Style Counsel
IT’S FEBRUARY! At last! After what has felt like the longest January ever, this week we finally made our way out of the most miserable and depressing month of the year.
The evenings are marginally lighter for longer, booze is no longer banned and romance is in the air with Valentine’s Day less than two weeks away.
But January refused to go quietly, and in its final few hours we received the news that Britain will be the only major economy to plunge into recession this year, performing worse even than sanction-hit Russia, experts predict.
Not only that, but according to retail analysts Kantar, shoppers face an extra £788 on their annual grocery bill because of inflation.
Such headlines don’t exactly make you want to run out and splurge on a new spring/ summer wardrobe.
And yet, stroll the high street this weekend and you will find the rails are heaving under the weight of new season pieces. Indeed they are on these very pages and looking lovely.
While the major thing curtailing most of us from splashing cash on clothes this season will be our battered bank balances, a campaign I came across this week made me question how many new pieces – pre cost-of-living crisis – I would typically add to my closet each season.
The fashion industry is one of the biggest offenders when it comes to the environment and climate think tank the Hot or Cool Institute argues that in fact we should only be purchasing five new garments a year in order to stay in line with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, assuming that nothing else changes.
“It’s now normal to consume fashion [in a way] that’s really excessive and out of scale with what we need,” Luca Coscieme, the Hot Or Cool Institute’s research programme manager and one of the report’s lead authors, told British Vogue.
The Institute argues that a “sufficient” wardrobe would feature 74 garments and make up 20 outfits.
Shamefully, I have already bought more than five items of clothing this year.
In my defence, my underwear drawer was in desperate need of extensive renovation, I hit upon a couple of unmissable steals in the Christmas sales and surely gym kit doesn’t count?
All the same, channelling TV’s most famous fashionista, one Carrie Bradshaw, I got to thinking if I could get my hands on a flux capacitor, wind back to January 1 (perish the thought) and start this year with a clean shopping slate, what five items would make my cut?
A new coat? Ooh no. Not only do I have more than enough beautiful ones, but working from home means I don’t really need to leave the house unless the weather is nice.
What about jeans? I would rather have dental surgery than go shopping for denim, truth be told.
A new ‘going-out’ frock? Don’t be daft. My wardrobe is heaving under the weight of gorgeous gowns just begging to be taken somewhere nice.
Shopping for a fresh pair of high heels is always fun... breaking them in is considerably less enjoyable.
I have countless cardigans, plenty of pants, way too many T-shirts, and it’s safe to say I don’t need to buy another pink sweater for the next decade.
But a quick flick through this month’s fashion mags or a 15-minute scroll on Instagram and all of a sudden my heaving closet no longer cuts it.
Now I need an oversized Kelly green blazer, a Viva Magenta jumpsuit, some white platform heels, a chunky pair of penny loafers and, inexplicably, I am lusting over a pair of cargo pants that I am sure I wore in the Nineties.
It is not my fault, as the late great Oscar Wilde himself put it, “I can resist everything except temptation”.
And fashion is just so darn tempting...