The Conscious Closet: The Ultimate Guide for Ethical Fashion Fans [PART ONE]

Table of Contents

The Conscious Closet lives up to its subtitle – “The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good”. Elizabeth L. Cline provides a road map for all you need to know to be a conscious fashion shopper.

Her advice is revolutionary to today’s trends of fast fashion. And her guide is so thorough and precise, it makes building a conscious closet sound fun!

What is a Conscious Closet?

A conscious closet is one that is made with intent. Its every piece is sourced from a brand that prides itself on ethics as much as it does on style. And every piece is intended to be worn for years.

A conscious closet is in that sense self-explanatory; it’s a conscious choice to be an ethical fashion wearer and consumer.

Cline walks you through every step toward becoming a conscious fashionista/o. Ditching fast fashion for good, buying better garments, maintaining their quality and demanding better from large fashion companies. It’s thorough, engaging and exciting!

This book offers a step-by-step guide to considering your closet, valuing it and maintaining it. It’s so thorough in fact, that it deserves numerous articles to cover its material.

So this post is the first in a series about the lessons learned and ideas gained from The Conscious Closet. To start, let’s take a closer look at what’s already in our closet.

Reflect on Your Current Closet

The first step to having a conscious closet is diving deeper into your current closet. Are you excited about your clothes? How often do you wear each garment? Do you have a lot of clothes, but are convinced you have nothing to wear?

Consider everything you own. Their origins, their materials, their reflection of your personal style (or lack thereof). Be realistic about which items you wear and how often. If there are pieces you love, but are slightly damaged, fix them!

Patch them, hand wash them, or seek a professional to repair them. This book is so thorough, one of its sections is titled ”Make it Last”. It includes tips on patching clothes, how to launder clothes properly, and when to go to professionals to fix your items.

It even includes diagrams for how to perform basic stitches to patch apparel! Cline is serious about helping us make the most of your clothes.

Bring clothes you rarely wear to the front of your closet. Try to pair them with other items in your closet in a variety of ways before getting rid of them.

If the garments are truly hopeless in your closet, it’s time to consider their future homes.

I Don’t Want These Clothes. Now What?

If you decide you don’t want to keep some items, upcycle them! A leather shirt could work better as a skirt or a soft tee would be better as a rag. There’s a saying that the most sustainable clothes are already in your closet.

Meaning the best way to be a conscious consumer is to make good use of what you already have. Buy quality items and wear them for years. Or use them for other purposes around the home that similarly extends their lives.

If after careful deliberation you decide some of your clothes aren’t useful, recycle them responsibly. Take them to a textile recycler to ensure they don’t end up in a landfill. See if the brand has its own take-back or resale programs. Or sell them on sites like Poshmark, ThredUp or The RealReal.

Part of having a conscious closet is being intentional at every moment. That includes carefully choosing the final destination of your clothes to have the least harmful impact.

Closet vs. Wardrobe

One of the most eye-opening nuggets of wisdom Cline provided was the difference between a closet and a wardrobe. She defines a wardrobe as a curated collection of garments with each piece elevating the whole. In a wardrobe, every element can be matched with multiple others in endless combinations.

Red White Striped Shirt Blue Jeans — Elements of a wardrobe

Whereas a closet is a hodge podge of colors and patterns. It’s a random assortment of garments that only sometimes pair well with others. If only by coincidence rather than careful intention.

It was a harsh reality for me to realize I simply have an overwhelming closet. I struggle to find combinations of my clothes that bring me joy on a daily basis. And I’m tired of it!

The Conscious Closet inspires action against the unplanned closet. It calls for us to have wardrobes that match our personal styles instead.

It’s time for us to love the clothes we wear every day. It’s time for us only wear the cuts, colors and styles that make us feel confident. It’s time to build a wardrobe!

How to Build a Wardrobe

To build a wardrobe tailored to you, you first have to define your personal style. This seemed like a daunting task to me, frankly. I’ve never had to define my style nor felt the need to.

But, there are many benefits to saying what’s for you in fashion. For one, distinguishing the cuts, colors and styles that work for you makes it easier to spot the ones that don’t. This is essential to having a wardrobe: heavy editing.

I promise, by getting in touch with what your style is you can build a wardrobe that fits you. This will make getting dressed every day easy and enjoyable!

Now comes the long part: finding your personal style. There are many books that dive deeper into the subject. The next one on my list is The Curated Closet: A Simple System for Discovering your Personal Style and Building your Dream Wardrobe by Anuschka Reeves. I’m excited for this one since it would be my intro to honing in on my personal style.

Cline mentions plenty of other books to guide us in finding our personal style. Here’s a few:

Books to find your personal style

As much as I love reading, it can only get you so far. After you tackle a few (or all) of these books, you need to then try everything on! To find your personal style, you have to be intimately aware of what makes you feel the most confident.

To do so, you have to try on every garment you can. Go to high-end stores and just try on clothes. This activity helps you see what high quality fabrics feel like. Go to thrift shops and do the same.

Whether you know exactly what you like and what looks good on you or not, try on a lot of different clothes. The majority of the work in finding your personal style is the finding part! Enjoy the journey and go fashion hunting!

Try on all types of colors, cuts and silhouettes. Don’t be deterred by what something looks like on a hanger or an experience you had with a similar garment years back. Great clothes are meant to surprise you. And you deserve a little fashion fun!

You’re on Your way to Fashion Reinvention!

Per The Conscious Closet, the first step to make a change in fashion is with your own closet! Now we have the basics of editing your closet and finding your personal style down.

In the next post, we’ll get into how to buy clothes and shoes that last. We’ll also discover sustainable ways to stay up-to-date with fashion trends!

Building a conscious closet takes intention as well as time. We’re excited to have you as a partner in this marathon!