Sustainable shopping is somewhat of an oxymoron. The idea that we can buy our way to a more planet-friendly wardrobe is perhaps one of the contributors to global climate change, with an Imperial College London study suggesting that the fashion industry is responsible for somewhere between 2-8% of global CO2 emissions. But with greenwashing, a large grey area when it comes to what constitutes ‘sustainable’ and a basic human desire to own things all competing against each other, trying to make more conscious changes can certainly be challenging. So, if you feel lost about where to start, you aren’t alone.

Fashion is a fantastic way for us to express ourselves without having to say a word. It can make us feel more confident, sexy, empowered or simply just comfortable, and in many ways, it’s a basic necessity for keeping warm or slotting into society’s constructs on how we should behave. As an industry, it’s worth £21 billion to UK economy, according to the British Fashion Council, and employs approximately 300 million people worldwide. But it isn’t without its dark side: contributing to the climate crisis, setting huge social injustices and polluting the planet, to name just the headliners.

Peeling back the layers of what it takes to make more planet-friendly fashion choices – without a long lecture or the suggestion that we shop for an organic cotton top that costs the same as a week’s worth of rent – I caught up with Aja Barber, sustainability conversationalist and author of Consumed, and sustainability consultant Emma Slade Edmondson. And, the truth is, it doesn’t necessarily need to cost a thing.

Slow down

According to the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, we buy 60% more clothing than we did 15 years ago. And although we may stare into our wardrobes wondering what to wear some mornings, for most of us, we always find something. So, do we really need to buy more clothes? 

“Stop buying so much,” is the first point Barber wants to make.

“You’ve got to slow down; there’s no way around it. People like to think that we can buy our way to a sustainable wardrobe, but that is just not true,” she says. “You kind of have to jump off of the fast fashion cycle in order to actually see what you really have. Right now, the turn cycle just pushes everything and anything at you. And we think that we’re making these decisions ourselves, but no, these decisions are being made in rooms by people who study what we’re most likely to buy. 

“In order to really develop a wardrobe that you truly fall in love with and wear for, you know, decades on end, you really need to get out of the fast fashion cycle. Which means you’ve got to stop buying. You’ve got to stop for like six months to a year.”

If that sounds too tricky, go through what you already own and “shop your own wardrobe first”, says Edmondson. “Doubling the lifespan of your clothing can reduce its carbon emission impact by half.” And that’s certainly no bad thing considering a whopping 12% of people won’t wear an outfit again if they’ve posted a picture of it on social media, according to eBay. 

Find your personal style

Now this point is easier said than done. While some people seem to have been born with an innate sense of style that has seen them through decades of dressing well, regardless of seasonal shifts in trends, many of us still struggle to find an overarching look that makes us feel confident, comfortable and complements our personality. Luckily, to give you a helping hand, I’ve already sat down with three fashion experts who shared their top tips on how to perfect a personal style. But beyond just making getting dressed easier each day, it can help make to make us a much more conscious consumer too.

“Understanding your personal style isn’t buying, it’s researching,” explains Barber. “It’s looking at your closet and figuring out what colours you like to wear. What brands do you like? Maybe, when you see this style, you don’t actually need anything new. You can go into your wardrobe because you have these individual pieces. Maybe we just put this colour palette together that we’ve never worn before, and all of a sudden, the stuff in your closet that isn’t new feels new and fresh.

“If we’re constantly in this cycle of buying new things every single month, we never will get to that point,” she says, emphasising the importance of step one. “For me, a lot of times, instead of buying, I spend the time that I would have spent browsing a big fast fashion website and take a look at Pinterest instead. I’m looking at outfits and looking at things that I’ve liked in the past and pulling together ideas from different images, and sometimes that can be just as satisfying as shopping. The speed at which we’ve been moving is exactly the problem. It’s bad for our closet, it’s bad for our wallet, and it’s hella bad for the planet.

“But also, what that definitely does for you is when you do need a new item, you’ve already kind of got a good list of what you want.” Then, when you do need something new, be it a bigger pair of jeans or a winter coat, you’ll be shopping with more of a purpose, which takes us to step three.

Thirdly, pay attention to where you’re purchasing

There’s a reason why fast-fashion brands continue to dominate the high street, and that’s because we’re buying it. So, before supporting something, somewhere or someone, Edmondson recommends: “Think about wearing your values and start to look deeper into the brands you’re thinking of purchasing from.

Barber agrees: “I mean, being honest, the language in shopping and fashion is very much ‘need more’. But do we actually need anything with our full wallet? Full closet? No. So when you do decide that you need something, take the time to research the absolute best option.

“Who is this company? Can I get behind what they’re doing? Do I see anything about the ethics of how people are getting paid? You know what, maybe I’ll send them an email and say, ‘Hey, I was just browsing – I really like your product, but I want to know about its production. How are people getting paid? Who’s getting paid?’ Then you’ll be able to feel assured that you’ve done some due diligence and you’re telling that brand that there’s a demand for this information. It’s a two-for-one.

“Taking the time to not just invest in your wardrobe but to invest in the makers and producers who are doing things the right way is such a win for everyone. It really is investing in an emotional way when I give my money to a small business that employs a handful of women in an area that is otherwise economically depressed. I can feel really good about that, and we haven’t been able to feel very good about the production of our clothing for a long time. And when you feel really good about the production of your clothing, you end up caring for it for a longer time; you end up really putting pride in it, and forming a much deeper attachment than you would have if you just bought it on Amazon. It’s not just investing in your wardrobe but investing in the ethics and investing in companies that you can morally get behind and feel good about giving your money to,” says Barber. And, speaking as someone who has a penchant for mid-luxury labels, I can truly attest that these items get treated a whole lot better than a trending pair of Zara trousers.

Suddenly, the secret to sustainable shopping seems so simple.

Images: Emma Slade Edmondson