Shopping In Your Wardrobe

As the fashion giant Gucci announced this week that it will axe over half of its seasonal fashion shows from the runway circuit I was clapping out loud at my desk.
What does this statement potentially mean and why does it make me so happy?

Typically there are five major catwalk shows in the brands annual calendar. Not only is this now going to be reduced to only one in the Spring and one in the Autumn but they are also pledging to make “seasonless” clothes, dropping the traditional tags such as, spring/summer and autumn/winter to give clothes a longer life than their names suggest.

Creative director Alessandro Michele at Gucci posted on Instagram

“We usurped nature, we dominated and wounded it. We incited Prometheus, and buried Pan. So much haughtiness made us lose our sisterhood with the butterflies, the flowers, the trees and the roots. So much outrageous greed made us lose the harmony and the care.”

It’s all very artsy and a tad blowing smoke up their own bottoms, fashion hype world kinda stuff to average Joe me but it’s an important statement and action. Because an item was bought in a particular season, it does not make it obsolete in any other season, or year for that matter! But then, I’m not a dedicated follower of conspicuous consumption fashion and this is, I’m delighted to say, another nod to that trend being laid to rest, as the very bad idea that it was.

Pretentiousness has been endemic in the higher enclaves of designer fashion for decades. We all remember the scene from the 1990 movie Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts prostitute character, Vivienne is trying to shop in Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and asked to leave the designer boutique by the po faced assistants (equally far up their own superiority status!)

This feeling of supremacy still exists and filters down the brand hierarchy, also embedded in many fast fashion brands from Misguided to Shein. It’s all part of the allure, the illusion created and driven by the ‘must have’ marketing machines. But now it seems that the leaders of the pack are becoming more humble and I hope, as is the norm for fashion trends, the flock will follow suit.

One of the niceties of shopping in your wardrobe is that there is no hovering judgmental sales assistant; nor are there are any pop up discount offers on screen, luring you towards another unplanned purchase. It’s just you and your very own private collection of curated clothes, ready and waiting to dress you for your personal catwalk in life.

The layers of fashions very unsustainable habits from runways to landfill are being laid bare at many levels. As we are encouraged to stay at home, reevaluating what is important in our lifestyles, I hope we are learning to value even more what we already have. Take the confidence to step away from what is sold to us and tune into to what we actually need. Wear our values and remember that shopping in your wardrobe is the most sustainable option. 

I'll change the context but use those wonderful words from the second shopping trip in Pretty Woman, because if we don’t switch consumption patterns we might again be uttering, “Big mistake! Big! HUGE!

(You can click on the image for a short snippet from the movie and a trip back in time to the tune of thirty years!)