Happy New Year!
2023 already, gosh. Mind you I very much feel like the past three years haven’t been quite real. What with the pandemic and everything else that’s happened, life has been interesting for sure.
But with a new year comes new year resolutions. Everyone makes these at the start of the year, and they’re mostly good intentioned. I prefer to keep my resolutions small, and seeing as my fashion life has been a bit… not right… for a couple of years, I’ve decided to focus my resolutions on the things I buy and wear.
These are resolutions I intend to keep, and you, reader, should definitely think about making some resolutions for your fashion life too.
I resolve to clear out my wardrobe
A wardrobe clearout should really happen more than once a year, but let’s be real, who has the time for that? I certainly don’t, so January is a good time to do one. I’ve got some very old, very threadbare clothes in there that need to be consigned to the fabric bank or charity shop, and there’s stuff in there that I’ve not even looked at for two years. My room will be delightful chaos for a day or so, but I intend to come out of it with a clearer cupboard and a clearer head.
I resolve to break up with fast fashion
I have been trying to do this one for a while, if I’m honest, but not having to care about what I wore for the past almost three years has meant that when I did buy clothes, they were not great quality and usually from fast fashion places like Primark. I am currently wearing a Primark t-shirt that is awful, but I bought it in 2020 and at the time, it did the job. It kept my top half covered up for video calls (you can’t wear pyjamas to work from home all the time, folks). Now we’re coming out of the pandemic and I’m actually leaving the house more, any new clothes I buy are going to be higher quality and from local boutiques. Yes, they will be more expensive, but they will last longer and I won’t be feeding the fast fashion industry, which I have a whole load of Views on (but that’s another post!).
I resolve to stick to a budget
I do love clothes, and in the Before Times I had a tendency to, um, buy quite expensive things and when I did this, sometimes there was too much month left at the end of my money and I was reduced to eating ramen noodles for a week. Now I’m shopping more, I can see myself creeping back into this habit. So for 2023 I have decided to set a monthly budget for fashion, which includes shoes, jewellery and accessories, and I am sticking to it. I have to – with the cost of living going up and up, I can’t just walk into, say, Reiss, and drop £200 without thinking. I have to be more frugal (I have to eat, and I have a car to run) and my clothes spending needs to be reined in.
I am going to use more of my jewellery
I have a ton of jewellery, and yet I always seem to wear the same two necklaces on rotation – a little bee pendant my mum bought me years ago or a jade pendant I rehomed from a friend who was getting rid of some of her necklaces. I have so much more choice than this, and yet in the mornings I panic and just go for the bee or the jade. I will try and wear more of my necklaces this year. There’s a stylist trick where you hang the necklace over the hanger of what you think it will go with. I’m going to try that, and report back in six months as to whether it worked.
I will not buy any shoes that are not comfortable
Life really is too short for uncomfortable shoes, and when I clear out my wardrobe, any shoes that don’t meet the Comfy Standard are being sent to the charity shop for someone else to ruin their feet with. Off the top of my head I can think of three pairs that are already earmarked for being donated. I haven’t worn these shoes in literally years, and that’s not just because of the pandemic. These things hurt my feet, but I bought them in the name of ‘having shoes to go with an outfit’ and yeesh, honestly, we shouldn’t have to do this. Why should we have to cram our feet into uncomfortable high heels just to look good? Why can’t I bum around in my comfy-ass Skechers all day? Oh wait, fashion and societal expectations, that’s why. Nope. I’m done. Comfy shoes from here on out, and they don’t have to be ugly shoes either!
oOo
What are your New Years resolutions, fashion or otherwise? Let me know in the comments!
WEST SURREY STYLE 