Celebrity Culture vs. A Capsule Wardrobe Lifestyle
SOLO
I remember clearly my first ever boy-girl dance. I was in grade seven and I was so excited, mainly because I didn’t have to go to class. We got to the gym where the lights had been dimmed, music was blaring and all that was missing was actual dancing. I look over and my best friend is already giggling with a boy from our class. I noticed she was wearing shorts, I was in jeans. That must be it. I absolutely needed to be in shorts. I was so self-conscious about not ‘being sexy’ that I actually asked my friend to switch pants. She looked at me funny and I played it off as a joke. I was 12 years old already showing signs of being strongly conditioned by celebrity culture. This need to be seen for what I had or didn’t have on my body grew as social media became more popular. Celebrity culture was now seeping into every aspect of my life. We saw it on TV, in the media, in magazines, and now on our phones that lived right in our hands. I woke up one day and thought, enough is enough; I am tired of feeling like crap as mySelf why am I feeling this way … and this is where it led.
Celebrity culture is a problem numero uno. It is this idea that we have to look a certain way to feel loved or have a successful life. For example, if we see a woman getting her bikini waxed, looking luxurious, smooth, shiny, and with men all around her, we are being shown we need that to attract men. The media dictates what beauty looks like and then we feel we need what they have to feel good. See how dangerous this becomes, especially for young women? SO this is where my insecurities around what I was wearing came from. They were drilled into me by everything I absorbed for years on bulletin boards, ads, everywhere really. This left me believing down to my core that I needed my friend’s shorts to have a good time at the dance. Celebrity culture puts emphasis on fast fashion and being up on the latest trends. And who is gaining from all of this fam hype, high-end consumers who are doing the same thing and encouraging us to purchase a new seasonal outfit every week to increase sales? Did you know that originally there were two - four seasonal collections in the retail industry and now there is 52. The media and celebrities encourage a lifestyle that is not sustainable long term for our wallets, eco friendly in the slightest, and creating sickness in women that could be avoided altogether. How, the capsule wardrobe lifestyle?
What is the capsule wardrobe lifestyle, you ask? It is a lifestyle that encourages a love for individualized style, sustainable brands and companies, and growth for the collective long term. The capsule wardrobe is a hand-picked wardrobe for you, by you leaving you feeling at home in your body day after day. This system helps you create a vision for your personnel style that starts the moment you have the idea to buy a new piece to the day that piece no longer has a purpose in your closet. It helps you bring more intention and purpose into your every day and really gets you excited to hop out of your bed and get dressed. I’ve been living with the capsule wardrobe system for 4 years now and I can seriously say that it has helped me feel ways I never thought I would be able to in my body and my life. Because it requires you to slow down and move with intention …
I spend a lot less money on clothing
I feel more confident in the pieces I own
I have my pieces for much longer and wear them way more
I don’t shop as much
I have less spending shame and guilt
I feel excited to get dressed for events and outings
Packing is WAY easier
And this list could go on
The biggest shift that the capsule wardrobe has created is permission to express mySelf freely in anything I wear. It has helped scared little 12-year-old Erin feel like she can wear anything and do anything, in pants, shorts or naked!
The capsule wardrobe is more than just a closet organizing system, it really is a lifestyle. The lifestyle allows you to slow down and focus on your bigger vision for yourSelf and the planet. It’s funny the first steps to building a wardrobe of your dreams actually have nothing to do with actually getting in your closet. There’s no way we can make a shift without breaking down beliefs that are holding you back, breaking down the beliefs that celebrity culture gave to us. We break down stories that you may be telling yourSelf. You know the ones, ‘I can only wear that top on special occasions’ or ‘I have to keep that sweater because auntie Ruth knit it for me.’ We hold our closet to others’ expectations rather than seeing it as a form of true personal expression. We put rules and expectations around what we wear that leave us feeling like we need to trade pants with our friend at 12. Because with this lifestyle we are slowing down we then get to actually take a step back and think about someone other than ourSelves for a moment. We get to decide how we want to spend our money on our pieces and what bigger vision we want to support. Do you want to support wal mart and low wages for factory workers or do you want to support local fare wage companies where you know your money is going and you know that your purchase is not putting another at harm? Remember, when we are saying yes to one thing, we are saying no to something else. This lifestyle then gets to expand to support long term growth in the slow fashion world. Can’t go wrong, am I right?
I totally get it, hearing all this I went into a bit of a spiral too. The horror that popped into my head when I found out all of that money I had been spending all year had been supporting companies who had their workers working 18 hour days and paying less than minimum wage. I even remember hearing a story where a factory worker made such little money she couldn’t even afford to have her kids live with her. Now that is not the kind of world I want to be saying yes to. The day I decided to bring more intention and purpose into my wardrobe was the day I began feeling more comfortable in my own skin. We have the choice to support a bigger vision, one that is beyond celebrity culture and what is fed to us by the media. We have the choice to bring change into the world through our wardrobe, something you already have, use and play with why not make a few little shifts to it to feel better, to help others, and to really feel at home as yourSelf?
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