My sustainable wardrobe

Magazines like Good are helping us all to begin to see some bright and more sustainable alternatives to our old habits by conserving what we have and buying less overall. Aren't we all sick of relentless shopping anyway? I mean, how much stuff do we really need in our closets?

A friend of mine was telling me over the weekend about how her father in the States, a "typical consumer" who buys and accumulates lots of stuff, wraps items in a current newspaper before putting them in the attic. That way, he knows what year he packed it away. He said he was really surprised when he recently discovered (a household item) he'd wrapped in 1976! Seeing the folly of this mind-set, she challenged him asking why on earth he would keep anything for that long that he didn't use? He replied that he never knew when he might need it again. She then said "But Dad, you didn't even know you had it, so how could you use it?"

My sister in law in Dallas has so many clothes, her wardrobe is the size of a large NZ bedroom. Many of the items have never been worn and still have the original tags! Her excuse is her fluctuating weight.

Personally, I've been enjoying getting more mileage out of my wardrobe lately. Another Kiwi friend of mine who lives in NYC recently visited in between films where she's a wardrobe stylist for the uber famous, and works on big name films. While in NZ, I asked her to rifle through my closet and advise me how to transition to 50 with elegance, and without having to spend too much money? She calls it "wardrobe-reassignment". It works like this: she plucks things hanging up in your closet and puts them together with other things in your closet in ways you may not have considered before. It was amazing. I was looking at the very dressy end of my closet suddenly being shoved together with bits from the more casual end (where I select what to wear to the grocery store for instance). Indian silk scarves that I saved for evening (but never wore because when you're 50 you don't hit the clubs like you used to) being reassigned to my t-shirts. A lot of it focussed on how I felt about particular pieces - what make me feel good or what colours looked better next to my skin. I actually got rid of very little, felt better about what I already have and learned ways to reinvigorate neglected items - and it didn't cost a bean. Brilliant, and the kind of thing you could do with a friend who has a good eye and knows you pretty well one rainy day, then exchange favour.

For more ideas, follow this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/clothingcare.shtml#quickjump