The Capsule Wardobe

Whether you are a sewer, shopper or both, I think most women living in developed countries would admit to feeling overwhelmed at times by the choice of clothing and accessories to buy or make. You could be wandering down the high street, or surfing Burdastyle in search for inspiration; there is just so much on offer that we are almost drowning in options of ways to clothe ourselves. But it is fashion magazines that provide the arena in which this clothing claustrophobia reaches fever pitch. Their pages are flooded with ‘key trends’ and ‘current looks’ which intend to throw us into wardrobe-turmoil by insinuating that without them, our appearance (and therefore how we will be perceived) is not up-to-date or relevant.

The magazines then act like a trusted friend, promising to aid us in figuring out how we can adopt these looks with helpful articles like ‘How to Wear This Season’s Colour/Boots/Trousers/Prints/Whatever’ whilst coincidentally both pedalling the wares of their advertisers AND the idea that fashion magazines themselves harbour ‘fashion insider’ knowledge that make them indispensible to us uninformed mortals. There are, as you may have guessed by now, not enough words in the English language, for me to fully express my dislike for this process.

Don’t get me wrong, I truly believe that clothing and style can be fun and are great tools for self-expression. And fashion trends can be fascinating windows through which to view shifts in wider social cadence. But the fashion press and clothing brands work together with one primary aim: to make money. Nothing more noble than that. And they achieve this largely by trying to make women feel irrelevant, lacking and rubbish about our appearance. They offer ‘solutions’ in the form of products to buy, but the speed of the turnover of these ‘must-haves’ means that us consumers will never feel satisfied and relevant for long unless we pump some more of our wages into the machine.

Therefore, it is fascinating, is it not, that even fashion magazines’ writers and editors apparently aspire to ‘evolving’ beyond the frivolity of the never-ending cycle of new looks and trends they adopt, season after season, in order to stay on top of their game. It is as if they are acknowledging that the money-making merry-go-round their roles perpetuate is not sustainable, and they are looking towards the future when they will have been exhausted by their professions like race-horses being put out to pasture. I am talking, of course, about The Capsule Wardrobe.

The research conducted by Courtney Carver, author of Project 333, leads her to define The Capsule Wardrobe in these terms:

1. collection of clothes and accessories that includes only items considered essential
2. a person’s basic collection of coordinating clothes that can be used to form the basis of outfits for all occasions
3. a set of clothing, normally around 24 items, which can be mixed and matched to create a wide variety of outfits.

The Capsule Wardrobe is a something, paradoxically, that fashion magazines (and now increasingly fashion blogs) have devoted a lot of column inches to over the years. It is treated with the same tone of the rest of the standard fashion press copy: that it is the ‘fashion insiders’, rather than the general public, who are most qualified to determine what such a precisely crafted, carefully edited selection of garments should comprise of. The extent of the dichotomy that fashion magazines are also permitted to state what a basic, trend-less selection of clothes should look like, is frankly alarming to me. The definite article (The) in The Capsule Wardrobe, as these things are always discussed, would also suggest that it really is a singular entity that all women must yearn for. Such articles are never titled ‘A Capsule Wardrobe’, are they? Yet the magazine articles and blog posts on ‘The Capsule Wardrobe’ never managed to agree on what that should consist of. Anyways, there is a lot to take issue with here, regarding both the assumptions of what a capsule wardrobe is, and who gets to shape it.

The first is the idea of ‘essential’. That is an incredibly subjective term, both in terms of what society you live in, and within your own society. In fact, I doubt that even my best friend and I could agree on what garments we consider ‘essential’. Ditto with the term ‘basic’. Why do so many of them always contain a basic white buttoned shirt?! What good is that to a woman with a toddler, or who works with animals?! I haven’t worn, or had use for, a white shirt since I was a waitress in a pizza restaurant some eight years ago! Why is so much of it black, white and grey anyhow? Isn't the colour and the print, for many people, the fun bit about getting dressed each day? Also, from a fashion writer’s perspective, what a capsule wardrobe would consist of changes with the seasons, years and decades anyhow, so why all this time spent trying to define the indefinable?

Of course, there have always been some writers and bloggers who deal with this topic with a more relaxed definition of ‘The Capsule Wardrobe’ means, taking into account the individuality of both style preference and lifestyle needs. Currently, there are whole blogs devoted to creating a 24-piece ‘mix and match-able’ collection of clothes which can, presumably, be altered to accommodate new trends as the owner desires. But isn’t that actually just ‘A Wardrobe’?

If you believe the statement that women in Western countries usually wear 20% of their wardrobes 80% of the time, and 80% of their wardrobes only 20% of the time, then aren’t we usually dealing with a limited section of our clothes at any one time anyway? Are they suggesting that we get rid of everything else we already own? What happens when you fall behind with your laundry and a proportion of those 24 things are dirty or hanging on radiator to dry? What happens when you don’t live in LA and actual weather systems kick in, and ‘The Dressy T-shirt’ and ‘The Basic Shirt’ just aren’t going to cut it and you’re wearing ‘The Cardigan’ and ‘The Sweater Vest’ together every single day for three months until Spring shows it’s face again? What happens when you get bored of staring at yourself in the mirror in your one basic cardigan? Are we meant to be operating on a one-in, one-out system here? If something new gets bought, does something else need to be discarded?

Obviously I’m being facetious here, I doubt anyone writing a magazine article or blog post about creating a Capsule Wardrobe is genuinely proposing there are strict guidelines to be adhered to, or that ‘24’ is some sort of numerological lucky number: the Holy Grail of wardrobe contents if you will.

I’m all for halting mindless and panic actions in favour of making well thought-out selections of what to add to our wardrobes (be that through shopping or sewing) in the attempt to reduce the quantity of landfill and amount of damage clothing and fabric production reaps on our environment. It makes sense to make selective decisions about what to consume and what to pass on to if we no longer wear an item and someone else could benefit from it. But forgive me for being suspicious when it’s fashion ‘experts’ who are dictating this process.

The basic crux of what I’m saying is this: normal women (who don’t make their money by having the contents of their wardrobes scrutinised) really don’t need fashion writers telling them what their wardrobes should contain. We already all have our own ‘Capsule Wardrobe’. It’s the stuff we wear most of the time anyway. What that consists of should be as personal and individual as you are (and it already is). For example, since I made it, I wear my leopard collar batwing top as often I can get away with because I love how it feels, it looks good with my black jeans and generally it reflects a casual version of my personal style as it stands today. To me, it is both ‘essential’ and ‘basic’. Yet I wouldn’t expect, and certainly wouldn’t want, to see someone else to rock a similar top several times a week. Your jeans that you wear pretty much every day because they are comfy and make your bum look good? They are ‘The Jean’. The boots you wear a lot because they don’t leak when it’s been raining? They’re ‘The Boot’. Your plain cardigan with the loose button that you haven’t had a chance to stitch on again because you’re wearing it most of the time? You guessed it, ‘The Cardigan’! See? You’ve already got a capsule wardrobe. Let’s spend more time enjoying getting dressed and being ourselves, and less time worrying whether it is all mixes and matches!

I believe the tone of many fashion magazines and fashion columns, that they possess superior knowledge of how everyone should present themselves, is insidious and damaging. As I say, clothing styles and trends are interesting: they can reflect certain social and personal moods, and they can be fun to dabble and play with. But anyone pretending to have any more of a handle than you do on deeply personal areas like what you wear, how much you weigh or what shape your pubic hair should take, is both mistaken and can piss off, IMO. Women have enough hoops to jump through and ways in which they are made to feel inferior and unworthy. Do you think men give a shit about how many garments they own, or should own? Or if they have the definitive basic peacoat?

It also interests me that The Capsule Wardrobe is, in many ways about restriction, self-imposed restriction. That in an era when we have so much on hand, we are implementing rules to help us negotiate all this choice, be it food or possessions, including clothing. But that’s an area I’d like to expand upon another day. Right now, I’ve got to go and count my pairs of trousers!

Sales Techniques for People who Hate Selling: Free PDF

Maybees you are aware that when I'm not working for Traid, writing this blog or sewing stuff with anchors on, I also co-organise a Brighton-based craft market called Brighton Craftaganza. The first event was in March this year (see above and below), and maybe I'm biased but it kicked arse!!!! Well, the next event is THIS SATURDAY!!!! I'm not too panicked because I think all is in hand. Anyways, back to the point of this post....

Back at that first event in March, whilst Pat (Mr 'So, Zo...' and official Brighton Craftaganza photographer) was wandering around the stalls, he noticed some of the sellers had pretty killer sales techniques and were generating lots of interest in their products and yielding a lot of sales, whilst some sellers were almost off-putting in their passivity. Now, of course, not everyone likes to be approached when browsing at a craft fair or similar event, but the evidence of how many sales the more interactive sellers made in comparison to the others stood for itself. As a designer/maker/seller myself, I am more than aware of how difficult it can be to know how to act towards potential customers, where to position yourself and how to broach a conversation, if at all.

It’s no secret that most creative people hate selling. It can be awkward and embarrassing to sell in a face to face situation to people you don’t know. This is especially true when selling stuff you have made yourself. We are such critical ‘parents’ that we forget that the stuff we make is unique, handmade and therefore of great value. The paradox is that selling more stuff is brilliant for makers. The more you sell, the more time you can spend making more stuff. It is a positive cycle.

Pat, who has undertaken lots of sales technique training for his job, and read a lot about selling to improve his skills as a freelance copywriter, really felt that there are many simple-to-apply techniques that would help the crafting/handmade community generate more sales out the interest their work receives. We had several long discussions, also involving Anthony, an experienced Sales Trainer and then colleague of Pat's, where we figured out the most useful tips and tricks from a crafter's perspective. We turned this into the format for a symposium/discussion and hosted it at the Handmade shop back in September to a room full of crafters/designers/makers, many of whom will sell with us at the Christmas Craftaganza event. It was really great to be able to offer this event for free to local creatives, as Brighton Craftaganza is all about supporting creative talent AND proving that handmade products are just as good as, and in many ways much better than, their mass produced equivalents.

We received very positive feedback from that free event, but seeing as there was quite a lot of take on board, and many people who had wanted to attend but hadn't been able, we made a free downloadable PDF document (pictured above) covering the key points discussed in that symposium.

The document breaks down and analyses the structure or 'anatomy' of a sale. It discusses how to use basic selling theory to open communication, build rapport and communicate just how special and desireable your work is and, finally, some basic strategies to CLOSE THE SALE. If you are selling some of your work this Christmas, or know anyone else who is, feel free to download our document and see if it contains any tips that might help make the event even more of a success than it will already be!

Mariner T-shirt

Yep, I think I may have almost (but not quite) scraped the barrel for nautical-inspired names for my creations!!!! However, if you think it's therefore time for me to make a departure from this genre of style, I think you'd better get those thoughts in check because that isn't going to happen in the foreseeable!

So, here we have my very latest completed creation. I'm more than a little in love with it. With all the planning and prepping for Christmas present sewing that I've been obsessing over, it was a relief to make an off-the-cuff unplanned creation that resulted from the day's events. At work on Friday we had our usual bi-monthly delivery of old garments and unwanted fabric for us to create clothing from. Except this particular delivery was unusual in that it contained a wealth of lovely stretch jersey sample fabric from a fabric producing company. Lots of it came in the form of stripes, and in the kind of quantities that could easily sustain me making something for myself without making the slightest dent in it all.

I had already booked the afternoon off but planned to stay in the studio and work on my own projects. Pat is currently eye-ball deep in a copy writing deadline and I thought it best to keep away from the flat until the evening! So after I spent some time altering a pattern and cutting out a garment destined to be another Christmas present, with over an hour left before it was time to head home, I felt justified in turning my attentions to making something for myself.

Although it pains me to admit it, my stripey T-shirt is really starting to show some negative signs of repeated wear, so I decided that it made sense to make a replacement/addition. I chose a lovely medium weight red and white striped sample piece, but try as I might, I couldn't get those original stripey T-shirt pattern pieces to fit. That's when necessity became the mother of invention (as she so often does!). I realised the only way these pattern pieces were going to fit was by making it shorter in sleeve and body length OR but adding contrast yokes to squeeze the rest of the front and back pattern pieces out of the stripey fabric that by now I was determined I wanted to use.

So Mama Necessity gave birth to the idea that I could include this anchor jersey! My boss gave me an old and misshapen vintage 1970s top covered in anchors not long after I started my job and divulged to her my fixation with all things nautical. Since that time, so for about a year now, I've been hoarding that anchor-coated top with the obsessive mania of a particularly aggressive squirrel. But when I saw those stripes I just knew now was the moment to crack it out.

As I say, I used the same pattern that I developed for my original stripey top, save for making the neckline a tiny bit wider. The whole thing was constructed using an overlocker (serger), then I overlocked round the hem and sleeve hems and turned them back and stitched them down using a three-step zigzag stitch on my normal sewing machine.

The sleeves are a little long, but I'll wait until it's been laundered until I alter those to the correct length. I'm super-vibed it looks good with my red cardi because who needs a wardrobe-orphan that is only wearable for the limited number of warm days the UK weather feels it shall bestow on us?!

See the pic below? I have the lovely Santie to thank for photographing me after a sighting of one of our Brighton Craftaganza Christmas craft market posters in a pub. Shameless plug: it's next Saturday (December 10th) if you happen to find yourself in South East England with nowt to do!!!!

At ease, shipmates!!!!

A Word With John-Paul Flintoff

Have you ever read a book that, upon completion, made you think, 'I really enjoyed that, what the author had to say really chimed with me and it's given me lots to think about. But, AGH!!!, now I want to know a bit more about them and their views!'? Well, after reading 'Sew Your Own' by John-Paul Flintoff, I told my mates about it and wrote a post about it on this blog because I felt it focussed on issues that deserve peops spending some brain-time on. The inclusive and accessible nature of his writing and his obvious willingness to engage with people, whether they had anything directly to offer him or not, made me feel he might enjoy a bit of reader participation. So I found his email address (which really didn't require as much internet-stalking as I was prepared to undertake!) and let him know about the post, which had garnered some lovely positive comments from my readers by that point, plus inspired a few sales I might add. He sent a charming response which put pay to the adage, 'Never (e-)meet your heroes'!

But as the book addressed many of the topics that I usually have running through my head, and in fact added more facets to those topics, I really wanted to pick his brains on a few things plus get a bit of an update on his crafting-activities since the the book was published. So I chanced my arm, having already made contact with him, and he graciously agreed to a mini-interview which I would, of course, love to share with you...

Me: Your book was first published in 2009, are you still making and modifying your own clothes?

J-P: Yes, very much so, though I've found it hard to do as much as I would like to do. This week I invisibly mended a second-hand Harris Tweed jacket I bought in Edinburgh last Xmas. I also bought recently a rather girly piece of fabric (floral, washed out) that I thought looks very slightly like camouflage and am planning to macho it up a bit, if you see what I mean, but making a fitted military style shirt with epaulettes and two front pockets.

Me: Have you been allowed to apply your skills to your wife’s wardrobe yet?

J-P: Harriet, eventually convinced that I knew what I was doing, asked me to make her a pair of jeans, which was a huge breakthrough in itself. I bought the denim, with a bit of stretch in it, but subsequently decided never actually to get around to making the jeans because if I did, and she didn't like them, she would feel bad and I would feel bad too. The great thing was to be asked. Having said that, I did make her a loose blouse for her birthday, which she seems to like.

Me: Do you teach your daughter your make-do and mend skills?

J-P: It's very slow progress. She doesn't want to be taught, as such. She has enough lessons as it is. So I have to do it "inadvertently". One thing I do is repair her beloved teddy, as holes appear at regular intervals. It's like painting the Forth Bridge. I told her that one day when I'm very old she will have to do the darning herself. She consented to let me buy her a little sewing kit, in preparation for that terrible eventuality. Also, she recently had a sewing party for her birthday (not my choice, as it happens) and was also given presents (by others) that have to do with sewing. So I think it will happen.

Me: How have your investigations into climate change, Peak Oil and sweatshop labour effected your buying habits?

J-P: I have become a terrible consumer - or a good one, depending on how you look at things. I buy very little indeed, which is not doing much for economic growth. When I do buy, it is often second-hand. I don't think about this very much, it's become almost instinctive. I recently went into a clothes shop and thought, oh, yes, there are shops. But it got to a point where my obsession with home-made was becoming a bit obsessive. I needed a break. So Harriet just went to Gap and bought me some corduroy jeans and I have to say I like them very much. I don't have a clue what kind of conditions they were made in, or who grew the cotton, with what kind of inputs, but it's really important, I think, to learn to relax and recognise that we can't fix everything.

Me: Considering the damaging effect of fabric production, but consumer’s desire to support local independent fabric shops, is it ethical to buy new fabric or should we seek out existing unused fabric to sew our clothes with?

J-P: I do think it's a good idea to seek out unused fabric, obviously. But it would be a fairly miserable world if nobody were able to make new things, ever.

Me: What can someone who lives in London do to prevent sweatshop labour

J-P: Well, buying clothes from a place that makes a point of sourcing clothes ethically is one idea, but it's likely to be a bit more expensive, and not everybody can afford that. A cheaper solution might be to buy second-hand clothes, which may of course have been produced ethically, but by reusing you are reducing the impact of that a bit, I think. (Halving the bad karma, if you like, of the previous owner.) The absolute best option is to make things yourself: there is no sweatshop labour in my house, and nobody is exploited in the making of my garments.

Me: How do you remain positive despite all the realities of Peak Oil, climate change, global inequality and the reluctance of political leaders to effectively address these issues?

J-P: I think there is no option but to remain positive. It's difficult at times not to feel a bit glum, but actually I think that moving away from expecting anything whatever from political or other leaders is rather rewarding: you recognise that you can make a real difference yourself, and if you work with enough other people the political change you want to see will happen automatically. The alternative is very disempowering: to think that things will only be "fixed" by somebody else, eg, government.

Me: Have you considered starting your own craft/sustainability blog? Your approach and engaging writing style would make it a massive hit with the on-line creative community!

J-P: Thank you very much! I would love to do that, but it's hard to find the time to do all the things I want to do and also document them. I do blog occasionally about things that interest me, but not only about craft and sustainability. http://jpflintoff.tumblr.com/

I would like to thank John-Paul enormously for taking the time to answer my questions so thoughtfully. And if you have any mates that have taken an interest in DIY activities, you could so easily flow them a copy of 'Sew Your Own' this Christmas which may provide them with the motivation to start their own creative journey!

Tutorial: How To Make a Cowl Neck Scarf

This tutorial may be of use to you if you A) have some spare jersey or knit fabric hanging about and you're not sure what to do with it, or B), you've got some people to make Christmas presents for and you are in a hurry! This cowl neck scarf is basically two tubes of fabric joined together. You can use jersey or knit fabric, or a couple of T-shirts, sweatshirts or knit jumpers (or a cunning combination of two of those things). In this tutorial I use an overlocker (serger) to construct it, but you can use a regular sewing machine. I would recommend that you test out stitching your intended fabric with whichever machine you plan to use before you begin. Here's how to make a cowl neck scarf...

Step 1:

This scarf basically consists of two rectangles of fabric (or four which you must stitch together to make two). The dimensions are totally up to you, but for the cowl neck scarves pictured in this post (there are a couple of knit versions pictured at the end) the initial rectangles measured 76 cms wide and 42 cms deep. For my version pictured above I used a light-weight drapey jersey, but thicker fabrics can also give a fantastic (and more snuggly) result. As you can see, I just drew my measurements straight onto the fabric, no pattern. Told you this is a quick project.

Step 2:

after cutting out, you will have two rectangles the same size. Make each rectangle into a tube by stitching the two shorter edges together, right sides together.

Step 3:

What did I tell you? Two tubes!!! (I know, this isn't really a step!). Remember, the right side of the fabric is currently inside the tubes. Keep it that way for a minute.

Step 4:

To make life easier for yourself when matching up the edges later, make little notches (no more than 0.5 cms) by snipping at the top and bottom of the raw edge at the other end from where the stitching is.

Step 5:

Now you have to join the two tubes together at one end of the cowl. Turn one of the tubes through so the right side of your fabric is on the outside. Put this turned through tube inside the other, matching up the stitching seams and the two little notches. Pin these together around the circle of raw edges.

Step 6:

Sew the tubes together as you just pinned them. Remember to take the pins out as you go before they reach the needle or blade!!

Step 7:

Now the two tubes are attached. Don't worry about trimming your loose ends too much, they are going to get hidden inside the final cowl neck scarf.

Step 8:

Now pull the tube out to make one long tube. Make sure you pull it out with the right side of the fabric inside the tube.

Step 9:

The next couple of steps may require a bit of a leap of faith, they may not make sense so you're going to have to trust me! Problem is, this bit is really tricky to describe. If the instructions don't make sense at first read, it is likely they will make far more sense when you read them with the half-made thing in your hands.

Hold both ends of the tube at the edge where the stitching lines finish. See where my boss is holding it in the picture above? Take hold of yours at these two points. Bring the two points you are holding closer together. They are going to meet up, but before you put them together, you need to fold the edges in a bit so that it is the right sides of the fabric that touch. (See picture below.)

Step 10:

Put them together to make those two points meet. It will help to use a pin to keep them together for a bit.

Step 11:

Now you have those two points together, with their edges tucked inside, all held together with a pin. Turn this area round so that you can see the raw edges (see picture below). Now put a second pin in to keep these raw edges together. Take out the first pin. The whole cowl neck scarf at this point will look all twisted and wrong. Don't worry, it's meant to be like that at this point. Where you have just put this new pin to hold those raw edges together, that's going to be the beginning of the next line of stitching. Matching your corresponding final two notches along the raw edge, you need to sew the last circle of raw edges together LEAVING AN OPENING FOR TURNING THROUGH (i.e. stop this sewing before you meet up with where you started this row of sewing!). This gap should be at least 10cms long.

Step 12:

Now the whole damn thing will look all screwy and twisted up, like the picture below. At the left you can see the seam edges I just stitched together in Step 11. The loose overlocking threads indicate where I left an opening.

Step 13:

Now the magic bit... Reach through the gap and pull it all through so that the right sides of your fabric are now on the outside and all your stitching is inside.

Step 14:

Pin the opening closed.

Step 15:

Stitch the opening closed neatly by hand, or quickly with a regular sewing machine like I did below:

Step 16:

Admire your handiwork!!!

As I mentioned before, this basic method can be applied to all sorts of stretchy (non woven) fabric. The scarf below was made with an old jumper for the outside and snakeskin printed jersey for the inside.

This cowl neck scarf was made using a few fine but very soft grey jumpers. The subtle differences in shade make a really nice effect. If you have some old knitwear, you could try combining two different ones for a toasty warm way to reuse unwanted garments.

Please leave a comment if you have any questions and/or you need me to clarify something. Happy making!!!

How I Consume

Today I’d like to talk about how I consume stuff. I’m not talking about edible or drinkable stuff (which you could argue I do in slightly ill-advised quantities!), but all the other things in my home like the stuff I sit on, eat my dinner off and fill my wardrobe with.

My Magic Questions

When I figure out I need, or could do with (more on that distinction later) a product, my brain goes through these stages:

1. Could I/we (me and my boyfriend) do without buying it? For example, I’m going on holiday but don’t have an ‘easyjet-sized’ suitcase. I could go and buy one, or I could borrow one from a friend and make sure I bring them back some chocolates to say thanks. Another example: we have friends coming over for dinner but don’t have enough chairs. Answer: use the garden furniture and make a joke out of it! Both these examples happen regularly round these parts.
   
2. Could I make it? This applies mainly to clothing and accessories currently, but also soft-furnishings and gifts for other people. This is an area I hope to expand in the future.
   
3. If it’s a bit fat ‘NO’ to the questions above, then it leads to: Could I get it second hand? And so often the answer is ‘yes, the thing I would like can be bought second hand’ by either hunter-gathering my way through charity shops or spending a bit of time trawling on eBay.
   
4. If the answer to the above question is still ‘NO’, or we require the item quicker than the gods of charity shopping are willing to grant it to us, we buy the item new but the best quality we can afford so that it should last the longest amount of time before needing to be replaced.

I write endlessly on this blog about question number 2: making things. In this post I want to go into my thoughts on second hand, but really many of the reasons for me preferring to buy second hand are the same as why I choose to make rather than buy my own clothing.

So, as we’ve clarified, if I find I need or would like something new, I’ll usually see if I can get the thing second-hand before heading to the shops or amazon. Now, a LOT of people find second hand stuff to be a bit (or very) gross. The thought that someone else has owned and touched and used their thing before they had it makes them uncomfortable. I’m not judging anyone’s responses, but I feel it would be valuable to think about why that that response is their primary one.

'New' is a new concept

The first thing to take into account is the notion that all possessions must be ‘box-fresh’ straight from the shop or delivery depot is a relatively new one. When my grandparents were my age in the 1940’s, they were skint, working class Londoners, newly married, making their home and going about their business. During this time, and for all their lives leading up to that point, second hand was usually how you got most things. Furniture, clothing, shoes, pots and pans, etc. etc. all were bought second hand or acquired from members of their family; all those things had lives beyond the initial owner. Of course, the Second World War halted most domestic product manufacture and import, but many poorer people in the UK had been living this way for their whole lives even before war broke out. Obviously, I’m not idealising those horribly tough years, and I’m not necessarily saying that given the ability to do so, my young grandparents wouldn’t have chosen a new product over a second hand one, but I am saying that I see how they rubbed along and post-war, raised a family without Primark or Wilkinson’s (probably the UK equivalent to Wal-Mart) and that is what I aim to do also.

Kick-Starting Consumerism

After the Second World War ended, both the UK and US governments decided the best course for economic recovery was to kick-start the manufacturing industries. But the industry that needed to grow even more than car, washing machine or vacuum cleaning production to make this happen was the advertising industry to create and keep up the desire for these products. It was the advertising executives that constantly pedalled the idea than brand-spanking-new products would make you a happier, better person, and reflect your social standing as higher than those around you.

Quality or Quantity

Of course, the desire to be happy, better, and of higher status were not created by the advertising industry, they were always there. My grandparents wanted those things as much as the next person but, and here’s the crux of the thing, they always sought them through quality rather than simply newness. In fact, they held that notion their whole lives. I remember how my maternal grandmother, who had grown up in very poor conditions, in her later years would be absolutely thrilled with a gift of an expensive, high-quality, used coat from my paternal grandmother (who was wealthier and thoroughly middle class), infinitely more so than by a new, but evidently lower-quality, coat bought on a market stall.

The world of advertising had to almost drop the concept of quality from its list of concepts to pedal. Because if you market a product as the best quality within its field, with subsequent longevity, why would the consumer need to buy another from the same company for many years? Once the post-war homes of the US and UK had their TV, washing machine, vacuum cleaner, car etc. sales faltered and the advertising world had to find new desirable attributes to market to convince consumers to up-grade those tired old models they bought just a few years ago. Which is obviously why quality has also fallen off the list of priorities for most manufacturers: you’d probably need more than two hands to count the amount of times you’ve heard people say ‘they don’t make them like they used to’!

Advertising and Manipulation

When you see advertisements from the 1950’s today, they look relatively naïve, almost child-like in the simplicity of their messages. But as trying to create ‘need’ to consume already existing products got tougher, advertising got smarter. Advertising has used and manipulated the knowledge gleaned by psychology since the grandfather of modern advertising, Edward Bernays, deployed his uncle, Sigmund Freud’s, theories of psychoanalysis in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Obviously there are many excellent books and documentaries tracking the rise and development of advertising and its relationship with society, but it’ll suffice to say that it has got so clever and insidious that so much of it effects our choices and mind sets so we don’t really know what we genuinely want and/or need. The difference between 'want' and 'need' is also worth taking a look at.

'Want' and 'Need'

It serves the advertising and manufacturing industries to keep ‘need’ and ‘want’ blurred. Now, I know I am very fortunate having been born into a stable family in one of the first world nations, so I’m highly aware that this statement is extremely relative, but the course I have chosen for myself has always been, relative to my society and peers, low paid. Before I started to really think about these things around my mid-twenties, I used to get pissed off and feel aggrieved that I couldn’t afford all the things that I felt I ‘needed’ and ‘deserved’, like a new pair of black jeans or patent, cone-heeled mary janes from Topshop, etc. But I ‘had a word with myself’ and started to realise that I in fact just wanted those things, and then I began to look at how those notions of need/want got mixed up. Choosing to buy second hand not only saves me money (last year we kitted out an unfurnished one-bedroom flat for just £130 by only buying second hand furniture and accepting free items that were kindly offered to us, oh, and finding one clothing rail on the street) but also means I am somewhat out of the radar for all those advertising messages. Not watching much TV and no longer buying heavily advertisement-laden magazines also helps me with this.

Negative Impact on Esteem

Also, so much product advertising relies on exploiting and perpetuating our insecurities. It feels makes us feel bad about ourselves and our lives and then suggests the way to feel better is by purchasing this dress or sofa etc. But the key to happiness and fulfilment clearly doesn’t lie in buying those products because if it did, then we’d all be happy with what we’ve just bought and the whole thing would grind to a halt.

There is a horrendous series of advertisements on TV at the moment for an online department store called ‘Very’. One of the adverts shows a pretty girl wearing a 1970’s style jumpsuit telling us that we should buy it because it makes the wearer look ‘taller and slimmer’. Another in this series features the beautiful and naturally curvy TV presenter Holly Willoughby wearing a silver party dress. She confides with the camera/viewer that she loves the dress’s ruched waistband because it hides a ‘multitude of sins’. I nearly spat my coffee out when I saw that blatant example of exploitation of women’s negative body image. Now, I don’t want to go massively off-piste and discuss in-depth the feminist implications of these adverts, but I do want to highlight the negativity involved in advertising. I feel you can detach yourself from it to a certain extent by not being their ‘target customer’. I certainly don’t want to endorse that kind of message by buying their products and effectively funding the creation of those adverts. The time that ‘Very’ (.co.uk) assumes I spend, or would like me to spend, feeling insecure and rubbish about the size of my belly or my height, I would prefer to spend reading a funny book, looking for vintage sewing patterns on eBay, or stitching myself a new jacket. Sorry about that, ‘Very’.

Choice

One thing that is unarguably advantageous about buying new compared to second hand is choice and accessibility. Shopping for stuff today does give you a vast (some would say overwhelming) array of options. So how comes, having ascertained a want/need for a new pair of jeans for example, does the ensuing process of shopping for said item so often feel like going into battle? Shopping for new stuff despite of, if not because of, the amount of choice on offer to us is usually NOT an enjoyable experience. And let’s be honest, the idea that we have great choice of products available to us is pretty false when most of what a retailer has on offer is near-identical to the other retailers. I would argue that in some cases more variety can be found when looking for something second hand, because most retailers are afraid to invest in stocking products that don’t fit in to the prevailing current trends, be that sofas, shoes or TVs. There are also well-documented statistics which prove that people (AKA consumers) are less happy now than they were sixty years ago, despite this ‘utopia’ of products available to fulfil each wish and desire.

I would go as far as to argue that the choice of products we have available to us, and the process we go through to choose what to buy, provides a feeling of power. But it's a kind of false power when most of the places you can buy stuff are all owned by the same multinationals if you research far enough up the food chain. People often used to exercise power by involvement in local and national politics and issues, involvement in trade unions, community groups and other collectives. Involvement in those things has been marginalised, which is to our own societies detriment. What do we do with our time instead? Well, shop mostly.

Availability and Ease

Agreed, when you want to buy a certain product, a kettle say, by going to a retailer that sells new kettles, you are guaranteed to walk away with one and can usually be sitting at home with a cup of tea within the hour. Believe me, I am well aware that you can’t so easily walk into a second hand shop with a shopping list and expect to have all that ticked off by the end of the day. But we managed to kit out most of our kitchen with second hand equipment (I know some people are going to find that a bit icky!) with a bit of patience. There is certainly a hunter-gathering-related instinctive thrill to be got from a successful second hand shopping trip which is infinitely more of a buzz than I would achieve having walked out of Topshop or Urban Outiftters having made a purchase. When there is so much stuff freely available RIGHT NOW, there is always the feeling that ‘maybe I should have gone to a couple more shops to have found something a bit more suitable’. By comparison, a charity shop purchase makes you feel 'WIN!!!!!!'.

The Thrill of The New

What is ‘new’ and ‘fresh’ and ‘untouched’ anyhow? I’ve already discussed the fact that most of the garments, and any other products you can buy, have each been created by hundreds of pairs of hands. Yours is not the only pair of hands to have been on that thing. The idea that your ‘box-fresh’ item has been zapped into existence by a single machine just for you is so very far from the truth. That item came into being months, possibly even a year or more before you saw it. It has most likely been transported from half-way round the world via a series of cargo ships, trucks and warehouses, but having been caked in plastic to retain or create that ‘new’ smell we all so enjoy. And then when it is in the store, how many hands have picked it up, felt it, tried it and put it back down before you selected it? In particular, garments and shoes have probably been manhandled and dumped on the dressing room floor, and had sweaty bodies and feet squeezed into them multiple times before you decide to buy them. If that item had been previously purchased, used, washed and cared for (and often just purchased, put in the cupboard, then taken straight to the charity shop) then classed ‘second hand’, does that make it so completely different from a ‘new’ item? In my opinion, no.

Economy Vs. Ecology

The final issue I’m going to discuss today regarding ‘new’ Vs. ‘second hand’ can be also be framed ‘economy’ vs. ‘ecology’. The same reason that rabid consumerism was desirable in the immediate post-war period is still a prevalent one today: economics. Making, transporting, advertising and selling stuff creates jobs and therefore supports families. It also supports our governments and helps them achieve and maintain a position of international power which keeps poorer nations from developing to a position where their populations can support themselves, reach self-sufficiency and achieve a non-poverty standard of living, but that is a discussion for another day. Indeed everyone deserves to be able to support themselves and their families, but I find it a concern that the definition of that in the West seems to be ‘to a level where those workers are then able to freely purchase every item that is made, transported, advertised and sold’. I definitely don’t have a definitive answer, but I am aware that I cannot afford a lot of the new stuff many of my peers regularly consume, but then neither do I have to work the same excessive hours and worry about getting promotions like many of them do. I’ll come back to these topics in the future.

What I DO know, and what everyone who isn’t mental has acknowledged, is that this level of consumption we currently have in developed/Western/First-World nations is actively screwing up the planet. And the damage we are reaping won’t just effect us in the West, it’ll effect the entire globe including those who have almost no impact on the globe at all. Doesn’t seem fair does it? Not to mention all the children from every nation who has been, and will be, born into this mess. The public knows our consumerism is screwing the planet, the experts and scientists know this, the governments know this, the heads of corporations know this, but we cannot seem to make the leap: to jump off this economic merry-go-round to implement some of the measures that we know we need to to start seriously preventing and repairing some of the damage. Because profits will suffer, governments’ stability will suffer and indeed some first world families’ livelihoods will suffer. I don’t have the answers and even if I did I don’t know if too many people in positions of power would hear me or listen to me above their own agendas. But I will live my life the way I feel comfortable, and a lot of that is making do, making and modifying things and buying second hand.

Poetry and Clothing Project: October

The P&C project is now over half-way through and the garments I've been making for Harriet have started to reflect a nod to the colder weather. October's clothing side of the bargain comprised of two garments which could potentially be worn together as an outfit. The first is the Peter Pan collar leopard print top pictured above.

This is the first garment I've made for this project since June which actually started out as a different garment, rather than a flat piece of fabric, before I got my hands on it. This stretch fabric leopard print dress (pictured above and below) had a broken zip and had been returned to the famous high street shop that donates a lot of its seconds to the charity I work for. You would be correct in thinking that the fabric of this garment is totally up my street, and I must admit I did consider the possibility of resurrecting it for myself. However, it is a size 10 (and a very small one at that), and my dimensions most certainly aren't. I decided it would be a waste to hack it up just to harvest some fabric to use as contrast panels or something when I could use most of it by transforming it for Harriet instead who is a size or so smaller than me.

I started by carefully harvesting the Peter Pan collar before deconstructing the rest of the dress. Harriet is often smitten by a Peter Pan collar so I definately wanted that to still be the key feature of the final garment. Using a fairly fitted T-shirt block, I then re-cut the rest of the dress into a top by aligning the bottom edge of the pattern pieces with the existing dress hem. This meant the final top could be a bit larger than the tiny dress was initially.

I overlocked the centre back seam closed where the zip had been, then re-cut a back key-hole to allow for getting in and out of the final thing. I reattached the collar and stitched a little hook and eye closure. Bish bash bosh, job done.

The second garment is a full skirt with box pleats and a curved waistband. It is designed to sit snugly on the natural waistline and emphasise that part of the body. The fabric is charcoal suiting with a nice drape and slight stretch. I thought a plain coloured classic fabric like this would make the skirt more versatile for different occassions and easier to match with different tops.

This skirt design (the 'Camille'!) is one I developed for the range at work, and is sometimes available in various fabrics on the website here. I really enjoy making these Camille skirts because they look best when made in medium weight woven fabrics (my favourite to work with) and you can get a nice crisp finish to the garment if you use an iron to press each stage of construction.

I haven't made myself any of these skirts however, because my stupidly high natural waistline means the top of the skirt's waistband is basically touching my boobs! NOT a strong look. But is was a pleasure to make it for Harriet, and I've been informed it fits her perfectly and she's got heaps of wear from it so far. Can't ask for more than that!

So, enough of my garment-based warbling, 'Where's the poetry?! Damn it, that's what we've come here for', I hear you cry. Indeed. Today's poem, if you recall, is in reference to the slinky batwing jersey dress from September's installment if this project. It may interest you to know that Harriet teaches English in an international school in Spain.


September

The goat bells are ringing in a nearby field
one of the children looks up and smiles.
On the wall is a poster of similes
made by a Japanese boy who speaks next to no English.
By each simileis a picture
the last of them reads
It is as rough as a moth's wing
each word carefully unearthed from the dictionary
his face crumpled in disgust as he searches for
a picture of this creature he hates.
He probably still wonders how it is that gh
makes an f sound. I save it for later:
the question of how we defy phonetics -
how foggy and phoney our definitions can be.
The bells continue their ringing
(a vapid, unsatisfactory word)
and mingle with the slippery soft bat wings
against my arm and the side of my back.
Bat wings leave just enough room -
flexible, forgiving.
They hang the way that words ought to hang
brushing the skin gently
twisting the fibres of colour and sense.