As many of my readers know, I've been referring to the Revolving Closet Project for years, based on my rewarding experience in college with sharing clothing among 8 or so young women who wore roughly the same size and had a common interest in off-beat fashion, as well as in handmade accessories and shoes reflecting our diverse, multinational backgrounds, home regions, and travels.
Our shared closet nurtered our friendships, as well as our growing, collective awareness. We learned that our relationships extended to women's collectives, local artisans, vendors in out-of-the-way markets, and thrift-stores in various Metropoles, and that we were constructing our own "organic" approach to fashion. We felt cool, and we were often haute!
Now as so many people wake up to the ways that uncritical consumption of so-called "Fast Fashion," ignores the Full Circle of Life, including everything from the environmental impacts to the hijacking, commercialization of women's body images to the real repercussions for workers everywhere, perhaps we get another chance to be on the cutting edge of chic!
Check out this article in the NYT!
And don't forget to check the related comments. I'd love to see your answers to the question, Would you lease your clothes? (Leave a comment for me here!)
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4 comments:
I have not thought about this before but why not the "NetFlicks" model? You can have up to X number of garmets for as long as you want for a monthly fee. You would not be required to restore the garment, so as to have a centralized and efficient system (people would find that attractive I think, not having to wash their clothing). But you could keep the garment for multiple uses or select the same item several times at different junctures from a website of detailed descriptions and photos. It would require a committed well organized warehouse staff as there is nothing worse than getting a dirty or ruined garment, or getting it late. As "NetFlicks", you can set up a wishlist so that a garment in your size becomes available to you as it returns from other users.
Thanks for posting your comment! Yeah, I've been 'pensing' on this for a while, and wondering about what you refer to as the 'Netflicks' model. I think my questions should be a little different, since I'm truly invested in the full implications of sustainality. Would people join a lending (not leasing) community? And would we try to make a commodity-chain intervention? For instance, would the clothing be shipped by air (not green) and how much of it should be non-polluting materials, fair trade, etc.?
Thanks again.
NetFlicks is an internet movie service that does a sequence just as I described, a wishlist followed by "them" sending you a movie when it available, with a mail-back envelope already paid for. There are various plans based on how many movies you want to have an any one time and you can keep the movie for as long as you want. Until you return it, you cannot receive the next set. The lending community you describe works locally, between people of a similar ilk (not to mention size and fashion sense). Your choice implies that the masses will come around to this idea once they realize how great it is. My sense is that, though you may be correct, it may take longer than our lifetime to observe this change. For that reason, I suggest manipulating the masses, by giving them something they want, e.g. no laundry/dry cleaning and virtually unlimited choice, in exchange for something that is good for us all, namely a lower degree of clothing "consumption" without compromising the "fashion".
Thanks again. As alluded, I continue to find the broader implications of a project that extends beyond the local and folks of my putative 'ilk' somewhat daunting, but I appreciate your comments. Stop by again sometime!
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