"It's already hot, we have to take out our summer clothes," my mom would tell us every time jackets and vests began to take up unnecessary space in our closets.
It was a ritual, a happy and long-awaited moment. At the beginning of the summer and winter, with my sisters we would open the plastic boxes that had been stored for several months in the attic and while I took out my clothes, with the smell of storage and some wrinkles, I thought that a lot of them had been forgotten, they had completely erased from my mind.
For many years we continued to do the same thing and I kept it up when I left home. It was an act that made a lot of sense to me, why did I want vests in summer?
But a year ago, one day in January when it was very cold and dresses were not the option, I read something like this on a social network: “It is these days where it makes more sense to have a unique and timeless closet, I have all my clothes in the same place”, and a woman was shown wearing pants and a vest.
At first I questioned it a bit, my ritual every year still seemed like a good idea. But it kept spinning in my head.
Then I began to relate more to the world of sustainable fashion and the idea of having a minimalist and timeless closet. At that time I went with a friend to a local fashion fair. I tried on a sparkly top. It fit me well and I liked it, but it didn't fully represent me. My friend told me, "I think you should wear it, you don't have many shirts of this type, to go out to parties." But it was precisely because it was not a very versatile garment that I decided not to buy it.
My friend's phrase was true, I have never been a person who has shiny or more produced shirts, on the contrary, my clothes are basic and formal, that is my style. But regardless of that, I can still do a fun and produced look with my everyday clothes. Understanding that made me completely agree with the woman on the social network, the less clothes you have, the more unnecessary it will be to keep them when you change seasons.
“I try with my clients that all the clothes of the year fit in the closet. When you put away the clothes you don't wear, you forget what you have and if in the summer it starts to get a little colder, instead of going to the store to look for it, you end up buying something, usually in fast fashion”, account Mariana Pattaro , Brazilian style consultant, founder of recloset.cl and the woman of the social network.
And so that all our clothes can fit in the closet, it is essential to know how to select each garment that enters well, we need versatility and to be able to identify what represents us. “It is very important to know how to look at our closet. What we have there is our story and it tells something about a purchase decision and a preference. Comfort, fabric, nostalgia, color, cut. By identifying what represents you, it is more possible to eliminate excesses”, says Mariana. She also adds that "when you have only clothes that you love and that dress you well, you end up wearing much more of each one and the need to have more disappears."
In addition to knowing how to identify our tastes, the timelessness of the clothes we buy is very important. A timeless wardrobe means having clothes that are not necessarily marked by a particular trend. "The idea is to have things that will continue to work with your style over time," says Mariana.
Having a timeless and fixed wardrobe makes us use the garments more, since we do not discard or give them away because they do not go with the season or because we get tired of them, but because of wear. “I am willing to pay much more for a garment that I know I will wear for many years, or better yet, that my daughter will inherit it or I can give it to a friend and it will continue to be a garment in good condition”, says Mariana .
It is a whole different mechanism of thinking and consuming fashion that has to do with slow fashion. If you buy seasonal clothing at fast fashion, you know that the quality is not good and that it will not last long, so you will want to pay little for it and you will not worry about giving it more useful life, because you know that next season will not you will like.
It is very important to clarify that a timeless closet does not have to be the same for everyone. “ I don't believe in that concept of the 10 essential things in a closet; the white shirt, the basic jeans, the black dress, which is the most minimalist style of clothing and is normalized by all”, adds Mariana.
This phrase was completely liberating for me, for a long time I wanted to have the essentials for every minimalist closet, thinking that it was a good way to consume less. But I realized that I never stopped buying, the must -have list was always growing and made me want something new, which often did not even define me or have anything to do with my style. Like the sparkly top, I was about to add to my closet a garment that I'm sure would end up forgotten in the background.
It is not necessary to uniform all people, quite the contrary. “It is key to identify what are the things that differentiate me and with those characteristics build a closet that when I look at it, I don't care if it's fashionable or not, because it represents me, it fits me comfortably and makes me recognize myself when I look in the mirror. says Mariana.
For me it has been a slow and steady path; changing rites, unlearning habits, knowing my tastes, every day I make the decision for a more sustainable life and closet, recognizing that there are always purchases that I could have avoided and celebrating the times I made good decisions.
That green bikini is out of my head, I don't need it, I don't need it, I don't need it.
