Sustainable September Guest Blog: SLOW is the new FAST

Finding joy in sustainable shopping

– KnickersModelsOwn

Psssst, want to know a secret? I’m no sustainable expert – for that you really should dive into UK NGO WRAP for all the reasons – and there are many – why we should all slow things down for the sake of our planet and future. But I can tell you a story of how I changed from fast to slow and where it’s taken me.

I can trace my styling DNA right back to its origins. Growing up in the seventies nothing excited me more than the anticipation of the original ‘drop’, a consignment of hand-me-down clothes from older, cooler cousins, always accompanied by a well-thumbed bundle of Jackie magazines directing me with wisdom, such as how to wear a cardigan back-to-front for an ‘exciting new look’. In my teen years it was the bedroom wall, entirely covered in Smash Hits’ pop posters that became my style mood board, finding my tribe amongst these early influencers. Hair and make-up tips courtesy of fortnightly Just Seventeen magazine and regular shopping trips with my mum to Chelsea Girl, Miss Selfridge and Top Girl, the much-coveted plastic bags making the perfect PE kit carrier. In my later teens it was sixties music, beatniks and the mod style that heavily influenced me, I welcomed in my bob cut with blunt fringe, discovered Rimmel liquid liner and delved into my mum’s wardrobe for true 60s authenticity. Now we call it vintage, back then it was just old things that you hung onto, nothing was thrown away.

My fixation on following the laws of fashion really began to get serious once a monthly salary landed. It was the nineties, and I would read Mimi Spencer, the then Fashion Editor at the London Evening Standard, her weekly column my train ride tutorage on all things ‘in’. The nineties were all about Fifty shades of brown and I have Mimi to thank for my suede Patrick Cox ‘Wannabees’ worn with Wolford tights, lips by Bobbi Brown. I was following the rules and hooked on team fashion, in all its glory.

But after a while the gloss started to fade, I tired of keeping up with the next must-wear thing, the Wannabees soon gathering dust in the back of my wardrobe and so I would start to add in borrowed pieces, topping up with one-of-a-kind finds from thrift store Flip on London’s Long Acre and discovering the world of charity shops. I became acutely aware of the repetition of fashion and how it only has so many new tricks up its billowy sleeve, reinventing and repetition it’s calling card.

So called ‘Fast Fashion’ has become the catchphrase for an instant fashion fix. Low priced garments, with little thought to the supply chain, piled high or at the click of a ‘it’s selling out fast’ button. This rapid, same day delivery, wear it once, move it on culture feels as disposable as a take-away coffee and is the antithesis of slow, thoughtful consumption.

How we choose to dress – that wonderful expression of personality, tribal belonging and messaging – can be so many things: a uniform, armour, a plaything, a confidence builder, a two-finger salute. It’s all these things and I adore it. But, building up a wardrobe should take time, even years, possibly decades. It should be a slow burner, each well-made item earning its right to be there. You only need to look around to see that those who are putting the great style rig-outs together, are combining vintage, hand-me-downs and charity shop pieces, playing with their own unique style, cherry-picking decades and themes and pushing back on being told what to wear and how to style it.

The world of slow styling is a space I feel very at home in, having been posting my Knickers Model’s Own head-to-toe, second-hand charity shop outfits for a decade. Indeed 95% of my wardrobe once belonged to someone else entirely, the most joyous collection of treasures, slowly gathered, all added with consideration. Each piece feeling ‘new-to-me’ and an opportunity to revive the essence of what makes the garment so appealing, be that a great colour, fabric, or the smallest of buttons, it’s the detailing I’m always drawn to and the styling potential that can unfold.

September is the month that celebrates all things sustainable, whether you are completely new to shopping second-hand or a seasoned slow consumer and it’s the perfect month to take up the challenge of putting second-hand first. Go find!