One Year of a Fast Fashion Detox: Quitting Retail Therapy

Zainab Ashraf didn’t think she could manage even a few months of not shopping for new clothes, and wrote about her experiences for Issue 7 of the magazine. Now she has completed one year, and found that her habits have changed for good.

A bag Zainab made using fabric from a £1 scrap bucket and some TikTok tutorials!

By Zainab Ashraf

Six Months In

Six months into a one year challenge to not buy any clothes (new or second-hand) and I find I have accidentally rewired my brain. Surprisingly, it didn’t take anywhere near the full six months to reach this significant mindset shift, where a recognition of my needs and wants is what drives my purchases. Now, halfway through, at a point where I honestly thought I might give up, I have not only reaffirmed my intentions to complete the year, but I am here to convince you to join me!

Shopping used to be fun… until my conscience kicked in. A climate crisis is looming and fast fashion horror stories are appearing more frequently in the news. However, I still feel as horrified today as I did in 2013 at the reports of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in Bangladesh, which claimed 1,132 lives, and injured over 2,500 more. From fatal tragedies to the appallingly recent allegations of modern slavery directed at major retailer PrettyLittleThing, I have been feeling uneasy about the industry for years. So, when I set this challenge it felt bigger than the personal benefits I knew it would bring, which made doubts from family and friends easy to brush off.

Although the challenge has been difficult at times like birthdays and weddings, I am motivated by recent positive shifts in society. For example, the second-hand shopping market increases year on year in the UK, we now hear terms like ‘slow fashion’ more often in conversation, and ITV’s reality show Love Island dropped their fast fashion partners for eBay. For me, however, a conversation with PhD researcher and sustainability champion Emma Kidd serves as the biggest source of inspiration.

Emma’s work to make the fashion industry more ethical and sustainable is inspired by her own experiences witnessing it from the inside. She spoke with me about the degrading treatment of factory machinists she saw in Hong Kong, describing that: “The humanity had been stripped out of the factories”. Horrified, she began asking questions about improving the industry, and soon founded The Fashion Detox challenge as part of her PhD research. To date, this challenge of giving up buying clothes for ten weeks and sharing weekly reflections on a private online platform has been taken up by around 400 people.

Just the knowledge that there is a community of people striving to be more sustainable through fashion and shopping habits has been motivating, especially as Emma noted my experiences were identical to that of the ‘detoxers’. She says: “I keep seeing the same findings repeating themselves. So it was really interesting how you noticed your shift from recognizing needs and wants – that's one of the major findings, that even in just 10 weeks the participants are able to notice the difference. The impulse subsides and they can make more conscious decisions about what to buy, when to buy, and where to buy from.”

I also asked her to share some positive reflections from The Fashion Detoxer’s diary entries: “There are a few things, some of it is tied to emotion and psychology. What a lot of the participants realised is how emotionally motivated their over-consumption was. It could be something like they've had a bad day at work, or something else is not going well in their life, or they're bored.

“To try and find a way to deal with these emotions, they've adopted this coping strategy of shopping – whether it's scrolling on their phone or going in-store. The process of stepping back from that for 10 weeks enabled them to reflect on that happening. Noticing that, they realised they could release themselves, and that they didn't need to use that coping strategy. So one of the really beautiful findings I think has come out of this is quite how empowering getting a hold on your shopping habits can be.

“It was also social stuff like going to a party and having the confidence to wear an outfit they'd worn before and realising that nobody even noticed, or if they did notice, it was celebrated! So I think that's really nice as well – realising that a lot of people don't notice and don't care. If they do, does it really matter?”

The answer to this question is of course ‘no’. As much as fashion is an amazing source of individualism, creativity and self-expression, the new societal trend of overconsumption is having detrimental effects to our climate, our mindsets, and the factory workers who are poorly paid and poorly treated (and are often women of colour, making this a race and women’s rights issue too). Giving up shopping may sound like a drastic measure, however gradual sustainable improvements are in reach for us all. On the following page is some advice – which I will be taking myself too, as I complete what once seemed like an impossible year of no clothes shopping.

One Year Complete

When I set my challenge to not buy any clothes for a year, what I knew for certain was that it would be just that – challenging. I’ve noted that many who have taken up the same goal have even ended up giving up shopping altogether, but I always knew that wasn’t the goal for me. I’ll admit, I have been looking forward to buying clothes again all year! But, I can successfully say I have succeeded in the key aim – changing my habits to be more sustainable.

I realise that sustainability has become a bit of a buzzword recently, even misused by brands themselves through greenwashing. Despite being overused, as a concept and aim, it remains imperative. Every day and all year, shops and online stores bring out thousands of new items. Every season people seek to refresh their wardrobe due to advertising and the branding process of fast fashion. The problem is that the shelf life and appeal of those new items barely last a few months. Each season, comes a new refresh and dozens of individual purchases. This cycle cannot be sustained as it is. 

Being able to shop again has been a completely different experience. Now, I buy only what I need, what I know I can re-wear multiple times and items of lasting quality. I’m determined that I have stepped out of the intensely easy trap set up for us for overconsumption. I’ve seen endless trends come and go this year. Few have made a reappearance. The system is carefully set up to keep us wanting more and reaching into our pockets, while others accrue profits and allow poor industry practices to destroy our planet. It seems simplistic as a realisation, but I feel that stepping back from consumer culture has given me somewhat of an outsider’s perspective on the scale of this problem, and how sinister it is.

We will see endless more trends, but the space in landfill sites has already began to run into places like Chile’s Atacama Desert. Giving up fast fashion completely is unfortunately incredibly difficult and very expensive, but we can certainly slow our pace. It takes awareness and willpower. Focusing instead on personal style and individualism will help us to break free from bad habits that are often the status quo. We must continue to apply pressure to governments, organisations and clothing companies to change the rules and practices for the better, and to begin work to reverse this damage. This is crucial, because it is of course unfair and impossible for individuals to evoke change on the scale needed, but I hope I can reaffirm that what we can at least do is change our personal participation for the better.

I am still following my own six tips set halfway into the challenge, and I hope they will continue to be relevant to you too. Just as I did one year ago as the New Year approached, I hope you will consider refreshing your mindset and wardrobe with a detox, starting with giving up clothes shopping for just one month… Good luck!

Top Tips for Making your Fashion and Shopping Habits More Sustainable

Seek a community

A tip from Emma: “Join The Fashion Detox – you can sign up online – because one of my tips would be to share your experience with someone. I think the value of The detox challenge is you can go online and read the diary accounts and see others have had the same experience as you and that they're having the same revelations.

Seek some sort of community, whatever it is – maybe it's someone you admire on Instagram – to realise you're not alone and that there are really strong personal benefits from doing this, so persevere.”

Consider your influences

Scrutinise your social media feed and observe which ‘influencers’ you are consciously and subconsciously looking up to. Do you really value what these people are often being paid to promote? Consider the quick turnaround of the trend cycle and observe if you see items more than once in a feed. If, like me, you are unnerved by what you notice, an unfollow spree is wise. This allows you to recalibrate and look for accounts promoting sustainability. For example, TikToker @maheaf upcycles second-hand clothing items, sewing them into designs similar to what’s popular in the trend cycle – the best of both worlds! 

Remove temptation

We are constantly bombarded with advertisements, whether on the streets outside or while scrolling on social media. This makes removing temptation much easier said than done! However, a major action we can take is unsubscribing from all marketing emails, deleting shopping apps and turning off cookies for personalised ads. Just as social media is specifically designed to keep us scrolling, targeted language and clever marketing ploys keep us reaching for our wallets. We should aim to shop with an intention, rather than simply shopping due to sales. Also, by constantly being tempted by ‘sales’, we aren’t saving much money!

Sleep on it

Shopping can sometimes be fuelled by low moods as a sort of coping mechanism. To determine if you really want to buy something, or if you just feel like shopping while emotional, sleep on it. Normally you’ll wake up in the morning and have forgotten about the baskets filled. However, if it’s still on your mind and it’s a big purchase, wait a month. If you’re still thinking about the item, it will then feel genuinely worth purchasing. On the other hand, if you forget about it, you never really wanted it and there’s no harm done.

Clothes swap

Not only is it great for the planet, but I think swapping with and borrowing clothes from friends and siblings is a very special ritual. It can make your items feel extra loved, and really helps us to make the most of what we already have. We are also lucky in Glasgow to have R:evolve Recycle’s Swap Shop. Here, old items can be exchanged for points, which can then be ‘spent’ on other’s swapped items from the store. Swapping clothes is even more inclusive than thrifting, and I imagine will also help us keep possible over-indulgence in check.

Learn sewing skills

Before my challenge motivated me to get creative, I would hand-sew tears and make minor adjustments (like shortening straps). I am lucky to get guidance from my mum, but I am certain there are people in our families and community who would love to skill-share or can recommend classes. Easier still, with TikTok and YouTube at our fingertips, beginners can learn almost anything, and the more experienced will find endless inspiration for new projects. Also, the feeling of achievement from something new you have created or altered definitely beats the excitement of new parcels arriving!