How to restyle your wardrobe to help reduce climate change

Who would have ever thunk that looking stylish on your own terms could be linked with reducing climate change? The fashion and textile industry produce over 92 million tonnes of waste and consumes 1.5 trillion tonnes of waste water per year. And the Global South bears the biggest brunt when it comes to fashion’s social injustices around the exploitation of garment workers and human rights abuses. With over 100 billion new garments being produced each year, 85% ends up in landfill or incinerated. About 95% of the textiles sent to landfill each year can be recycled. We will need systems in place to do this efficiently and holistically. However, there are things we can each do right now in our wardrobes to minimise waste, reduce the impact on climate change and honour the hard work of garment workers: restyle your wardrobe!

This simple and fun process of mixing and matching different pieces and jewellery to create new outfit combinations that you typically would not put together is called RESTYLING. The process of layering and accessorising to create new and different looks for multiple types of occasions can reduce the amount of clothing that you buy because you’re likely to re-use your clothes for longer periods of time. This ultimately reduces the amount of clothes you buy, which reduces the amount of clothes that goes to landfill and furthermore reduces fashion’s impact on climate change. (The Global Fashion Agenda has predicted that the level of apparel consumption will rise by 63% to 102 million tonnes by 2030 if the current trends continue).

Here are some preloved pieces that I’ve restyled as examples of how you can layer and accessorise to either create a capsule wardrobe or get longer use of your clothing (regardless of your size, age or lifestyle). The important thing is to do in the way that suits your personality and lifestyle without following fashion trends.

RESTYLING

In the photos above and below, I’ve simply used a dress on it’s own and then as a top and also as a skirt:

1. Yellow, floral 1950’s original vintage dress turned into a skirt by wearing my black supergirl t-shirt on it.

2. Turquoise and gold geometric-pattern 1980s retro dress restlyed as a top with my plaid tafeta maxi skirt and a black belt. The restyled again as a skirt using my gold sequinned top and a black belt.

3. Red, floral preloved drop-waist dress restyled as a top using a fun red, mixed pattern, handmade skirt and tan belt with a metal buckle.

These are some of the most basic restyling techniques that I’ve been using for years because it works for me. It has reduced the amount of tops I needed to buy to go with my skirts and vice versa! You can restyle your own clothes using different hats, shoes, scarves, jewellery and various garments in ways that are practical for you and your daily life.

Outfits sourced from:

Yellow, floral 1950’s vintage dress: Lifeline op shop.

Black supergirl t-shirt: Red Cross op shop.

Turquoise & gold geometric-pattern 1980’s retro dress: Bowerbird Vintage store.

Plaid, taffeta maxi skirt: Salvos op shop.

Gold, sequinned top: Savers op shop.

Red, floral drop-waist dress: South Melbourne Community Chest op shop.

Red, mixed pattern, handmade vintage skirt: Red Cross op shop.

♥ Nina Gbor

References:

1. https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/consumer/2020/04/10/fast-fashion-environment/

2. https://www.makegood.world/fashions-problem-with-waste

3. https://edgexpo.com/fashion-industry-waste-statistics/

4. https://globalfashionagenda.com/commitment/#policyengagement

Grace Kelly

I’ve talked abundantly about how my love for style came from watching the icons of the silver screen such as Audrey Hepburn. Today, on what would have been Grace Kelly’s 90th birthday, I’m paying homage to her as another style icon from Hollywood’s golden era who has had major influence on my love for 1950s style. Due to Grace Kelly’s elegant style, her talent, her charm and well, her ‘gracefulness’ amongst other things, history might forever continue to regard her as an inimitable, mythical creature.

Grace Kelly’s iconic outfit in the 1954 classic film, Rear Window was designed by Edith Head.

In case you don’t know about this legend, Grace Kelly was born on November 12th, 1929 in Philadelphia, USA. She had a short-lived, yet powerful Hollywood career that earned her A-list status in the 1950s with a legacy that loomed larger than life. Grace played her first major role as a supporting character in the 1952 classic film, High Noon with Gary Cooper. With several roles in Hitchcock films and alongside other silver screen greats like and James Stewart, Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra in films like Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955) and High Society (1956), it was her performance in The Country Girl (1954) that won her an Oscar in 1955 for Best Actress. Grace Kelly soon went from Hollywood Princess to becoming the Princess of Monaco as she traded film scripts for tiaras when she married Monaco’s Crown Prince Rainier in 1956. She passed away in 1982.  

Grace Kelly during her 1955 Academy Award win for Best Actress.

Even though style is very important to me, I’ve always believed that grace is really what makes the person. As we strive to perfect our outward, physical appearance, I believe it's our responsibility to work on ourselves internally, in order to evolve to the best version of ourselves. When I think of the word grace, I think of qualities like courteousness, integrity, goodwill and dignity. From my experience, the hallmark for eliciting positive outcomes in most circumstances comes from having grace. In her life, Grace Kelly appears to have lived up to her name by exuding much grace (and style) in nearly everything she did. And she did it splendidly with grace. And most things she did, she did them gracefully. It appears that grace made that woman.

Grace Kelly’s glamorous, classic style consisted of many ball gowns and formal pieces. So, I decided to pay tribute using a 1950s pink vintage chiffon ball gown I found in a vintage store, four years ago. Grace Kelly was the first thing that came to mind when I spotted this dress. It reminded me of her blue chiffon dress in the film To Catch a Thief. 

Grace Kelly’s blue ball gown in To Catch a Thief (1955).

STYLING

In staying true to Grace Kelly style, I simply wore the dress with pearls but ommitted the white gloves.

The Restyle 

As a sustainable stylist, I needed to find an alternative way to wear this dress for a different, more casual occasion. This is crucial to reducing textile waste to landfill, as it lets you re-use a garment that might otherwise rarely or never get used again. There are several things I could have done with it but I went the simple route of wearing a denim jacket over a ball gown. The juxtaposition of something so casual as denim with such a formal piece is a marriage that actually worked in this instance.

Styling tip

Try this basic technique of wearing something casual like denim over one of your more formal or dressy pieces to make it casual. You can also try wearing a t-shirt over it or a sleeved, button-down shirt, tied at the front.  The intention is to help you get more use out of your clothes so that you look stylish and love your clothes longer. It’s a phenomenal way to make your wardrobe sustainable.

Outfit sourced from:

Pink Vintage Ball Gown: April’s Caravan Vintage Boutique

Denim Jacket: Salvos Stores Op Shop

Nina Gbor’s photography by Brunela Fenalte.

♥ Nina Gbor

Instagram: @eco.styles