WHY IT IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA TO GET RID OF OLD CLOTHES
For a while now I’ve been getting a lot of comments from few
people asking how I’ve managed to stay in style even during this period of
recession in Nigeria because I tend to rock different looks almost every time
they see me and people who are close to me know how much I hate spending money
but most especially I love staying stylish.
So how exactly do I pull the both off?
Old clothes! I never
throw my clothes away and these are the reasons why:
Making reference to my earlier
post on buying into the Naira (check it out if you haven’t ) the first reason
why you should never throw away old clothes is that trends are recycled for both genders, fashion trends especially in
this generation from time to time are being recycled so an old attire today
could be a major style hit tomorrow, for example this my Victorian/Africanish
top was gotten for me by mum in 2011 and I actually really hated it at first
but me being me and having my no clothes shall be abandoned policy kept it and
never really wore it out till this year and I think it looks pretty good for
something bought in 2011, you’d probably ask what if you added weight or lost
weight or even grew taller and the clothes just don’t fit anymore would you now
throw it out?
Styling tip: Heard of vintage or
retro looks? They’ve made a huge comeback this year so why not key into those
old clothes you probably didn’t wear in 2001 and get a cheap tailor to get it
fitted to size if it doesn’t fit and rock remember the key ingredient in every
style is confidence.
The answer is still no and here’s
why
Every clothing for a fact is made
from fabric and fabric can be made into anything we want it to be that’s how we
get our clothes so just like these clothes were made so they can be remade,
yeah clothes can be remade into new in vogue items if we can creatively tell
what the fabric of the old clothes are suited for and in some cases depending
on our time and creativity incorporate multiple fabrics to be combined to make
items like a poncho, bowtie, top, choker,
croptop and a lot more the sky is literary the limit that’s why I’ve also
taken time to create a video blog that I would be launching soon on how to remodel
clothes with spending close to nothing and this would help to make a wardrobe
change without doing any shopping.
If you read my very first fashion
post I mentioned something about going through mum and dad’s old clothes to
filter out what’s in vogue and add them into your wardrobe, but I’ve also
discovered a new way to get clothes without having to go through mum or dads dusty
old stuffs and this is through wardrobe swaps,
there are a lot of people that shy away from rocking hand me downs or already
worn clothes ( popularly known as OK as in okirika in Nigeria) probably because
of the fear of who might have worn them before and if this happens to be you
then its paramount you try the wardrobe swap get a few friends that you trust
have similar style with you,then set a date where you all take clothes that you
don’t think you’d ever wear and trade it’ll be just like shopping just that
this would be free and trust me you’d surely get a few clothes that you like
and if you’re lucky some might be brand new.
And to conclude this post I’d like
to tell a little tale that happened about a month ago, so I just completed my
last semester in the university and I wasn’t going to keep over 4 boxes of
clothes that I had just brought home so I made an arrangement of clothes and
shoes that had gone through what I and my friends like to call (seen better
days) those are clothes that I had worn so much that people basically knew me
by and I had put it the garage forgetting to donate them for the jumbo sale at
my church and we have this lady that occasionally came to cook and clean the house
and one day she just asked me what was in the box I told her clothes and she could
have any of them she wanted, she left that day with a Baco bag filled with
clothes and when she came the next week she said “those clothes wey I collect ehen
as I dey enter my compound my neighbor see me and she don dey ask for her share”
and she later told us she shared them with almost everyone in her compound, my
point is clothes as insignificant and sometimes vain as they may seem are often
are huge weight on a lot of peoples finances and in the midst of this current
economy throwing away clothes should be a taboo because what you consider trash
in all reality is someone else treasure so my final reason not to throw away
any clothe is that you can DONATE.
Me working the Victorian Africanish top
photo cred: schucksmedia
I’d love to hear what you think
about this post and if you have any questions or suggestions place a comment
below or email me at [email protected]
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