Mindful and Manageable Shopping Guidelines for a Conscious Closet
It all begins with an idea.
Develop a buying practice that replaces guilt, overwhelm, and uncertainty with alignment, clarity, and confidence.
You made it here! First things first, pause for applause. You are brave!
There are a cacophony of messages out there enticing you towards fast fashion, shaming you for not being perfectly ethical, undermining your confidence all to make a sale.
It can be overwhelming to cut through this noise and figure out what works for you. And yet here you are. Hurrah! Just showing up is a big deal.
So, as your reward, I will let you in on a secret.
You only need three things to further this journey towards a more compassionate closet and you already have all of them:
Your kindness (to motivate your travels)
Your intellect (to learn enough to select a wayfinder or a path)
Your intuition (to know what feels right or wrong to you as you journey)
What it does NOT require:
An encyclopedic knowledge of ethical clothing manufacturers or fast fashion stats
A lot of money
A lot of time
Sacrificing your aesthetic
Perfection
Kindness is behind being a mindful, conscious consumer
Yes, clothing manufacturing today is often abusive to the people who make it, the environment, and even animals.
I would argue it’s unkind to consumers, too. You see marketing images that aren’t affirming or inclusive, spend your hard-earned money on clothes that don’t last, feel guilty about where you bought them, rinse and repeat.
A compassionate closet allows you to look your best and feel your best because you made choices that honored your kindness, too.
You don’t have to feel guilty or shop in “ignorance is bliss” mode.
Instead, how you look on the outside is deeply aligned with who you are on the inside. I believe there is a very particular and powerful magnetism in that.
You see how this is also a kindness to yourself?
Start with knowing yourself
My very best tip for becoming a more mindful consumer is to make your inner voice the compass–not a fast fashion doomscroll, not a magazine, not even a stylist.
Clothes are just another way of telling your story.
What do you want them to say about who you are?
How do you feel in that outfit?
My most important job as an ethical personal stylist is helping my clients see themselves and express themselves with greater clarity.
Basically, I help people build the skills to honor their own distinct physical presence, personality, and even values with clothes.
Some questions you might ask yourself to develop your unique style:
What are my values?
What clothes make me smile?
What is distinctive about my appearance so I may honor it?
What do I want someone to immediately “get” about me when they see my outfit?
What are realistic adjustments to make? (It’s called a practice for a reason. It needs to be repeatable and easy to replicate. Practice makes progress.)
Practically, you will save a lot of time and money if you know the colors and lines that radically celebrate your physical presence and if you are clear on your aesthetic.
A recent client truly hated shopping, but wanted to learn to shop at thrift stores. I loved the bold move and agreed.
I have been thrifting for about 30 years and recognize it’s a deep cut for most people. There is no upsizing. There are no displays of an outfit and all of its components.
However, because we’d done the work on getting clear on her colors, lines, and aesthetic, none of the second-hand limitations held her back.
She was in the fitting room and piece after piece looked perfect on her. She absolutely crushed her shop. Midway through, she spontaneously declared something like, “I used to hate shopping, but I am having so much fun. I didn’t know what I was looking for before. Having a roadmap makes a huge difference.”
See? Know thyself.
Shopping Guidelines for a (More) Sustainable, Ethical, & Conscious Wardrobe
So knowing yourself will definitely help you buy wiser, but where and how should you actually buy? I have tips for that. And remember as you read them, we are after progress.
Perfection paralyzes. Progress moves us forward.
Tips for making that progress:
Shop second market.
Unless we’re shopping for undergarments, I shop secondhand with all my clients almost exclusively. I like to call this “second market” because it is a whole economy, baby!
These aren’t your sister’s hand-me-downs. There is a wide world of high-quality, stylish stuff out there. Much of it goes to waste otherwise. In 2018, the EPA reported about 70% of clothing and shoes reached the end of their lifespan in a landfill (I bet the number is even worse now). Shopping second market first is really important.
Now keep in mind, whether you shop second market in person or online, there is still the possibility that workers aren’t treated well. Be observant in person. You can scan Reddit and Glassdoor periodically to see what’s going on with favorite online vendors.
If you haven’t had success shopping at thrift stores or consignment stores before, you might just need to learn the tricks.
I’ve had so many clients tell me it’s much easier/more fun than they realized. Many clients tell me they now shop second market first or even exclusively.
2. For retail, vet companies’ ethics on Good On You.
They consider planet, people, and animals in their rating systems, which makes for a pretty comprehensive look.
Unfortunately, you absolutely cannot assume a company is ethical based on the price point or even the marketing.
Plenty of brands that market themselves as ethical are actually just average.
Plenty of brands that sell a blazer for thousands of dollars are clearly not passing the revenue on to their garment workers or considering the environment meaningfully in their manufacturing practices.
This is where your intellect comes in, but this site will save you from getting burnt out trying to do all the research yourself.
3. Buy quality.
It’s a terrible waste to get low-quality, disposable clothes. A waste of money, time, energy. A bad textile or bad construction never helps you look your best.
AND bad quality often connotes a bad process that was not conducted with care for workers, creatures, or the environment.
Some of the best tells on quality:
Natural fibers like cotton →Is it already pilling on the rack? Hard pass, it’s a pill you shouldn’t swallow. (Note: fabric shavers work great on good textiles, but something new shouldn’t have this issue.)
Check sewing on seams →Does the fabric lie flat or does it pucker? Flat is good, kiss puckering seams goodbye.
Are there loose threads? → Cut that piece loose. If they didn’t bother to trim the thread, there are probably some hidden construction issues that will yet unravel once in your closet.
There are great content creators these days that focus on this. A few: @itsolgavi on Instagram and Jennifer Wang on YouTube. Bonus: FrontOfficeCo shares thoughtful and in-depth commentary on design, fashion history, and construction. Elliot Duprey shares great consumer education on quality craftsmanship, vintage, and personal style, especially for menswear.
Once you learn to see this stuff, you can’t unsee it. Suddenly, finding the good stuff in a store becomes much easier.
Will this really make shopping easier?
In my experience, people hate shopping for three reasons:
They have trouble seeing or appreciating themselves
They never learned how to do it well
Or they have some guilt associated with buying.
Following tips like these can help with those issues.
If you are ready for a more intentional relationship with clothes, ready to feel great in your wardrobe and great about how you got it, do reach out.
I love to help people bring their wardrobes into deeper alignment with who they are. It’s a good path, you might just need a wayfinder. Get in touch below and we can see if we are a fit to collaborate.