Looking to lower your environmental impact? Taking steps to ensure your ensembles are more eco-friendly is an easy place to start
When it comes to living sustainably, the first place you can start is in your very own wardrobe. Here the founder of sustainable Norwegian fashion brand Envelope 1976, Celine Aagaard, shares a step-by-step guide to making your wardrobe work better for you and the plant.
Organise your wardrobe
If you never organise your wardrobe, you will never find those long lost (but often still loved) items in the back. It’s all too easy to convince yourself you have nothing to wear and need something new.
My approach is to throw everything onto the floor and categorise it. I do this three times a year — it’s a hassle, but I find it is the only way to know what I have in there. I start with the shoes, sorting them into heels, boots, sandals and so on, and then organise them into colours or material types. Then I eliminate.
Organising your closet space will help you to buy less and wear more. Photo: Getty
The key is to ask yourself some tough questions — do you really need ten pairs of knee-high black boots? Then, aim to cut your shoe collection down to one-third of what you started with. The rest can be given away to charity shops, to someone else more in need or be sold to someone that would love a pair of pre-loved Pradas. You can also swap and share items with friends for extra eco-friendly points.
And once you’ve been through the process with shoes, you move on to the next category. You can step up your styling game when you have fewer items in your closet and a better view of what you have. You’ll soon find you create multiple ways to wear your items — and you can also get into upcycling.
Check the care label
Give yourself new routines. Check the care label while organising your beloved pieces, and make it a habit always to check the label before you buy anything new. You want to avoid clothes made of plastic-based fabrics such as polyester, nylon and spandex. Instead, focus your wardrobe on clothes created from natural, renewable materials made to last, like linen, wool and silk.
I highly recommend biodegradable vegetable-tanned garments and garments coloured without any chemical used if you have the option.
Choose seasonless garments
I used to divide my wardrobe into two seasons: summer and winter. But then I realised that I never ended up wearing many items I had on hold for a season, so I started to build an all-year-round wardrobe instead. I divided it into colours, and the result was that even my mini skirts could work 365 days a year. I became a perpetual swimmer, and when I wasn’t in the water, my swimsuits became a layer under a blazer during fall. The chunky knits were perfect to wear after a bath during the summer — so there is no reason for them to be hiding in a box until next winter.
Creating a more seasonless wardrobe gives you a better overview of what you have — and by layering your garments during colder weather, you can wear your items all year round.
Go hunting for vintage treasures
Vintage hunting has been an addiction of mine since I was young. Vintage stores are always the first places I look up when I have travel plans. Even during the pandemic, I indulged my passion for pre-worn by seeking out vintage treasures online.
Curated vintage stores are nice but are often the most expensive. However, if you’re patient and always keep your eyes open, there’s no telling what you’ll find at less organised outlets. For example, I have been lucky to find tailored old Saint Laurent suits and Jil Sander trousers at the local flea market. Then again, often, the most exciting finds are unique non-brand items.
Buying vintage feels so much more thrilling than just going into a store and buying the same items everyone else is putting in their shopping bags.