Spring and Fall

I use the hashtag #springandfall because in ‘slow fashion’ we are more concerned about the longevity and durability of clothing more than the trends or seasons they are associated with. Since the Fall (or Autumn) season has similar temperatures that you would need to wear something to make a little warmer, I’m going to lump Spring and Fall together as one clothing season. The same clothes you would wear for a cooler crisp morning walk in March or April is the same as you would wear in the morning in September or October.

We say ‘Fall’ around here but I know some people use the word ‘Autumn’. I’m good with either and I don’t mean to be rude nor am I trying to be rude or uneducated or less sophisticated if I use it. Just know that there are no ill feelings and this is something we shouldn’t fret or argue about.

We have to get rid of dividing the seasons into Spring or Fall colors and choose colors and styles that can be for both. It might be confusisure what to do with wearing pastels only in the Spring or the rust and brown combos only in the Fall. I would say avoid them. This is just something we have to do as a community of eco-friendly people.

Perhaps you can use the pastels for Summer and rusts and orange colors for winter. We are the CEOs of our wardrobe and we can do what we want, even meld Spring and Fall into one clothing season category to eliminate buying, using or having too many clothes in our clothing wardrobe. We can go forward with new ideas to make real and normal. Maybe it’s not even new! I’m sure there were many average people hundreds of years ago that did not care about Spring or Fall trends when buying clothes. It’s not important to feed into those two seasons as seperate requiring their own colors and divisions. A lace cardigan that you use for Spring can be used for Fall in 6 months and also be used for the next 10-20 years with care. Think ‘longevity’ and ‘durability’ over what a celebrity wears this year only. Trendy clothes don’t last for years and they are usually not in natural fibers made in your country from fabric and yarn sourced from your country. Even if it is, the prices would be very high. If you had saved up to buy a $200 sweater, wouldn’t you take care of it more and make sure the style is classic? If you had made it, you would give it that care, too.

Always think of you in 10 to 20 years when getting a new garment. Are the colors and styles classic and your style? Will it do it’s purpose of keeping you warm and covered and be able to be used while doing chores? Will it look nice enough to take pictures with your family? Is it too delicate for handwash? If it needs dry-cleaning, it might be too much trouble in the long run. If the color is white, I might not be able to get out coffee stains out. Maybe I can dye it brown if I do get coffee stains on it!

What is possible in ten or 20 years when it is falling apart and mending it is not helping? If the yarn or threads are natural fibers and naturally dyed, I can dig a hole for it and cover it up to use as compost in a year for organic plants or grass. Everything has a circle of life in eco-friendly items. I don’t want to deal with plastic or blended plastic anymore if I want to take the responsiblity of my own clothes. I am passing the recycling steps and stages for less stress and work at being eco-friendly and since I’m speaking from the position of designer and yarn crafter, namely knitting, it makes sense that I take more control of that aspect. So my focus is going to be on the longevity and durability of the yarn, colors and clothing that I produce. And since I can’t unsee the dangers of plastic on the enviroment, our health and even the natural world and creatures of this planet, I don’t want to involve plastics in that journey. I’d rather have a cotton sweater that lasts 10 years than an acrylic or polyester sweater that lasts 40 years and makes me sick and doesn’t want to break down. It leeches microplastics into the water and causes people to experience infertility and get cancer. And cheap clothing is usually made by people getting extremely low wages and horrible work conditions and have to be shipped across the ocean to get here in plastic bags. There is even people who are not citizens getting very low wages in first world countries. This shuffling around of people (aka human trafficking) is sad and hurts our own economies and even theirs. It’s not everyone, I know, but it’s happening. I want those countries to do well and be self sufficient and have tourism as much as our country. It think every country has that ability now. It’s been at least 120 years that torpedoed the West into an industrial age. We’re going backwards now as we realized it was a failed experiment as other countries are learning the same information because of the internet. All the countries have the same opportunity and learning that we don’t have to be industrialized the same. While greedy, racist universities, organization, politicians and large corporate companies do anything for money and power, we’re on a smaller journey and path to encourage a parallel economy and industry that is all around better for everyone. I’m not part of today’s climate activism. Know that we’re all not lumped together as one eco-friendly group.