Here are five fashion new year’s resolutions to spice up your style, change the world with kindness and love yourself and the earth well.
- Shop your closet – the most sustainable outfit hangs in your closet
- Freely we received, freely give – give what you don’t need
- Take care of your clothes – care for what you have
- Put your money where your mouth is – the most impactful vote is with your wallet
- Put on Love – your all-purpose basic outfit
1 Shop your closet – the most sustainable outfit hangs in your closet
Let’s dive into our closet this year, and take a look at the treasures we already have. Finding the gorgeous pieces we forgot all about. Matching new styles together. Creating a style so YOU. Dare yourself to wear your most gorgeous fits, don’t wait for occasions, bring all of YOU to the table every day. Get rid of the clutter, the not so YOU fits, you know the ones that tell you each morning you have a closet full of clothes but nothing to wear. As well as the most precious asset being our heart, all we need to do is take a look inside.
❖ A style so YOU, makes you feel confident every day and prevents you from buying clothes you don’t like and won’t wear, and curates a sustainable wardrobe so YOU.
2 Freely we received, freely give – give what you don’t need
Let’s freely give away our overflow this year, the clothes we never wear, the clothes that don’t make us happy, the clothes not so YOU, the clothes you absolutely don’t need and be a blessing to someone else.
Love on a friend with that expensive item you never wear, but which looks so bombass on her. Gift a fancy box full of clothes to someone who can’t afford it. Give some of your items a new loving house by selling them, and be able to pay rent this month. Gift your outgrown clothes of your kids, to a parent who would really be blessed with them. Bless a homeless person on the streets. Have fun with friends hosting clothing swaps. Bless the world through fashion. Make it relational.
❖ Giving gorgeous fashion items away showcases people are worthy of receiving gifts, as well as preventing clothes from landfill, and the replacing of existing items for new items that aren’t needed.
3 Take care of your clothes – care for what you have
By caring for our clothing, we give them a wider life span. And through caring for our fabrics, we prevent toxins being released into our water system and into our skin. See synthetic fabrics, like fleece, nylon, polyester are all made from the same source as plastic, that is why you nowadays can buy coats that are made from recycled plastic bottles, cause they share the same DNA. But plastic is plastic, and washing your fave fleece blankets and polyester garments means micro-plastics are being released into the water system. Personally, I only opt for natural fabrics like cotton, linen, or wool, and I make sure I only wash them, with preferable natural detergent, and not put them in the dryer for a longer life and less CO2 emission.
❖ Only opting for natural fabrics, cuts out plastic waste and harm to nature and your skin. Taking care of holes, and upcycling your clothes widens their lifespan, which takes back on CO2 emission.
4 Put your money where your mouth is – the most impactful vote is with your wallet
You don’t only get to vote at the elections, but also in the choices you make every day, especially in which you invest your money in. With buying locally you cast a vote and invest in your local people. With not buying at fast-fashion chains, you cast a vote for not investing in slavery, child labour and the exploitation of nature.
Spend your money to change the world. Let our money be a blessing instead of a curse to people and the environment. That might mean buying pre-loved items at a thrift store instead of new ones and invest our money in charities and reintegration projects through that. Or that might mean being more aware of what you buy and actually don’t need, to not invest in the overproduction in the world.
❖ By investing our money right, we have the power to invest in (local) people, stop overproduction, and prevent landfill that intoxicates our earth.
5 Put on Love – you all-purpose basic outfit
So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.
Lots of love,
Therèsa
RIVER, a fashion magazine and platform focused on healthy beauty standards and ethical fashion production processes, we dress to empower.
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