Is All Fashion Frippery?
- Is fashion shallow?
- Is caring about what you wear unimportant?
- Is buying clothes wasteful?
We have to wear clothes as we don’t live in a nudist society.
There is so much diversity in the human race and in cultures, yet we all wear clothes.
So why is fashion demonised so much?
Why do we feel so guilty about getting rid of clothing from our wardrobes yet when we often spend money on eating at a restaurant and it’s gone in an hour?
Why do we make so many value judgements about clothing?
This is the topic Jill Chivers of 16 Style Types and I delve into in this video.
We need to be conscious about our consumption.
- Where is the unnecessary waste in your wardrobe?
- How can you make better decisions about what clothing choices you make?
The more you learn about what works for your body, colouring and personality, what your lifestyle needs really are and how you like to dress
My advice is to spend the money on the knowledge as it will save you thousands (if not tens of thousands over your lifetime). This is why I’ve developed my 7 Steps to Style program to help you learn what really works for you (and in fact in the program Jill shares tips on how to become a more conscious shopper).
As you have to put on clothes each day. Why not choose garments that affirm you, that make you feel good, that flatter you in a way you love?
How do you feel about fashion, style, shopping, spending and where did you get your beliefs and attitudes from around these topics?
Further Reading of Interest on the Topic of Conscious Shopping
More Tips and Articles from Jill
- The Real Difference Between Fashion and Style
- How to Stop Buying Junk Clothes
- What Are We Waiting For?
- Why We Really Shop
- The Key To Buying Happiness
- The Three Stages of Conscious Shopping
- How Much Do You Wear (and Waste)
- Your Shopping Context
- How a Shopping Hiatus Can Help
- When Does It Stop?
- Defining Moments and Powerful Choices
- 14 Simple Truths About Conscious Consumption
I think you two have been reading my mind! It came up in a conversation I was having on a 7 Steps thread, where I confessed to having this “inner Puritan”, an internal voice that whispers that fashion is frivolous, that paying for good clothes and spending money on being well-groomed is extravagant. I realise that I also have a tendency to project this voice on to my husband, imagining him wondering why on earth I need a gel pedicure, or another pair of shoes, etc. I’ve learned to challenge the voice, but it’s always there. It’s not as bad as in the old days, when every purchase left me racked with guilt. I spent the money but I didn’t feel good about it. Part of it is the lesson I internalised as Imogen did, where my mother made me feel I wasn’t worth spending on – as a parent myself I was aware of thinking “no point spending lots on —– for the boys, they’ll have grown out of it in 6 months”. It’s certainly not that I think they’re worthless, but I shudder to think what they may have internalised…. Mind you, they both seem quite comfortable spending on themselves, and both have a really individual style and shop pretty consciously for it. Another aspect is that I’ve never really had a career – I had my children in my early 20’s and chose to be a stay at home mum, married a doctor who practised in a small market town, so there weren’t many exciting job opportunities. I had a brief spell as a primary school teacher, but found I wasn’t really cut out for it, so I’ve only had a period of about 5 years earning a reasonable income of my own. So another inner voice is telling me I haven’t earned the right to buy nice things/experiences. My husband is definitely not the issue here – he’s always said that my holding the centre at home was of immense value to him in his very stressful job, but I still felt guilty spending money on myself. 7 Steps has helped me enormously in shopping more thoughtfully as I learn to express myself, and the critical voices are definitely whispers rather than shouts – but maybe they’ll always be there? Thank you so much for this – style and therapy in the same package!
Interesting thoughts Tracy – it’s good to challenge some of our beliefs to see if they are really valuable! If your husband had to hire people to run the house and look after the kids he would have spent a fortune!
Loved this discussion, Jill and Imogen! I think until telepathy is a common way of communicating, clothes and a person’s outward appearance are how we communicate before a conversation is even initiated. I think having a style that reflects yourself is a way of meeting more people with like interests. It’s reassurance when seeking a professional in various jobs that they are competent and have the qualities being sought. It’s the effort being made to communicate to others on who we are and how we like to be treated, and in some situations, it’s the bubbles in the champagne for celebrating!
Too true – I like this – clothes are our current version of telepathy!
My “road to Damascus ” moment was discovering I had cancer. It helped me justify the best food and clothes for my body.
It’s great to read that you have realised the value of looking after yourself.
This is very interesting. For women to find balance in this arena is not challenging but painful and very visible to the public. Just remember the comments on Hillary Clinton, Kristan Gillibrand both politicians in the US and the latest comments on the new French President’s wife. It feels, at times, very much like a no win situation. Men’s clothing was designed from the beginning to be flexible, functional, and make men appear homogenously attractive in their bodies – generally all covered in a very similar way. For us women, and I love the diversity we can choose from, and subject to all kinds of unsolicited external comments and there is no training when we are young and no “core” garments that we can all start with that give us an attractive base to start with. Here I am in my mid-60s taking the time to figure all this out – who I am now and how I want to present that to the world. Thank you for this conversation.
It’s very hard to be a woman in the public eye. Women’s bodies are more varied than mens which is why there is no one kind of outfit (like the suit for men) that fits and flatters all bodies. And I do love we have more diversity and options in what kinds of clothes we want to wear. But that comes with the downside of it being much easier to buy the wrong clothes, not dress appropriately etc.
I don’t feel guilty when I get rid of clothing because I don’t purchase it thinking it will last me for years and years. I purchase it knowing I will wear it a year or two and then get tired of it and want something new to replace it, and let it go. I don’t buy “investment” pieces because I don’t want to wear the same thing for years. I do, however, feel guilty when I have to throw out the broccoli. 🙂
Eat the broccoli! At least you know how you go into your clothes purchasing decisions. I probably do the same with the broccoli.