A Chat with My Wardrobe

If you’re like me, you’ve often found yourself standing in front of your closet wondering what to wear or what to dress your child in if they haven’t yet reached the stage where they want to dress themselves. But that’s not the only question worth asking when you find yourself in front of your closet. What does your wardrobe say about you? Have you ever thought that you could learn something about yourself by analyzing your wardrobe?

If you take a good look at your closet, or your children’s, with a different goal than just figuring out what to wear, you’ll discover interesting things about yourself.

We challenge you to answer the questions below, first by making an estimate, then by physically going through each clothing item. You can do this during your fall or spring cleaning. Here are the questions:

• How many clothing items do you own?
• In which countries are the clothes in your closet made?
• What is the most common fabric your clothes are made of (cotton, wool, linen, polyester, etc.)?
• Which brands of clothing dominate your wardrobe?
• Which piece of clothing do you wear the most and why?
• Which item do you wear the least and why?

By answering these questions, you’ll learn something about your shopping habits. Moreover, you’ll realize whether or not you’re supporting companies with unfair social or environmental practices. When you compare your estimate with what you actually find during the “inventory,” are you shocked, or did you evaluate your wardrobe situation correctly?

What could your wardrobe say about you? If you’re serious about the exercise above, we challenge you to also react to what you learn from this inventory: you may decide to keep only certain pieces of clothing and even make better choices in the future when you feel the urge to go shopping.

When deciding to part with items from your wardrobe, you can use these helpful questions:

• “Do I still like it?”
• “If I were to buy this item today, would I still purchase it?”
• “Do I have something to match it with?”
• “Do I know how to style it?”
• “Have I worn it in the last six months?”
• “How would I be affected if I didn’t have this item in my wardrobe?”

And next time you buy something, if you want a more sustainable wardrobe for you and your family, you can use these questions in your inner dialogue:

• “Does my wardrobe benefit from this purchase?”
• “How often will I wear this item?”
• “Would I buy this article if it were more expensive?”
• “Would I still want to buy this item next week?”
• “Could I donate two pieces from my wardrobe to make room for this one?”

How can you reduce your wardrobe’s environmental impact?

• Buy preloved or upcycled clothes for yourself and your family
• Dry clothes in the sun, skip the dryer
• Buy clothing from sustainable brands
• Wear dresses multiple times
• Wash clothes on a cold water cycle
• Repair at least one clothing item each season
• Rent clothes for special occasions

Did you know? If you need a little push to accept our challenge, perhaps the statistics below will help:

• A polyester shirt has double the carbon footprint of a cotton shirt.
• 35% of the microplastic in oceans is generated by washing textiles.
• In just the last 10 years, the number of clothing items purchased per person has doubled globally.
• It is estimated that by 2030, the amount of clothing purchased will increase by 63%, reaching 102 million tons.
• Globally, 73% of the clothing produced in a year ends up in landfills or is burned in incinerators.
• In 2015, 60% of the clothing produced was made from polyester, double the percentage in 2000.