personal style

The fashion TRENDmill explained by Nina Gbor

Nina Gbor wearing a secondhand ensemble with items from an op shop and consignment store acquired in 2017 and 2019. Image credit: Pepper Street Photography

I've been into sustainable fashion since I was 15 years old - wearing, promoting, styling and living the preloved lifestyle. This was long before sustainable fashion was a global movement and long before the term ‘sustainable fashion’ was a buzz word for nearly every brand and flocks of influencers. I abhorred fashion trends from a young age. I couldn’t understand why so many people clung tenaciously to a made-up reality where everyone is expected to wear the same trending styles of clothing until the dictators of fashion decided it was time to decree the next short-lived trend. This is fashion’s Jedi mind trick.

The fashion industry

In 2019, the size of the global apparel and footwear market was $1.9 trillion USD. It’s been projected to reach $3.3 trillion dollars by 2030. Several reasons exist as to why this industry is so lucrative. There’s the craftmanship, art, design, creativity, skills, beauty, artisanry and of course practicality that leads to the production of items that we love and find useful. In many instances, most or perhaps even all of these talents deserve to garner significant profits. But then there’s the dark side of the industry that has been inducing tremendous profits through atrocious practices. This side has been thriving on extreme capitalism with no concern for humans, animals nor the planet. The sole purpose is to amass huge profits at all costs. This is why we currently have 100 – 150 billion garments being manufactured each year, with only an estimated 8 billion humans to use them. It’s unsurprising that about 87% of items manufactured each year end up in landfill or incinerated.  

Where fashion trends went wrong

This unchecked, environmentally degrading side of fashion has been able to grow and thrive so expeditiously in part due to the use of fashion trends. For probably about a century, following fashion trends was a significant part of social culture and clothing. It was portrayed in different forms. Fashion collections produced by brands have traditionally been designed and manufactured based on the four western weather seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. The trends generally adhered to this as well. Fast fashion hijacked and exacerbated the idea of trends and took it from about 4 trend cycle collections a year, to about 110 trend and microtrend collections a year. Naturally the time from one trend to the next decreased in the process. This is one of the factors that lead to over 100 billion garments being manufactured each year. Not to mention the tsunami of environmental and social justice issues from this overproduction and overconsumption.

Fashion’s environmental and social injustice issues

For too many decades, the grody side of the fashion industry has been using clever big-budget advertising, marketing, influencers and celebrities, to successfully manipulate people into feeling that they’re not enough unless they’re wearing the latest fashion trends. They’ve been able to control this aspect of social culture and use it to catapult their profits by somehow coercing many people to consistently buy apparel they don’t need. This is all in the name of aspiring to fit into this warped system that requires allegiance to whatever is trending in the moment.

With more trends being put out each year, planned obsolescence by clothing brands has become rampant. This means clothes are being designed for limited use with shorter life spans so that consumers are forced or encouraged to repeat purchases because the initially purchased items are not durable. The garments made by many fashion brands are increasingly being made from cheaper, poorer quality materials such as polyester. When something is damaged, it’s often less costly to buy a new one than to repair it. Products made in this manner very often end up in landfill in relatively short periods of time. In other words, these clothes are made to be disposable. This is the take-make-waste system that exists in fashion and several other industries.

The cost of the trends

The environmental damage from this excessive oversupply occurs at scale through deforestation, ocean and freshwater pollution, destruction of ecosystems and animal habitats, desertification, toxic chemical loading in soil and water bodies, etc. UN Climate Change states that annually, 1.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases are emitted from textiles production. By some calculations, sector emissions are projected to increase by more than 60% by 2030. In addition to that, there’s the devastating problem of modern slavery where garment workers are exploited, abused and drastically underpaid so that brands can make extreme profits. According to the 2022 Ethical Fashion Report conducted by The World Baptist Aid, 60 million people work in the global fashion industry. To give context to the general nature of social injustice and inequality in the industry, only 10% of companies surveyed in the report could show evidence of paying liveable wages to garment workers.

The personal style con

In the last few years, mainstream fashion began to drop the habit and promotion of following fashion trends. Embracing one’s own personal style became the thing to do. At the outset this shift appeared very positive for the environment and consumers alike. However, it didn't take long for fast fashion to find a way to also capitalise on the personal style wave by getting people to 'find or express their personal style' through constantly buying lots of fast fashion.

The shocking and sad truth is that following fashion trends never stopped. It simply changed form. OVERCONSUMPTION HAS BECOME THE LONGSTANDING TREND. In fact, overconsumption is our modern cultural trend. We’re consuming 400% more clothing than we did 20 years ago, while the length of time we use the garments has fallen by almost 40%. It’s no longer only about buying trends and microtrends to fit in with everyone else and the culture. Now the normal thing is to just buy stuff period because it’s easy, cheap or convenient to do so, then throw it away when you’re bored with it. And then buy other brand new stuff again and repeat the cycle. Fast fashion has made clothes more affordable than ever before.

The fashion TRENDmill explained

The fashion TRENDmill (or fashion treadmill) is a phrase I came up with in 2016 to describe this modern culture of mindless overproduction and overconsumption of clothing that has become too common and normalised in our world. With these factors being the trend, this conveyor belt system is fuelled by the continuous take-make-waste linear cycle on steroids.   

We take (extract raw materials or virgin resources from the environment at enormous rates far beyond what we need). Then make (manufacture far more garments than is necessary or will be used). Followed by waste (majority of clothes end up in landfill relatively quickly). Disposability of clothes is embedded and expected in this cycle either through the culture of it or through planned obsolescence. There’s little or no consideration for reusing or prolonging the life of the textiles or the damage the TRENDmill system inflicts on the planet and its inhabitants.  

The TRENDmill and general overconsumption

There’s a very strong throughline of the fashion trendmill concept with other waste streams such as food, furniture, electronics, automobiles, the built environment and hospitality.

We’re consuming more products than we ever have in human history. Nearly A$66 trillion worth of stuff is being purchased every year globally which is the equivalent of an estimated A$2 million per second. These purchases include the gamut of material stuff and possibly services. The world’s use of material resources has increased ten-fold since 1900 and is projected to double again by 2030. It’s been projected that the consumer class will reach 5 billion people by the year 2030, meaning 1.4 billion more people will have discretionary spending power which explains why consumption rates are expected to double unless we get off the TRENDmill.  

We’re consuming our way into our own extinction

With these enormous levels of manufacturing and consumption, environmental degradation is at an all time high. This comes with things like toxic chemical loading on soil and water and extreme plastics pollution. These and other factors have been known to have fatal impacts on human health. As production keeps increasing, it looks as if we’re consuming our way into our own extinction.

A drastic reduction of natural resource use is critical. We need cultures and systems based on environmental sustainability and circular economy principles. There are colossal opportunities for us to stop the rapid flow of materials to landfill and reuse or repurpose these materials instead. And in the process, only take what we need from the earth. It will make our lives healthier, save the lives of animal species, reduce biodiversity loss, give us cleaner water, a healthier planet amongst other benefits.

How to get off the fashion trendmill

We currently have enough clothing on the planet to cater for the next 6 generations of humans. From the start of my sustainable fashion career, I've always talked about ignoring trends in favour of finding and expressing your personal style for the long term through secondhand garments (and not fast fashion). Secondhand clothing includes contemporary styles and clothes from nearly every fashion era dating back almost a century. One of the coolest ways to curate a sustainable wardrobe is to mix and match styles from one or multiple fashion eras to create your own individual style. It’s likely that this one-of-a-kind wardrobe tailored to your preferences will have any or all of these outcomes:

 1. keeping your clothes for longer periods of time because you always look great even with very little effort

2. saving financial resources because you’re buying less brand new stuff

3. evolving to the best or desired version of yourself using secondhand clothes.

Getting off the fashion trendmill helps reduce clothing waste because in a sustainably curated wardrobe, the outfits suit your body, lifestyle and personality. With these aspects fulfilled, hopefully the temptation to consistently buy new clothes or fast fashion all the time can begin to fade or get eliminated altogether.

Getting off the trendmill on a systemic level

Ultimately, we need to implement circular economy principles into textiles and other industries. Things will shift when we change our relationship with clothing and the culture surrounding consumption of other material things. Here's how:

Reuse - restyle, repair, resell, repurpose, buy secondhand, redesign, swap, hire, rent, borrow, upcycle

Buy new from ethical & sustainable brands - (Not brands that greenwash). Patronise brands that are transparent about how many garments they manufacture, their entire supply chain and their manufacturing processes. Also buy from small, local and emerging designers

Advocate for system change - simply by living an authentic sustainable lifestyle when and where you’re able even if you don't proclaim it publicly. You can also gently and kindly nudge your immediate circles and communities into sustainable habits or run community events like clothes or other item swaps that inspire people to action. You can even push for policy and legislation change through your local and federal political representatives.

*Perhaps the most imperative option is for us to shift our focus away from filling our lives with material stuff and ascribing such extreme value to material things. Placing higher value on experiences and more positive developments could be the new and hopefully permanent wave.

A sustainable fashion lifestyle by Nina Gbor

Photo by Brunela Fenalte

Photo by Brunela Fenalte

For many of us, sustainability has been a lifelong way of being. It’s how we built and maintained our wardrobes from childhood, long before the word sustainability came into the mainstream consciousness.  Except we didn’t call it sustainable. It was just a natural part of life. And still is.

My outfit is an example. In this photo I’m wearing a preloved coat that was a hand-me-down from my beautiful friend Simone, a t-shirt I got from a clothes swap I hosted and a pair of boots I found brand new at an op shop (thrift store). The leggings and vest were new. These sources are always how I got my clothes since I was a child. We repaired things when they were damaged. I wore hand-me-downs from my older siblings and my mother would sometimes buy clothes from the Goodwill and Salvation Army thrift stores for us.

Playing dress up with preloved clothing from multiple fashion eras and multiple cultures has, in a way, helped shape who I’ve become. It helped me find myself and built my career. Being exposed to the plethora of eclectic styles of garments, I had to look within to figure out which style(s) truly represented me.  I’m sceptical as to whether a person can do this successfully if their lifestyle involves following trends.

The problem with our trend culture is that it has exacerbated oversupply and overconsumption to the point where we have created colossal amounts of waste. And fuelled climate change in the process. By design, trends are made to be followed so the uniformity leaves little or no room for personal growth. The other drawback of the trend culture is that it reduces opportunities for individual thinking, diversity and individual preference in some circumstances. And behind the fashion trends, lurks nothing other than greed for financial profits by those who exploit the vain and less cautious side of consumers.  

Photo by Brunela Fenalte.

Photo by Brunela Fenalte.

As I grew up, the hand-me-down culture evolved to running clothes swaps. I still op shop and it too has partially evolved to preloved online shopping. To curate a sustainable wardrobe, I’d suggest using the techniques above that I used: thrifting, swapping, repairing and buying new from ethical labels. However, to permanently establish your sense of style independence, foster lifelong habits for personal growth as well as to develop a mindset that naturally curates a sustainable wardrobe, here are some concepts:

Know thyself

If you don’t already, here’s a good way to start. Begin by listening to your inner voice. Avoid blind acceptance of what is trending for your age, community or amongst your peers. Instead, be intuitive about it. This is based on doing what’s appropriate for you. No two individuals are the same. And there is no beauty in imitation. Imitation can hamper your personal growth and minimise your potential. So, embrace and amplify who you really are.

Express yourself

Your inner self should be given expression and life when it comes to your wardrobe. Your style should correspond with your own nature i.e. reflect the person on the inside. Your values, preferences, personality, and soul should shine through. This will shatter stereotypes around you because your re-emerging individuality carries with it so much power.

Style your yourself to impress yourself

Let your personal taste alone be the deciding factor for what goes into your wardrobe, not trends. This way, you’ll experience a kind of magic where your style will adapt itself to your true nature. This can really make you feel whole and bring exhilaration to your environment. Not the other way round. What makes you happy? What pieces make you feel in alignment with your inner self? What makes you shine? Think about colours, patterns and styles that you feel drawn to. Think about things like fashion eras before your time. An example is a 26-year old man in the U.K. named Zack Pinsent who only wears clothes designed in the authentic style of the 1680s to 1920s clothing eras. This might be unrealistic for your everyday life if you’re into these styles, but you can always take pieces from theses eras and mix with more practical pieces to make it your own personal style.

Photo of Zack Pinsent. Photo courtesy Zack Pinsent

Photo of Zack Pinsent. Photo courtesy Zack Pinsent

True beauty

With these concepts, a true sense of beauty arises that can become a strong support in your personal development. It frees you and makes you independent! It can bring so much balance and clarity to your life. In addition, you begin to attract your tribe because you’re declaring and living who you are. And like-minded people are drawn to each other.

If you adopt these concepts, sustainable clothing can more easily become a way of life. By default, you might keep your beloved wardrobe pieces far longer, because you’re buying what is truly best for you. Therefore, making your wardrobe far more sustainable. And you might experience a deeper sense of alignment with self and your environment.

STYLING

Far too often, winter clothes are made of neutral and dark tones. So, I opt for bright colours to brighten up the cold winter days. My hack? Wear a colourful t-shirt over long sleeve thermal top, a pair of leggings, a long top to cover the top section of my leggings and a cool pair of knee-high boots. Topped off the look with this gorgeous red patterned coat!

Styling tip: You can keep feeling that summer vibe by using your summer clothes in winter. Hack the summer outfit by simply wearing thermals underneath: a long sleeve t-shirt or leggings.

♥ Nina Gbor

How eccentric is your style? by Nina Gbor

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How eccentric is your style? The fear of being clowned for wearing something most people wouldn't wear stops many from reaching their potential.

I grew up moving around a lot and never really fitting in anywhere (and still don't). But it's great because it forced me to figure out how I could shape the world around me so that I could feel comfortable to navigate through life as myself. As opposed to say, receding into a false projection of someone most people would find more acceptable (whatever that looks like).

This quest taught me to be super comfortable with all my weirdness and to sit comfortably in my own skin and in my awkwardness. I'll let you in on a little secret of how I grew the courage to wear eccentric, unusual styles. And to be different in ways that make people accept you for who you are: with every new person, job or community, etc, start off with expressing that different version of yourself. They'll likely accept your uniqueness straight away and leave it at that. But it must be authentically you and not a false portrayal.

As humans, we're all multi-dimensional. None of us is just one thing. When we begin to evolve or express different parts of ourselves, sometimes people within our communities judge us because we've stepped outside of their comfort zone. That's why they clown us. It takes a lot of courage to stay the new course. You have to decide if you want the freedom to express yourself and henceforth live life on your own terms OR if you're going to cower into a life of suppression. To me, the latter choice doesn't feel like a life at all. But this is a decision of true strength that, at some point(s) in our lives, each one of us must make.

P.S. In addition to style, you can apply this concept to other areas of your life too. "Nothing bold or magnificent is built from fear." (Quote from BBC series, 'The Collection').

STYLING

This skirt is definitely the feature piece of this outfit. I found this late 1960s vintage skirt on a sunny September afternoon in 2017 at an outdoor preloved market. Wearing pink with yellow, red, green and blue is true to block colour styling. In the spirit of eccentricity, it’s feel free to style yourself in the ways that make you happy.

Outfit sourced from:

Pink top - Vinnies Op Shop

Multicolour Vintage Skirt - Suitcase Rummage Preloved Market

Leopard-print Stilettos - Staple from my wardrobe

♥ Nina Gbor

Instagram: @eco.styles

Secondhand fashion; a secret weapon for self-empowerment by Nina Gbor

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The stigma of wearing secondhand clothing is fading so fast, that fast fashion might become obsolete in several years. According to ThreadUp’s 2019 Resale Report, the value of the secondhand market, which is currently worth $24bn (£18bn) is expected to reach $51 billion (£39bn) in 2023.  

Nina Gbor black dress

I’ve been op shopping and eco styling since the age of fifteen. Back then, it was seen as taboo. Kids would make fun of me if they knew my wardrobe came out of secondhand (preloved) stores. The old and outdated perception about preloved clothing sees it as something for a ‘certain’ type of person, something dirty and only for people who can’t afford retail prices. For fear of being bullied, I stayed in the closet about where my clothes came from, even though I fully, albeit secretly relished the unique look that op shopping gave me. It took several years before I mustered the courage to come out as a preloved stylista. Fortunately, it’s fast becoming the cool thing to do.

Nina Gbor vintage style fashion 1

My style always made me stand out and I fully embraced the feeling of individuality. My outfit spoke (and still speaks) volumes whenever I walked into a room. In a world where I never felt seen, heard, valued, included in mainstream media or pretty much anywhere else, having the chance to express my persona through of a vast, eclectic range of exclusive garments felt, in some way, like I had found my voice. Even though it wasn’t immediately verbal (that came later). It was my way of loudly expressing myself without metaphorically feeling like I would have to scream to be heard. It allowed me to be seen, which subsequently opened up possibilities for me to be heard a little more often. The way I combined colours, patterns, vintage styles with contemporary styles garnered people’s attention. The intention was not really to wear clothes that got attention. I only wore outfits to please myself alone. However, it made people curious about me, probably because they struggled to place me into any one stereotypical box. That suited me just fine because like most people, I hate being labelled or put in a box. Regardless, I was happy to share my affection for preloved styling and knowledge of sustainability with them.

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For the last four years, I’ve been posting preloved outfits on my platforms to help shift the negative perceptions of secondhand, by styling them elegantly. Part of my goal in all of this has been to help people see preloved garments in a new light; as something sophisticated, stylish, aspirational, creative and even enigmatic. In addition, I hope to inspire more people to fully embrace preloved clothing and experience for themselves the type of style magic that’s conjured whenever you wear something rare and exclusive. 

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Today’s outfit is no exception. I’m featuring a black silk preloved dress that has a 50s style cut. I found nearly all the pieces of this ensemble in various op shops. The silk dress from a Salvation Army store in the U.K. The black luxury designer Salvatore Ferragamo bag is from Pandoras op and I found the faux fur scarf in a Salvos op shop. Preloved clothes contributed to my self-empowerment but, in the many pathways that exist, I think when there’s a sincere higher purpose or calling as the basis, the journey to self-empowerment is so much more authentic and powerful.

Nina Gbor slow clothing 1

According to Bloomberg, the luxury fashion resale market is poised to expand by an average of 12% per year through 2021, compared to about 3% for the primary luxury market. As fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world, the rise of preloved is definitely a win for the environment. For me, it’s helped me win some self-love, respect, confidence and has opened up opportunities for me to use my voice for positive change.

STYLING

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I decided to go ‘Gatsby’ on this black silk number by wearing the luxurious, glamorous faux fur scarf with a luxurious black and gold purse and some stiletto heels. To give it the 1950s touch, I wore a petticoat to puff out the skirt – lower half-section. 

Styling tip - A black dress is too easy to style up or down. Just switch the glamourous accessories for simple, everyday ones. Have fun mixing different accessories and pieces with the frock to create alternative looks. Make it work.

Sourced from:

Black Silk Dress: The Salvation Army Charity Shop, UK

Black Salvatore Ferragamo Purse: Pandoras at O’Connor Preloved Op Shop

Brown Faux Fur Scarf: Salvos Op Shop

 

Photography by Angela Elgiva

 

♥ Nina Gbor

Living your personal style by Nina Gbor

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Whenever you have to follow a dress code that doesn’t authentically feel like ‘you’, you might feel a stronger sense of self when you can bring elements of personality into it. 

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Case in point, this outfit. Dramatic, quirky and unusual pieces are how I express the creative and rebellious parts of myself that I don’t verbalise. Because I don’t have a different outlet for them, they manifest in my style.

Nina Gbor preloved fashion 1
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When I used to work in an office, this kind of outfit was typically how I styled myself to look corporate; monochrome chess board top paired with a multi-coloured small-pattern pencil skirt, chocolate brown belt and geometric pattern stilettos. Most of this outfit is preloved/second-hand. 

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I say this often, but I can’t emphasise this concept enough. I’m always flattered if someone likes my style, but I don’t encourage anyone to necessarily dress like me. As an unconventional stylist, I encourage you to find your own unique, individual form of self-expression through your style. 

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When you cultivate your style wellbeing, you’ll have your own personal style formula, which will naturally find you using your clothes for longer periods of time because they look amazing on you. And they’ll also make you feel so damn good!

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 STYLING

The look: My love for uncommon pieces was the attraction for buying this chess board statement piece. The pencil skirt, also patterned, works with the top because they have a strong black colour in them that connects. The stilettos also have lines that add to the thread of black colouring, bringing it all together. And the chocolate colour belt? Well, a bit of chocolate is always fun so why not?

Styling tip: If you have several seemingly random pieces in your closet, use the colour threading system I described to put pieces together that you wouldn’t normally wear together. The outcome? A range of new outfits created from multiple combinations in your closet. You can apply this principle to patterns or more plain clothing, office wear and other types of styles. 

Outfit sourced from:

Chess board top: ANU Outdoor Preloved Market (2017).

Patterned and multi-coloured pencil skirt: Salvation Army (Salvos) Op Shop (2016).

Chocolate brown belt: PDSA Op Shop, (UK, 2009).

Geometric pattern stilettos: From my wardrobe. 

Photos by Brunela Fenalte Photography.



♥ Nina Gbor