Earlier this week Vivienne Westwood was quoted saying 'Everybody buys too many clothes', you can find the article //here//. When I heard what Vivienne had to say it started me off thinking about clothes and the way we purchase.
Vivienne made comments at her recent LFW, touching on various issues about how we treat fashion and culture:
"Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody's buying far too many clothes."
"I mean, I know I'm lucky, I can just take things and borrow them and I'm just okay, but I hate having too many clothes. And I think that poor people should be even more careful.It doesn't mean therefore you have to just buy anything cheap. Instead of buying six things, buy one thing that you really like. Don't keep buying just for the sake of it."
"I just think people should invest in the world. Don't invest in fashion, but invest in the world. The first thing they can do, if they live in a town, is they can go to art galleries."
Now I've seen a lot of people saying they have an issue with what Vivienne has said, especially since she's advertised for unpaid intern positions. With all that aside I think she's exactly right! One thing I truly respect about Vivienne is the fact she's one of the last remaining desginers to speak her mind, if she believes in a cause she'll fight for it, using her position to raise awareness.
Wednesday night I found myself having a conversation very similar to this with a friend, talking student loans and attempting to spend it better this term, if I was going to be buying clothes trying to buy higher quality. We'd discussed pretty much this whole concept, if you're buying better quality you're not adding to the massive disasters caused by fast fashion such as factory collapses and the environmental effect which follows with fast fashion.
Fast fashion uses a lot of the worlds resources but also because of it's lifespan is moderately cheaper, which keeps profit costs lower and lower. The main issue here is about sensible buying and thoughtful buying, try to buy something you're going to keep and reuse! You'd hardly throw away anything by Chanel where as anything by Primark you'd be happy to disown!
Also passing comments such as 'visit art galleries' she touched on yet another issue we mentioned, espeically since the recession we need to invest in culture as opposed to materialistic belongings! With the new school year just about to start it's almost like a new year and a few new resolutions need to be made.
Firstly I'm going to attempt better buying, choosing quality over cost! Secondly I wanted to discover more culture rather than wasting time just being part of the passive audience we have become! I wouldn't mind hearing other people's opinions about this topic, do you think Vivienne is right? Do you think we do need to buy less and invest our money in better quality?
Hopefully in a few months I'll be able to tell you how change of purchasing has gone!
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