... is really important to me. I mean,
I mostly think about how the way I look makes *me* feel when I put
together outfits. But at the same time (in a more abstract sense),
having a wardrobe that reflects my life offline and my values is also
important. And I don't mean catchy slogans or stuff advertising
charities/causes or whatever. That's a bit much for me. I'd
rather have the history of the garment itself say something about me.
Cue overly-imaginative floundering over vintage stuff in 3... 2...
No, that's actually not what I mean,
either. I buy used as a way to reduce my contribution to the morbid
amounts of waste generated by consumer society. I also don't like to
fund countries that send their factories to countries with lax labor
laws allowing them to not maintain their facilities and expose their
employees to all kinds of dangerous shit without getting in
trouble--not that none of my clothing comes from there, though.
That's a bit much for my budget (and honestly, even if it wasn't, I'm
a cheapass when it comes to clothes that aren't custom made for me or
coincidentally perfect as-manufactured >__>). Buying things new
in general means an additional contribution to the monster that is
the industrial economy. Not that buying things used doesn't do that
at all, but at least then the money stays local and/or supports a
good cause besides making shitloads of money because money. And even
if there isn't some extra cause like housing/feeding people who need
the help, if it's from a person/business that primarily sells used,
it at least goes to a business that most likely removes more things
from the waste stream than it adds.
So, ideally my clothes reflect a
distaste for the industrial economy and the colossal amounts of waste
and unnecessary suffering that go with it, if only to myself since
for all most people know I bought it all new. This is not what is
always reflected in what I wear because of the occasional lapse or
just because I still have stuff that's from when I was a teenager and
still in the process of figuring out clothes (not that I'm not still
figuring out clothes--I've just done more of it since then o__o.)
I've also recently decided to start phasing leather and wool things
out, which will take awhile since boots are expensive (I'll be buying
them new since I want them to last and most non-leather boots that I
find secondhand are crap, but they're all from countries that
manufacture things within the U.K., so not too horrible.) Slightly
more noticeable, but still not that apparent (especially since the
boots will still look like leather and because sweaters look like
sweaters.)
The whole vegan thing has kind of
inspired me to be more vigilant about my luxury spending in
general--out of the few things I don't buy used, I don't want any of
it to be made in countries with substandard labor laws, and I'd
prefer it to come from small (or at least exemplary, like Patagonia?)
businesses when practical (pretty easy for binders and socks assuming
Underworks is as small as I think it is, not so much for
briefs--those come from American Apparel for now.) I've been pretty
relaxed about this kind of thing before, but I want to be more rigid
about it in the future and not buy anything new unless it's something
high quality that I'll be using a lot (boots... underwear... coats...
maybe a couple Alchemy Gothic pieces? -__-;) that is made in a
country with acceptable labor laws and is not made with animal
products. And I don't want to do that very often at all because
there's still the impact of manufacturing new stuff to think about.
Going through the outfit photos/selfies
I have from the past several years, I'm not really able to find many
outfits that satisfy that (though there are an awful lot that come
close except for the wool beret and leather shoes.) Most of the few
photos that could work are from the waist up, or photos where I'm not fully dressed.
Here's one where pretty much everything seems to fit--nothing is made
with animal products to my knowledge and all of it save the necklace
(which came from a seller at a renaissance festival--not sure where
it was made) was bought secondhand. I genuinely can't recall for sure
what I was wearing under the skirt, but I'm leaning towards socks
(rather than my wool tights.)
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