Cleaning Out My Closet ...

ing was doing a good thing, but in donating things I don’t like, there is no guarantee others will either. If it doesn’t sell, then it goes to the trash pile.

When I took on this role as Chief Content Officer and Publisher of the magazine you are reading, I was already in a full-on effort to declutter and reduce. I was also very ingrained in the “sustainability” sector in different industries and considered myself “green” and a somewhat ethically responsible consumer. In fact, Joshua Becker, whom I quoted above, is a declutter guru I found online, and I have been following his system – slowly but surely. It is really hard to de-stuff after so many years of stuffing! One of his main points is to enjoy life and experiences with your favorite people, not by maintaining things. Clutter can detract from your quality of life in time and money. ... But I digress.

My point is, one of the most difficult “exercises” he walks you through in his program, in my opinion, is to take a hard look at your closet. “Americans throw away 13 million tons of textiles a year, that’s 9% of nonrecycled waste,” he says. “Instead, choose quality over quantity.” He also suggests you only keep your favorites – of everything.

During this exercise, he asks that you take all of your clothes and put them away, and leave yourself enough for a week, like seven items of clothing, and see how it feels. Then, thoughtfully consider what you are putting back in. You will soon realize you don’t need nearly as much clothing as you think.

What I learned about myself is I have a lot of clothing that didn’t fit right, and I never wore, but I liked the idea of them. Once I got rid of those “fantasy self” clothes, it was amazing how much better I felt about the clothes I had left. And it is easier to make decisions on what to wear.

I learned I was a contributor to fashion waste. I always felt that donating the cloth-

I am not in any way abdicating for us all to own only seven pieces of clothing. But what I am asking is that we begin to make more sustainable choices. As a consumer, if I am buying quality over quantity now, and I know my purchase is biodegradeable, I would definitely buy it even if it was more expensive. Well, of course it also has to be fashionable, right? But, you get what I mean.

I am not the only consumer who feels this way. If you read the article in Issue 6, 2022, on page 38, Matt Schiering reported in his study on sustainability that fifty-four percent of Generation Z and 52% of Millennials relate to the term “recyclable” in their purchases. And, they are the target market for fashion. 58% of Generation X like the term “biodegradeable,” and even 44% of Baby Boomers and 35% of Silents look for “sustainable” purchases.

In this issue on page 16 we interviewed Samata Pattinson, CEO of RCGD Global, and Harold Weghorst, Global Vice President of Marketing and Branding at Lenzing AG, who have teamed up to bring awareness to sustainable high fashion through the Red Carpet Green Dress™campaign. Samata says, “Collective responsibility means we can’t rely on one end of the industry to save us. We must all do our part.”

It is time for textiles to solve their problems by collaborating across industry lines, and with each other. We all want a great looking suits and ties, dresses and jeans. We all want a good set of sheets at night and to put our head on a comfy sofa pillow. None of that is going away, we just need sustainable choices.

If you have thoughts, I would love to hear them. Email me at csmith@inda.org.

Caryn Smith Chief Content Officer & Publisher, INDA Media, IFJ

& INDIA Sabine Dussey

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