(Nimue)
The fashion industry is one of the most environmentally harmful segments of modern capitalism. However, the good news is that you can avoid contributing to this without needing much wealth or privilege.
The single biggest problem is people buying new clothes, wearing things once or twice and throwing them away. The UK sends a truly obscene amount of material to landfill in this way. This is a very easy thing not to be part of. I can imagine some medical exceptions where you might have to throw clothes away – but most of us really don't have to do this.
If you buy something and get bored with it, give it away. If you use clothes shopping to support your mental health, try buying second hand and vintage – there's more to do in finding clothes that way, but feelings of reward often increase in line with effort made.
Shopping isn't a great answer to emotional distress. Not least because it locks us into systems that sell us dissatisfaction and are set up to make us feel like we have to have new things all the time to be happy. It can be addictive, and the happiness hits can be very small. If this is impacting on you, then looking for other ways to soothe and support yourself if very much in your interests. It's important to have things we can take pleasure in, but rapacious capitalism weaponises this against us, harming us and the planet at the same time.
Clothes are often sold as the means to find love, friendship, admiration and identity. They don't really deliver any of that. Clothes can be powerful in terms of self-expression, but throwaway fashion isn't a statement of individuality or character, Looking for other ways to meet those needs makes for a better life, and a more sustainable one.
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