Even sustainable fashion bloggers (like me) make impulse purchases every once in a while. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with guilt from fast fashion impulse buys or feel like you’ve taken a big step back in your slow fashion journey. It’s important to remember that progress isn’t linear especially when it comes to sustainability.

Overcoming the guilt of fast fashion impulse buys

Did I need these shorts from LF? Absolutely not. But I bought them. They were on sale, they fit well, and my friends & shopping buddies loved them when I tried them on “just for fun”. Even though I’ve been on my sustainable fashion journey for a few years and I’ve sworn to give up fast fashion more than once, I still bought these shorts from a fast fashion brand.

The guilt of making this impulse buy quickly became overwhelming. In retrospect, it’s great that I am so much more aware of my shopping habits than I was before. I have completely cut out some of the biggest fast fashion culprits – Forever 21, H&M, and Zara, to name a few. Even so, every impulse buy or binge shopping spree lives in the back of my mind for quite a while.

Here are some thoughts that helped me embrace imperfection in my slow fashion journey:

• Sustainable fashion isn’t just about buying new sustainably & ethically made clothing. It’s also about being an outfit repeater, caring for your clothes properly so they last as long as possible, and buying clothing you love and will wear a lot.
• It’s more sustainable to buy a fast fashion item you will wear for years to come than it is to buy a sustainably made item and wear it once.
• Though some fast fashion brands may design their items with planned obsolescence in mind, you can still get a good long life out of those clothes. Wear them, love them, mend them – do whatever you can to extend their useful lives.

Nobody is a perfect conscious consumer. Wherever you are on your sustainable fashion journey you will have bumps along the way. Embrace the process and the journey, give yourself some grace, and treat the fast fashion items in your closet the way you’d treat the most sustainable item in your closet.

Preventing future impulse buys

Aside from embracing imperfection and giving yourself grace on your slow fashion journey, here are some things to mull over to set yourself up for more conscious consumption in the future.

Identify your weaknesses. Could you spend hours scrolling through sales online and adding everything you even remotely like to your cart? Are big sales impossible to resist? Do you buy more when you are with friends or when you are alone? Pinpointing what can lead to impulsive purchases can help you prevent them (or at least be more aware of them) in the future.

Be an expert on your own closet. It’s easy to shop mindlessly when you “have nothing to wear”. Get to know your closet and every single item that’s in it. Go through every item you own, organize your closet so you can easily see everything, do a closet audit – do whatever you can to have a full understanding of the clothing you own. When you know what you own you’ll be less likely to impulse buy duplicate products or add items to your closet that you know you won’t wear or love as much as the items you already own.

If you want to learn more about closet audits check out my ebook here.

Set realistic goals. At the beginning of my slow fashion journey I said I’d never ever buy from a fast fashion brand ever again. And that worked for about a week. After a few years of a buy-nothing-then-binge cycle, I shifted my goals to be more realistic. My goal is not to keep myself from buying something that is not 100% sustainable or ethically made. Instead I want to choose more sustainable brands whenever possible and approach my purchases with a more sustainable mindset. I only want to buy items that I’ll truly love and wear, whether they’re from the best sustainable fashion brand or a fast fashion brand.

My advice to you? It’s okay to buy from brands that aren’t changing the world with every piece of clothing created if you know you will love it, wear it, and discard or donate or resell it mindfully when it no longer has a place in your closet. It’s about progress, not perfection.

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