Start the new year by sparking joy with a wardrobe detox and learn how to become a better consumer

Curating your closet can shed light on what works and help to develop a more sustainable shopping habit. The golden rule when deciding whether to discard? If you haven’t worn it in a year, bin it

Fashion

Sofia Suarez

Published: 5:00am, 13 Jan 2020

Why you can trust SCMP

While January is filled with health kicks and fitness reboots, I’m battling the post-holiday blues with a detox of a different sort. Not a dry January or an extreme cleanse – I’ve been doing a wardrobe detox. I highly recommend it.

It can be hard to know where to begin. Try honesty. There are countless self-help books to guide us, most notably Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (2011). For me, though, it’s more about being honest than it is about finding joy in my possessions.

Let’s start with sizing. Everyone has clothes they hope to fit into some day. These should be the first to go. If they’re too small, they should go to someone who can wear them. The rubbish bin is never the right answer. They could go to a friend, but if you risk resenting her for the rest of your life, try a designer consignment store such as Hula or Vestiaire Collective, or a charity. The same goes for accessories that have never fitted properly or that you’ve never worn.

The upcycling movement is gaining pace. If it fits but has never looked right, give alterations a go. You may learn that alterations are necessary for all your clothes because, let’s be honest again, you’re probably not a fittings model. Neither am I.

A screenshot of vintage and pre-owned luxury goods portal Vestiaire Collective.

When to give up on something is tricky though. If you really cannot let go, store it and part ways if you haven’t worn it in 365 days from now. (Vacuum packs work well and take up less room.) Most of the time you’re just delaying the inevitable.

Trend forecasts can be helpful, but it’s easy to convince yourself that something is bound to come back into fashion. What looks good on you should be a stronger guide than whether pleated midi skirts, for example, are still a must-have. I’d be happy to see the end of those. Let’s face it. They’re not the most flattering choice. Would someone please hem them to a mini or knee-length and show the world how much more fabulous they can look?

Spring/summer 2020, by the way, should be big for puff sleeves, florals, bermuda shorts, tailoring and polka dots. And you can hold onto those leopard spots, they won’t be going away for a while yet.

There is a new spotlight on investment pieces, a backlash against fast fashion and its environmental impact. As evidenced at the spring/summer shows, quality, craftsmanship and longevity are once again key.

It’s a sentiment echoed in the theme for the Costume Institute’s 2020 spring exhibition and Met Gala, “About Time: Fashion and Duration”. The ambitious exhibition will explore the “fast, fleeting rhythm of fashion” and look at the future of the industry, “linking the concept of duration to debates about longevity and sustainability”.

Whether we skip all the hard work by hiring a clothes consultant or do it ourselves, a wardrobe detox can teach us how to be better consumers. It sheds light on what works for us, what lasts and what is more sustainable. An extra challenge would be to impose a ban on clothes shopping for eight to 10 weeks. This will be sure to bring new perspective to “need”, a wildly misused word before, during and after the holidays.

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