Push it to the limit (but no further)!

This week I began reading The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason. On the back cover the blurb states: '...this timeless classic holds the key to all you desire and everything you wish to accomplish.' That's quite a statement, I love a confident blurb, and so couldn't wait to find out the answers to those questions; what do I desire and what do I wish to accomplish?

I'm up to chapter six (in what I've discovered is a 144 page, ancient parable on attaining wealth) and while I'm still hazy about the above questions, a paragraph about budgeting has me seeing things very clearly:

'The purpose of a budget is to help thy purse to fatten. It is to assist thee to have thy necessities and, insofar as attainable, thy other desires. It is to enable thee to realize thy most cherished desires by defending them from thy casual wishes. Like a bright light in a dark cave thy budget shows up the leaks from thy purse and enables thee to stop them and control thy expenditures for definite and gratifying purposes.'

This got me thinking about limits. Since starting this project I have become very aware of them. My limits of time, energy and yes even my emotional capacity. But this has caused me to make a lot more deliberate and thought out decisions when it comes to my apparel. If I want something it's not just a matter of running out and getting it. I either have to make it myself or seek it out secondhand (not an easy feat when you have your eye on the new Camilla and Marc 'Nikolai' metal link jacket). 

The extra energy required means I only get what I really need (or really, really want)! Everything else falls by the wayside. Gone are the days of the impulse buy or the wear once and chuck items, but I can't say I'm devastated. I get a lot of satisfaction out of creating my look myself, knowing that I've thought it out and that it will not go wasted in the future. I've also found that flipping through fashion magazines doesn't come with that confused aftertaste. When I've finished the last page and the dream is over I'm not bombarded with choices. Only what is most essential is left in my mind.

I have reworded the above quote to create a new mission statement (of sorts) for this blog. I may not know what I want or what I wish to accomplish but at least I know what I want to wear!

The purpose of this project is to help thy mind to widen. It is to assist thee to have thy necessary pieces and, insofar as attainable, thy gorgeous one offs. It is to enable thee to realize thy most cherished fashion dreams by defending them from thy casual impulse purchases. Like a bright light in a dark cave thy project shows up the leaks from thy purse and enables thee to stop them and control thy expenditures for definite and gratifying purposes.

What have you purchased on a whim and it turned out to be disastrous? 

How I Got Here

As explained in my 'About Me' section, I studied fashion design and for a time worked in 'the fashion industry'. While still at collage I went on a tour of the headquarters of one of Australia's largest clothing chains. Something our tour guide said has always stuck with me:

'Our clothes are disposable fashion', she said. 'We're lucky if our designs make it to the washing machine.' ...

While I was impressed with the sheer volume of the garments produced and proud that an Australian company was thriving, the idea of the wastefulness and the ethical and ecological consequences of such mass production never sat well with me.

I got started working at the bottom of the food chain for a tiny importing company, who sent me out with a camera and a buying budget, to knock off whatever the top chain stores were selling. I would spend hours scouring the Internet for the latest trends and get them into production before the market changed again. Needless to say, it was exhausting and left me creatively disillusioned. I knew that the garments I was helping to produce couldn't be good for the environment, for the people constructing them or ultimately the consumer wearing them. But I couldn't see any other way for the market to still make its profits and Australia to be able to afford fashionable clothes.

Now don't get me wrong I LOVE FASHION and understand that style has been evolving since then beginning of time. I also think that Australia boasts some of the greatest designers on the earth. But this demand for disposable or 'fast fashion' causes labels and thus manufacturers to produce minimally designed, poorly constructed garments that are worn a few times and then discarded to landfill. Garments might make it to an op-shop or vintage store, but let's face it, garments of this quality weren't worth wearing the first time and will hardly hold up through the ages.

It is for these above reasons that I now find myself here; discontented with the moral, ethical, and ecological choices of the mainstream fashion industry and I'm definitely not alone. Supermodel Lily Cole was quoted in Peppermint Mag saying: 'I have long had misgivings about the industry I work in'. The demand for 'slow' fashion is on the rise with interest in fairtrade, organic and vintage becoming more and more popular.

And so the time has come to start making good fashion choices, even if I'm only making them for myself.