Is The Cult of New Over Now?

The fashion industry manufactures more than just clothes; it manufactures desire. It has spent decades stitching together a fantasy that has sold better than any of Disney’s greatest hits. Lust, instant gratification and personal transformation have been the heady themes of the fashion fairy tale we’ve almost all bought into over the years. In this story, you didn’t need a handsome prince to kiss you on the lips to feel like Cinderella, only a Bottega Veneta handbag hanging off your arm or a pair of red-soled Louboutin’s on your pedicured feet. Of course, every fairy tale has a dark side. Like the spell that transformed Cinderella from servant girl to belle of the ball, which ended abruptly at midnight, the thrill of the Bottega bag and buzz of the Louboutin heels faded all too fast. What was one to do but try to replicate that feeling, again and again and again…

When we read back over the fairy tales of our childhoods, they feel old-fashioned and outmoded. In this coronavirus reality, our once beloved fashion fantasy also feels horribly out of date; a throwback to a different time and a different mentality. Once, we were heavily romanced by the thrill of the new, and we wanted to fall in love over and over again, or on every payday at least. But now? Nine months into a pandemic? Could the cult of buying brand new be over? Dutch News reported in July on the number of “stopaholics” as opposed to shopaholics in The Netherlands, asking if buying new clothes was finally going out of fashion. At the beginning of this year, Vice reported that fashion’s latest moral signifier is rewearing clothes you already own. Meanwhile, Dragon’s Den entrepreneur Deborah Meaden announced in January that she would buy no new clothes in 2020, instead promising to buy only from charity and secondhand shops and to reuse and repair what she already owned.

In the past seven months, I’ve bought only one new item of clothing – a cashmere jumper from TK Maxx. It’s the first time since I started earning a salary in my early twenties that I’ve bought so few clothes over such a period of time. I didn’t buy into traditional fairy tales when I was a young girl, but wow, did I fall for the fashion fantasy when I got a little older – hook, line and sinker. It’s no exaggeration to say that a new dress, to me, was better than a magic carpet. Wearing that dress, I felt I could be anything and do anything, probably even fly. But seven months of buying almost nothing new, of literally shopping my wardrobe when I need to pull together an outfit, has been as crystallising as my new reading glasses.

When you’re always looking for the next shiny new thing, you often miss what’s right under your nose.

I’ve learned this year that I don’t need the thrill of the new as much as I thought I did. I’ve gotten a real kick out of putting together outfits with what I already own; ensembles I would probably never have discovered had life as we knew it continued. It turns out that really, there are no gaps in my wardrobe that need to be filled. It has all of my favourite things: colour, tailoring, standout dresses and statement coats. In truth, I didn’t really need the TK Maxx crew neck I bought, but I couldn’t resist quality cashmere at consignment store prices. The truth is that the less I buy, the more mindful I am of my choices. This year has reinforced the value not just of the clothes I own, but of the money I earn.

Secondhand shopping has been growing in popularity in recent years and is projected to double in the next five years, but clothing rental sites have been the great success story of the pandemic it turns out. In an interview with The Guardian in September, Eshita Kabra-Davies, founder of the clothing rental app, By Rotation, revealed that the number of users on her app grew from 12,000 to 25,000 between March and September of this year. Similarly, Sacha Newall, co-founder of what is probably the best-known clothes rental site, My Wardrobe HQ, said she saw a 50% increase in stock listed in the same period. I spoke to a London-based fashion journalist recently and she told me she was thinking of renting out her own wardrobe because right now most of her clothes are getting very little use. We’re all familiar with the phrase cash in the attic. Perhaps there’s a revenue stream sitting in our own wardrobes? We’ve all been horrified by the amount of waste generated by the fashion industry as a whole, but a lot of us are now appalled by the volume of throwaway items within our own homes, and our wardrobes especially.

Rental sites have evolved beyond merely occasion-wear stockists. Now, you can find cult labels like Vetements as well as Scandi favourites such as Ganni alongside the traditional heavy-hitters of Dior and Valentino etc. Last year, UK environmental charity Hubbub conducted a survey and found that a massive £2.4bn would be spent in the UK on new outfits for Christmas, but one in five people admitted they wouldn’t wear the same outfit on more than one occasion. This festive season will be unlike any other. Even if we’re released from Level 5 lockdown, it can’t help but be a more muted affair. Notwithstanding that, I think there’s still a place for a bit of sartorial sparkle throughout December. But how many of us will shell out on new partywear? I’ll be wearing last year’s. If I do treat myself to something new for the festivities, it’s much more likely to be a sweater or day dress, and I’ll be checking out my favourite secondhand stores first (assuming they’re open by then).

Stylist Sarah Rickard, whose Try On Tuesday Instagram videos took her following from 3,000 to more than 15,000 last year, says her followers are looking for glamour this December, so she’s already planning a festive Try On. But for many, rental is a sensible and affordable option come December. The excitement we derive from wearing something new for the first time will never go out of fashion, but that item doesn’t have to be brand new to spark joy. Buying secondhand or renting can provide the same thrill but without costing consumers a fortune and the planet its future. In fact, in a post-pandemic world, I suspect the joy will come as much from the origins of what we buy as the items themselves. There’s no going back to life as we once knew it. Did you know that in the UK, Waitrose, Morrisons and John Lewis will not be using glitter on their own-brand Christmas products for the first time this year because it takes hundreds of years for it to degrade? The times, they are a changin’.

Clothes should always be enjoyed, but we need to stop consuming them so ferociously and start appreciating each item’s intrinsic value. Really, the debate isn’t so much about new or secondhand, purchasing or hiring, it’s about shopping with integrity. For 2021, mindfulness is the new black.