A new ‘no buy’ movement is teaching people how to kick their shopping habit

Six years ago, Lauren Fay decided to stop buying new clothes for a full year. At the time, this seemed like a radical thing to do; but she was an early member of a growing movement devoted to drastically reducing our clothing consumption. Back then, Fay was partly motivated to save money. She’s just left a high-paying job in finance for a more meaningful career in the non-profit sector. But she had also become more conscious about how our insatiable appetite for new clothing is destroying the planet. “I realized I was over-consuming,” she recalls. “I had this ‘ick’ factor about how shopping had become compulsive for me, and I was also spending money that could better be spent elsewhere.” So Fay gave up shopping cold turkey. Overnight, she no longer had the option of buying something new for a party or a big meeting. Still, she found that old habits die hard. When she was bored, she found herself mindlessly gravitating towards her favorite brands’ websites. “I realized I was going through withdrawal,” Fay says. But when she surveyed her closet, she found she had more than enough clothes. Over time, as her favorite pieces became got worn out, she learned how to tackle stains and mend tears. “But then I realized there was a difference between wants and needs. When it came down to it, I didn’t really need anything new. I had more than enough.” The No New Clothes Movement Back then, Fay felt fairly isolated as someone who refused to shop. But today, there’s a growing awareness among consumers about how the fashion industry is harming the Earth. Companies churn out more than 100 billion items of clothing a year, for only 8 billion human beings. Those of us who live in wealthy countries buy the vast majority of them: Most people own between 77 and 155 garments , although we only wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. To make more room in our closets to keep shopping, we collectively dispose of billions of garments annually. Donated clothes end up in places like Ghana and Chile, creating mountains of textiles that can be seen from space . Clothes are also ending up in the ocean, where the plastic in them harms sea creatures and ends up in our food chain. As consumers, we’re all part of the problem. But to be fair, we didn’t get here on our own. For the last 50 years, the clothing industry has been focused on making clothes as cheap as possible by using low-wage overseas labor and disposable synthetic fabrics. Brands have all kinds of psychological tricks to tap into our basest instincts so we feel we need to keep buying more and more. But today, conscious consumers are building a movement to stop buying new clothes. While most social media influencers are sponsored by brands, a small , mighty group is focused on showing their audiences what it is like to stop shopping and make the most of what they already have. Remake , a nonprofit devoted to making the fashion industry more ethical, is helping to accelerate the movement. For the past five years, Remake has invited their followers to take a pledge not to buy new clothes for 90 days . So far, the challenge has been completed 3,900 times. “We picked 90 days strategically, because that is how long it takes to develop a new habit,” says Katrina Caspelich, Remake’s CMO. “By completing the challenge, you’re re-orienting your relationship to the fashion industry.” People who have taken the pledge to stop buying new clothes often find that they feel liberated from this capitalist system that spurs us to shop all the time. And they believe that their choices have a powerful ripple effect beyond themselves. Even after her year of not shopping, Fay has radically reduced how much she buys, and it is now affecting how she’s raising her kids. “My kids aren’t in an environment where we’re constantly buying them new clothes,” she says. “They’re used to seeing me take care of their clothes. When the tear a garment, they can pick the patch I sew on to mend it.” To the uninitiated, the idea of not buying any new clothes can seem daunting. Here are practical strategies to get started on the path to stop shopping. Your Impact Is Far Greater Than Your Own Closet When the challenge begins to feel difficult—or brands start sending emails for Labor Day sales—the question that will cross your mind is: Why am I doing this? Is it really having an impact? Aren’t brands already pumping out the clothes? The truth is that this isn’t just about you and that one dress you really want. By choosing not to shop, you’re signaling to the industry that there is less demand for new products, which could prompt them to make fewer, and hopefully more durable clothes. And you’re not on your own. There’s a growing slow fashion movement that is committed to changing the industry. “We’re keeping track of how many people take our pledge because it’s a powerful marker to the industry,” says Caspelich. “There’s power in collective action.” Fashion brands are particularly attuned to changes in trends. They will design wide leg jeans overnight when tastes change, and invest millions in trying to figure out what color palette will be hot a year from now. So it makes sense that brands are responsive when their customers start shopping less or are opting for more sustainable behaviors. “There’s a reason that so many brands started offering re-sale options,” says Caspelich. “They didn’t do that on their own. They did it because they saw that consumers were increasingly pivoting to buying secondhand.” [Animation: FC, Getty Images (source images)] Define ‘No New Clothes’ In Your Terms As you embark on not buying new clothes, you want to set ground rules about how this process will play out. For starters, you might set a particular time limit for the project. Remake suggests 90 days. If that feels good, you might extend it to six months or a year. Then, you have to consider what you mean by no new clothes. The very best option is just taking advantage of the clothes that you already have. This might mean repairing a beloved outfit that is now threadbare or has a hole in it. Or, if you’re creative, transforming a piece of clothing into something else, like turning jeans into shorts. But even this might be too restricting for some people, particularly who like changing their looks regularly. In this case, there are other ways to get an outfit that is new to you. You could buy it from a thrift store. If you need something for a party or work event, you might ask a friend if you can borrow something. “You want to make this process fun for yourself,” says Caspelich. “And along the way, you might learn new skills like mending, or new habits, like thrifting.” How to replace retail therapy For many of us, shopping is a way of dealing with unpleasant feelings, like boredom, loneliness, or sadness. Buying something leads to a pleasurable hit of dopamine. And shopping can make us feel a sense of control when life feels turbulent. But there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that this feeling doesn’t last. Research suggests that materialism is actually correlated with lower emotional wellbeing . For one thing, it doesn’t provide enduring satisfaction, because there is always more stuff to buy. And these things distract us from the things that actually make us feel better in life, like relationships and meaningful experiences. Amanda Lee McCarty, founder of the sustainable fashion podcast, Clotheshorse, often speaks about how going to the mall was a way to feel better during difficult moments in her childhood and early adulthood. But over the years she’s found that retail therapy ultimately made her feel empty—and broke. This prompted her to find new forms of comfort in things that actually enriched her life. Now, when she feels the urge to shop, she tries to go for a walk, talk to a friend, journal, or spend some quality time with her partner. When you give up shopping, you will likely find yourself in a moment of weakness, when you are desperate to buy something new to feel better. By resisting the urge, you might find your own list of strategies to feel better that are connected with deeper happiness. Enjoy Your Hard-Earned Cash At a time when many people are feeling stretched thin financially, the concept of not shopping might seem appealing if only because it will result in more money in your pocket. Remake estimates that most people who do the challenge for 90 days save $286 on average. That’s money you could put towards your credit card bill or rent. But if you have some flexibility, you could think of other more meaningful ways to spend it. Research shows that people get more happiness out of experiences than possessions . So you could put the cash towards a dinner with a friend or a trip. You could donate it to a cause you feel strongly about or someone in need. Another option that Caspelich suggests is saving the money to buy one article of clothing at the end of the 90 day period from a sustainable brand that invests in fair wages and eco-friendly materials, like regeneratively grown fibers. “Many people ask how the ‘Buy No New Clothes’ challenge will affect smaller sustainable brands,” she says. “Often their clothes are more expensive than mall or fast fashion brands. So saving up to buy one piece of clothing you really need is a way to support these brands, while still living a sustainable lifestyle.”