The Autumn Guide: How To: Stop Autumn Overconsumption Before It Stops You
How To: Stop Autumn Overconsumption Before It Stops You
By Ifeoma Ukaonu
Edited by: Joda Amankrah
The welcome of a new vanilla scent, or the carefully curated outfit laced with the hope of a fresh beginning. Autumn lights a new fire in our hearts, igniting our natural urge to seek change, to be reborn as something so different or eerily similar to something else. With only a quarter of the year left, we take our chances and decide to rebrand just before the end of the year.
Is it a little wild to say that we almost make ourselves into characters? Changing our wardrobes like Sims avatars, wondering if this new set of clothes and accessories will set the stage for the rest of the year. The allure of autumn’s infamous rebrand blinds us from the truth: perhaps the heaps of stuff that we are encouraged to buy are often impractical. Every massive fashion haul we see only intensifies us to consume more. Losing the magic of fashion, creation.
We end up buying to perform, carefully curating a ‘certain type of life’ instead of accepting/embracing our own.
I don’t know about you, but there has been a plenty of times I’ve thrifted clothes, some from my mother’s closet, piles at the flea market, bins in charity shops, even in the confines of my sisters wooden wardrobe (sorry Chisom), I’ve been able to find pieces I thought looked amazing, some were mistakes, and others were so bad I actually had to return the item (which I almost never do).
Learning what suits you (and what absolutely doesn’t) comes from trying out different styles, but from also noticing what you are genuinely attracted to without outside influence. When we shop based on trends, trends that change every week, we can unknowingly cast aside our voice in the matter. What do I like? Can I wear this in my everyday life? Will this item be flattering on me?
Overconsumption creeps in because we aren’t really hearing what we actually need, we aren’t thinking about why every month we have to buy new clothes. It’s not like we actually need all of this stuff and even if we did, doesn’t the fact that we feel that we MUST change our wardrobes every other month suggest that we aren’t actually buying things that we need?
Listen, I’m not just preaching to you, I’m preaching to myself too! I love to make a Pinterest board inspired by a new version of myself that I want to become. It's almost the best part of wanting to shed that old skin and wanting to become something new.
But there is a wider discussion to all this: overconsumption not only affects your perception of yourself, but it also affects the thousands of people subject to unfair conditions in order to make new clothes. Where there is overconsumption, there is fast fashion. Your clothes come from somewhere and they are made by people you’ll likely never encounter, in a place you’ll likely never visit, and in the most common case, there are young children in factories being taken advantage of to make a sweater you probably already own or that you could find in your mother’s drawer.
Now I’m not here to play fashion police. At times I do indulge in fast fashion too. But does it really hurt to wear that long sleeve twice? Is it wrong to have the same blush that works on you for another 5 years? In fact, it is encouraged to have a staple piece, like a necklace that stays with you through the many versions of yourself, carrying as many memories as your hair can.
The truth is, nothing beats the stories told by the clothes you wear. You cannot recreate that same feeling with the fleeting nature of overconsumption.
Sometimes we forget that fashion can be convenient. It doesn’t need to be a statement. What you wear to the corner shop is fashion. What you wear on an errand is fashion. And yes, we should dress up, I stand for that! But fashion can also be ‘inconsistent’, where one day your outfit is so beautifully crafted, that the next day it almost feels like a disconnect; both versions are still you. There is no need to buy more clothes just to compete with the fabulous look you created yesterday or the not so fabulous look you might wear tomorrow.
As I’ve mentioned you aren’t a character and your outfits can/should relate to your current life, your real life. Take your time and slow it down, because buying new clothes won’t cover up your need to fit in or your desire to stand apart. The magic of fashion is in its intentionality: choosing to buy pieces you’ll actually wear, investing in more staple pieces so you don’t have to buy new ones every year, just deciding what makes you fashionable is the desire and skill to reinvent with the pieces made available to you.
Don’t get me wrong, the nature of autumn inspires a rebrand, and the pressure to change may feel daunting or heavy. But as the new year soon begins I hope we can be mindful about our choices.
Xoxo, Ify.
