Think about this: barely anything made now will last. Between planned obsolescence and corporate cost cutting, our clothes will not outlive us.

As someone who wears probably 80% vintage, that’s a very sad thing to think about. The baby in my life will be able to wear the vintage that exists now, if we continue to care for it, but there will come a time when that’s all gone – with nothing coming behind it.

Fast fashion is killing us

I am a child of the 90s, so I’ve already worked through the trauma of Y2K fashion coming back as ‘vintage’. Everyday quality was higher then than it is now (we’re on a continual race to the bottom) but not high enough that people will still be lovingly caring for it in 2070.

We make landfill clothes now. Clothes no one keeps wrapped in tissue paper in a special box for 50 years. The kind of clothes that will go from wardrobe to charity shop to textiles bank within the next couple of years.

Fast fashion has fucked us, environmentally, on the same sort of scale as oil: it’s the second-worst sector for pollution after oil and gas, and that’s without even considering its consumption of plastics and water. It causes exploitation of people and land. Such a high cost – but designed to be discarded and forgotten.

Even cotton, which we see as natural and pure and wholesome, is responsible for 16% of insecticide and 25% of herbicide use. And that’s despite being grown on only 3% of agricultural land. These poisons enter our water and soil, spreading toxins that can be carcinogenic or disruptive to hormones.

I’d really recommend reading this report from Geneco. It’s terrifying but we have to face it. It really hammers home that there are incredibly few ways to manufacture clothes responsibly.

The most environmentally friendly bit of clothing will always be the one you already own.

Buying quality cheaply is not impossible

I do see Shein clothes reselling on eBay, which ASTOUNDS me, but people need to buy clothes cheaply. I get it. I just know they’re being fleeced for a bit of badly hemmed polyester.

You want polyester with a bit of pizzazz???? Try the 70s. Better hems, buttons, zips, pockets, carbon footprint, style – better everything.

Of course, it’s total privilege to have the time and attention to trawl endlessly through eBay, but it would take less time, energy and money to put together a capsule wardrobe of vintage pieces than slog out to a shopping centre on a busy Saturday for, like, *a* dress. Which you’d wear once and hate because it fit you weirdly.

I don’t want to be a dumb-bitch-middle-class-white-lady about this, so I know it’s not workable for everyone. I just hope more people learn about how great it is to buy dead people’s clothes.

Wouldn’t you love to build a wardrobe of unique things – vintage and from small, ethical makers – that sing your name and protect your planet?

Buying small

While I – clearly – advocate passionately for buying second-hand, I do also believe in supporting the small makers who are trying to do things differently.

The problem is that because these business owners are pricing realistically for quality fabrics, workmanship and ethical labour, we see it as an expensive option.

It’s a total mindset shift. We’re used to buying loads and loads of cheap garments. These garments are priced by the lowest possible standards for all of those considerations. The lowest level of quality and ethical concern the manufacturer can get away with. That’s business, baby.

The minute you add quality and fairness back in, you’re putting the price up. But to the price that CLOTHES SHOULD COST.

Less, that lasts

People used to own what we’d now see as a capsule wardrobe. A few everyday items, a couple of formalwear pieces and some nice accessories to mix and match – all of a quality that would last.

Items would be let out or taken apart and remade over the years. Collars would be removed and cuffs added, a thousand small details that made a garment unique and gave it longevity.

Can you find that within your own attitude to clothing? It’s an ongoing struggle and I’m in no position to preach. I love novelty; I may buy mostly vintage, but my brain is trained to want the dopamine hit of something new arriving in an exciting parcel.

The way I see it, this is a better option than fortnightly Zara hauls, which I have been guilty of in the past. An endless cycle of buying and returning, buying and exchanging. Terrible for the planet, terrible for the future of manufacturing and terrible for my sense of self. It’s such a gross thing to do.

While I need to cut down on ALL my consumption, getting fast fashion out of my life has been a good first step.

But – I want to get to a place where every single thing I buy is a future heirloom. That should be the bar: will it work hard, will it be loved and will it live on when I’m gone?