-By Elizabeth L. Cline
-Self Help -Fashion & Style
The Conscious Closet, The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good is a book that I wish I had written. I say this because I want to be on the same side of history as the author, Elizabeth L. Cline. This book is so smart, straightforward and solid. It has shown me that I have to get my act together when it comes to clothes! And I will! You do not have to be into fashion to appreciate this book. If you get up everyday and put on any piece of clothing, this is worth reading.
This book gets pretty technical and heavy with information like statistics, research studies, global effects and a revolution. If you don’t feel like that’s a type of read for you rn, I got you covered. This book is really important and I will share what this conscious closet is all about.
The other side to this book that I love is that it’s SO FLY. The way the book talks about our clothes awareness is similar to the way I talk about inner fashion awareness. This was the most exciting part for me as I read.
Hoping it will be useful, I have broken down this book review into three parts.
This is Part One–
The Author, Elizabeth Cline, starts each section in this book with a cool Conscious quote about fashion or clothes from a famous or notable person…
The first one was, “I’m just trying to change the world, one sequin at a time.” – Lady Gaga. A great intro, because knowing when and what to change is a good thing.
The stuff in our closets. I don’t know about you but I’m a collector of clothing… An entire closet full of shoes; an open-closet of two department-store-grade clothing racks lined with 104 pieces of quality clothing (I counted them); another small closet filled with another 50 or so pieces of clothing with a shelf of 5 piles of denim, over 20 t-shirts (could always use more of those), a few belts, neck ties, a bin of scarves and hats; living room closet with coats and jackets (a few I don’t even touch); a stuffed full-length ottoman of my lounge wear clothes; two bags of clothes ready for the cleaners; hamper full of dirty clothes; and I should mention (at the time I’m writing this) 5 major items that I really need to buy right now. They’re on hold for me. Ok, that is my little closet confession. It’s a confession because Conscious Closet puts a magnifying glass to the clothes one person has. The Author, Elizabeth, is not trying to scare us or shame us (but if the shirt fits wear it.) She really wants to hip us to some major environmental and wasteful issues that we are contributing to and are easy to ignore when it comes to our clothes.
The point from Conscious Closet is this: Consider the clothes/shoes in your closet. [I’m not trying to make this about me but it’s easier and more accurate to use my own closet for example.] I don’t have as much clothing as I could have. Long before Conscious Closet, I started to only keep clothes that I really used. This book highlights the problem with not only having so many clothes but also not even wearing them, not wearing them long enough, and throwing them away. So I’m not doing too bad on every end. My guilt is how I get rid of clothes and how often I think I need to buy new ones.
Here’s the Conscious Closet change that will help: Go through your closet and do a clean-out – confront every piece of clothing and your shoes and start a few piles – the pieces you love and wear often; the pieces you don’t wear (because they don’t fit, are too outdated, ragged-to-no-repair, this will become your pile to giveaway or recycle.) Please note: clothing should never go into the trash because the materials will screw up our planet’s, food, wildlife, water – the environment. There is a proper way to get rid of unwanted clothes because the materials have to go through a breakdown process. This is true even down to our more hidden layer of clothing, like underwear briefs, boxers, bras, leggings, socks, undershirts and tanks – these items can’t go in your trash dumpster because they will end up in our landfills and harming the earth. The final pile are for the pieces that aren’t worn simply because you forgot about them, so add them back to your wearable wardrobe and think of fresh ways to style it that will make you want to wear them.
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK – WEDNESDAY 12:30