You are here because you know the importance of sustainable fashion and want to enjoy fashion responsibly but don’t know where to start. Because it sounds like a lot of sacrifice and lifestyle changes. For you, the word sustainability might sound like that you have to stop doing/buying things and going back to cave life. I know its daunting because I’ve experienced it too but it doesn’t have to be that way.

There are so many ways you can practice sustainability but you have to start small like doing things that don’t need effort or make you feel like you are giving up something that you don’t want to. Thats not healthy, it’ll only bounce back and reverse the action. It should feel like natural not forced. Focus on things that wont hurt you but makes you feel better and accomplished.

Although its easy to blame on whole fashion industry, in reality its the fast fashion and unethical brands that are causing this massive pollution. Its the practices like cheap fabrics and labor, wearing a clothing item once or twice and throwing them away, encouraging fast fashion meaning upgrading the wardrobe every week or month by buying new cheap clothes are the ones that are supporting fast fashion. This doesn’t mean you have to stop buying clothes and refrain yourself from splurging things that you want and need.

Here are some tips to start enjoying fashion in a sustainable way, they take zero effort and high impact:

1. Quality over quantity: I live by this when it comes to fashion, I have a dedicated blog post on this topic (click here). When you buy a clothing item, see it like an investment instead of just wear and throw. Look for good quality piece that will last through multiple wears and laundry of-course. I know its hard to say the quality of the fabric when you shop online, It gets better with experience.

2. Wear it multiple times: This goes hand in hand with first point. So you spend hours online or in stores to find a clothing item you like and you spend the hard earned money to buy it. When there’s so much effort and money involved, why let it go waste by wearing it just few times. Make the better use of it. Do you know that you can reduce the carbon footprint by wearing a clothing time more than 9 times. Another fact, most of the fast fashion items wont last longer than 3 wears. Here are some blog posts on restyling same piece in different ways:
2 easy ways to style a Sweater dress with OTK boots
Denim culottes in 3 ways

3. Shop from your closet: Its the fact that we live in fast fashion world and we are constantly forced to think that we need new pair of pants/tops to stay on trend. Thats how impulse buys happen. Since last year I’ve been doing this whenever I am consumed by this impulsion to buy. I walk into my closet and look at the pieces. Most of the times, I would be surprised to find similar items that I was gonna buy. This practice legit saved me lot of times from impulse buying.

4. Give life to second hand clothes: Invest in second hand clothes, there are so many second hand clothing companies like Thredup. Its cheaper than new ones, so its a win. If you don’t like the feeling of owning clothes worn by strangers, You can shop from your mom’s or sister’s closet. You can do swaps with your friends. Most of my sarees are from my mom’s and mil’s closet.

I hope these tips are useful and help you enjoy your clothes in a sustainable way. If you have more tips on following sustainable fashion in easy way, I would love to know. Please leave them in the comments section.