, items when you need to, the point is to not shop till you drop! You can also do some research on which high-street brands are the lesser evils. Good On You is a great place to start with this.
You can also rent, borrow, and swap before buying any new clothes. There are lots of great platforms like Depop and NUW for exchanges, and if you need a fancy outfit for one big night out (ah, we remember nights out…) then check out HireStreet!

When COVID finally leaves us be, you can finally hit the town again, in your revived or new-to-you outfit, and quite frankly, we can’t wait to see it! 

We hope you have enjoyed our Sustainability mini-series - we’d love to know how you’ve been getting on in your sustainability journey. Have any of our tips worked out for you? Have you stumbled across some further ideas? Get in touch with us on our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter so we can get involved too!