Building a long lasting, natural fiber wardrobe- is it possible with all the things I do?

So I work a professional job but even that requires some separate pieces. I have my day to day professional, conservative office wear. I also have some pieces specifically for jury trials. Jackets, longer skirts, black black black. Required for when we are in trial for a month.

Then I have my house wear which is mostly yoga pants and whatever shirt my mother in law bought me that isn't nice enough to wear out of my house.

Then I have my not at work and not at home clothes which are like jeans and a couple shirts I like that just aren't nice enough for work.

So I look at it as needing like 4 wardrobes. That's not realistic. I need some more crossover. The problem being I do like color. I was looking at some nice, classic lined silk dresses for work but they wouldn't be appropriate for jury trial. I don't want all black work clothes though.

I also tend to rip my at home clothes a lot or get paint on them or whatever. I don't tend to think about what I'm wearing at home at all. So it's all trashy stuff I only wear about at home. If I merged my at home and my not at home but not at work wardrobe I'd have to put way more thought into not screwing up my clothes and then I'd need trashy clothes for work anyway at which point, why merge them?


Is anyone else having stupid problems like this?? Trying to minimize and looking at my clothes it's just, it's not good.

When I had to work I stuck to a lot to tanks of different colors of good quality, t’s of different colors in good quality and good jackets/over tops/ blazers whatever.  I could mix and match with skirts, pants, shorts and jeans.

Oversized cotton shirts could be worn alone or as an overtop.  

I accessorized a lot to change the look.  

Several shoes for work and several for more casual.

Work clothes were just work clothes but everything else could be combined in a ton of different looks.  

If you are at a loss I would go to a good quality store with adequate knowledgeable help ( not a chain store; somewhere that sells quality not too trendy) and have them start you out with some pieces you can mix and match.

I don't know where you got with this, but I've been reading Fibershed by Rebecca Burgess who issued herself the challenge of wearing *only* clothing that was grown, processed and manufactured with in I think 150 miles. There are a lot of references and resources in it that you might find helpful. There's also a section on all the toxins that are found in most manufactured clothing - I was aware of some of them, but others were a good reminder to me.

Jay Angler wrote:I've been reading Fibershed by Rebecca Burgess who issued herself the challenge of wearing *only* clothing that was grown, processed and manufactured with in I think 150 miles.

How do you like the book? I read about it on the publishers website and watched parts of an interview with the author. It sounds very interesting.

As an aside, I remember shopping in both Israel & Mexico looking for some authentic local clothing pieces… only to find they were simply imports made in China.

Alana Rose wrote:

Jay Angler wrote:I've been reading Fibershed by Rebecca Burgess who issued herself the challenge of wearing *only* clothing that was grown, processed and manufactured with in I think 150 miles.

How do you like the book? I read about it on the publishers website and watched parts of an interview with the author. It sounds very interesting.

As an aside, I remember shopping in both Israel & Mexico looking for some authentic local clothing pieces… only to find they were simply imports made in China.

I would say I have mixed feelings. From being here on permies, I already know a lot of the issues from toxic gick/damaged ecosystems from artificial cloth to toxic gick/damaged ecosystems from growing cotton irresponsibly. I've already read about just how bad "fast fashion" is. Some people would be inspired by Ms Burgess' efforts and results, but alas, I'm just not into the sort of fashion showcased in the book - I'm a farmer and I'm more concerned with having enough pockets!

The appendix with the list of toxins was worthwhile. The ideas about naturally selecting for varieties of different coloured fibers and just how much it reduced the amount of dye needed was new information and important to small producers. The big problem is the disconnect between "individual clothing", "community clothing" and "regional clothing". We've disassembled all the medium-sized support services which get us from small raw material producers to regionally produced clothing lines and I'm not convinced there's enough will-power to get the investment required to get it back.

The book would be an excellent read for anyone with young teens getting interested in what everyone else is wearing and needing reasons to not go there!