Using what's already in my wardrobe

Using what's already in my wardrobe and not shopping for anything new for 6 months seems like such a banal challenge, right? A luxury problem! For many, not shopping frivolous clothing is just how they live their frugal life, and for a lot of people: how they must live in order to keep food on the table.

Still, I want to legitimize why I want to write publicly about this (in someone's eyes) trite challenge with three reasons:

1. RAMPANT CONSUMPTION IS A BREWING PROBLEM IN ALMOST ALL SOCIOECONOMIC CLASSES.
Especially clothes consumption, which has become a grotesquely cheap commodity considering all the work behind just a t-shirt.

For instance, I've lived with a low-status family in a Middle American country. Their house had a dirt floor, they cooked with fire and lived hand-to-mouth. Still, they owned heaps and heaps of clothing: cast-offs from the local maquilas, clothing that were too low-quality or badly sewn to make its way to stores in the US. (There are more problems here than the amount of clothing that that family owned, but for brevity: even a lot of poor families overconsume fast-fashion clothing.)

The most sustainable practice when it comes to clothing is to wear through what you already own, not decluttering for the sake of a minimalist wardrobe. (Without compromising your style, of course. My goal is obviously not to walk around with holes in all my clothes and shoes.)

2. I WANT TO CRITICIZE THE SYSTEM RATHER THAN MYSELF. 
Or at least see the problems with both aspects and in combination. What appears to be my individual lack of former willpower considering the current size of my wardrobe, is about more than that: I think the individual plays a smaller role in the consumption frenzy than we are attributed. There are strong forces that affect when, how much and how often we consume.

We are not robots that headlessly buy what advertisers tell us to. But we are humans that are easily affected, we want self-improvement and we respond with emotion to the *fantasy selves* that corporations sell - some of us more so than others. (I wonder whether the human self-improvement tendency is culturally and historically universal, or if the tendency is stronger because of our (over-)consumption culture, but I will not get into that in this post.)

We believe - consciously or subconsciously - that our worth and status are communicated through our appearances. Many would argue that this is true (hopefully not worth): We judge the book by its cover, at least as a first impression. The problem is that buying new, low-quality stuff all the time does not equal style and self-assertiveness.

3. I NEED TO HOLD MYSELF PUBLICLY ACCOUNTABLE.
I've had shopping fasts in the past, or only bought second-hand clothing for a period, but it's so easy to slip back into bad habits. -Especially when no one is watching other than my dormant prefrontal cortex that should be acting up saying "NO! YOU DON'T NEED THAT THING!" when the more primitive urge to get myself something new and shiny lights up...

I think the way the human brain works is fascinating. In this case, how values and attitudes line up with emotional needs that for some are "met", at least short-term, by getting new things. We may even see through our own irrational behaviors, but it's hard to be mindful and rational when you're tired, in a bad mood and have been told by your culture your whole life that consuming equals newness and happiness. - And you love clothes as a creative outlet.

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Addendum: bad pun aside, Out of the wardrobe refers to getting my aesthetic clothes fix from the wardrobe rather from shopping... I am a straight female in my 30s living in Oslo. Hello.

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