Shopping sustainably and ditching fast fashion is something more and more of us are striving for. When looking for clothes, we want to fall in love; whether its well made, affordable, luxury, or just makes us feel fabulous. There's a whole wardrobe of reason we buy clothes, but sometimes these clothes can last a lifetime - or even generations.
We asked a handful of women what one thing in their wardrobe they would never throw away is. Here is what they said:
"I got them when I was 13, and to this day I still wear them."
Narly a decade on, dungarees are still a part of Georgina Page's clothing rotation, showcasing how important buying quality and timeless denim truly is.
"I have a staple in my wardrobe which I would never get rid of, I have worn them to absolute death. They are a light denim blue dungarees, they have shorts at the bottoms and silver hardware. I got them when I was 13, and to this day I still wear them. Nearly ten years ago and they still are something I reach for. They are the best thing ever and something I will never throw away. They’re too iconic, dungarees are a must have in any wardrobe. My mum wears dungarees, they’re an ageless piece and the way I style them is with just a white t-shirt, and my beloved Doc Martens. Every time I wear this I feel put together and effortlessly chic.
At the end of summer and I was going to see ‘Blood Brothers’ in the evening at the theatre and me and my mum went into central London to do a bit of shopping, I knew I wanted to find a pair of dungarees, it was the first time I wanted to shop for clothes that weren’t just what my mum was giving me to wear so in a way it was the beginning of my shopping journey, and the start of what type of clothes I wanted to wear and the styles I want to embody as I was entering my teenage years. I remember going into the shop, it was called Beyond Retro. My older brother always used to talk about it, it was where everyone at school got their clothes, and it was the it-place to get your stuff. It is a second hand vintage shop, and it’s still around now, there’s three in London and one in Brighton. After I found them, I loved them so much that we bought them and I put them on straight away and I wore them to the theatre later that night."
"I wore them for years and years after I found out they were the wrong size."
After falling in love with shoes in NYC, Hilary Wilde reveals she didn’t know her pair of shoes were two different sizes.
"I am one of those people who never seem to pack the right things with them when I go away on holiday. The first time I went to see my friend in America in the early 2000s. She was working at a university in New York, and whilst she was at work I went sight seeing, shopping and exploring the city. I was on a busy street near Broadway, and up a little side alley, I saw a huge open shoe shop which had hundreds of shoes on display. I have always loved chunky shoes like Doc Martens and clogs. There were a pair of red shoes that caught my eyes and I absolutely adored them. They were a bright red leather, with a clumpy deep heel, almost like a clog but they are a whole shoe. Over the arch of the foot, bringing together the two sides of the shoe there was an elasticated piece and the sole was made out of a black plastic about an inch deep it would have been, and they had a round toe. Not only did I fall in love with them they were on sale and going for a bargain, they costed probably about the equivalent of £20.
When I wear them everyone passes a comment and say they love them but some don’t. But, it was ages until I realised that they were both not the same size. It made a difference and I could feel it, I used to think to myself god these don’t feel quite right. Then I properly looked at them and realised that they weren’t the right size. I still wore them for years and year and years after I found out. I should have actually tried both of them on, and that’s why I got them for so cheap! I wore them with black tights, and a skirt or a dress, my mother and all her family were in the sewing trade. Her father was a tailor and all her sisters were in the sewing industry. So I saw how they were affected when work was sent out all over the place and the decline in the industry and then a decline in quality. This has informed my decisions when I shop, I have always looked at what’s the lining is like, if they have a decent hem and things like that. Lots of clothes now just have a thin line of overlock not even a proper hemline. I have never spent a lot of money on clothes. Everything I practically wear is from a charity shop, apart from things in sale, or the occasional new jumper."
"The bag is more than 20 years old and just returned back after my daughter borrowing it!"
Susan Janela shares the importance of buying things which have a long shelf life so she can pass them on to her daughter.
"When the collection first came out, I used to walk by the Furla shop window, on the way to work and everyday I would look in and see this bag in the window. Every time I walked past I dreamed of wearing it. I can’t remember if it was Christmas or near my birthday but I decided to go into the shop and I caved in to buy it. I was on my own at the time so I didn’t have anyone else to buy it for me. It was a present To me, Love me. The bag is more than twenty years old, and very well loved but in great condition. Its just came back from my daughters house, and she has brought it back to me after borrowing it for a while. I always think when buying nice things, I can keep this she will use it one day, it’s a good excuse! I cleaned the bag up, stuffed it so it doesn’t loose its shape and put it back in my bag cupboard, so now its sat there waiting for when I fancy to wear it, once I get sick of all black. It will always jazz up an all black outfit. That is how I style it, with an all black, monochrome outfit, and then the bag as the stand out point. I wear it anywhere, I’m not fussy, to dinner, to work, wherever. I love the bag, every time I wear it I get showered with compliments on it. It has panels of colour, crimson red, deep purple and muted pink, with the straps being the same purple colour. The bag has a slouchy feel to it, not too structured which I like as the colourways do all the talking."
"Sharing is my secret, it’s what I recommend people do."
A sustainability and environmental management student at the University of Leeds, Gaia Rattazi is a 20 year old content creator with an Instagram account of over 53,000 followers. Speaking with Rattazi, we found out her top tips for how to create and live a more sustainable lifestyle:
As a vegetarian, her Instagram was created in 2019 when she realised the “people around her were conscious of what they were eating," so was focused less around fashion.
As everyone around her was “buying clothes to stay on trend or to fit in," she noticed how "it just isn’t sustainable." Learning more about slow fashion, she turned to social media knowing it could reach a lot of people.
"I started it off as a project I enjoyed, I liked researching and creating the graphics. By giving these tips to people , I learnt a lot myself too, I stopped impulse buying, and instead learnt how to make my clothes last. Over the pandemic, we were all on our phones, our attention spans really plummeted so I wanted to make the posts short and impactful. A few of my posts went viral and took off from there. I think it helped that my posts are easy to understand and also engaging."
Her top suggestion when it comes to ways to refresh your wardrobe is to swap, borrow and to share. She confessed “You might not like [what's in your wardrobe], but someone else will. Treating clothes with respect is so important and we need to understand the value they have.”
Edited by Emily Duff
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