The Fear of Being an Outfit Repeater

Written by Kyndal Coleman

I do a lot of shopping. On any given day, you can find me plundering through a thrift store, oftentimes rationalizing my frequent purchases.“If I didn’t buy this shirt it would be in the landfill” I like to tell myself as I sift down the aisles, and while that may be true, it’s only mere deflection for a phenomenon that has become increasingly concerning these days–overconsumption. 

Though I hate to admit it my weekly thrift trips are an obvious indicator of the overconsumption that’s embedded into our society and, it is genuinely impacting us all.  

There’s an undeniable expectation to buy more these days. Buying garments in bulk has become common practice only further normalized by the fashion content we consume. A clothing haul will persuade you to frequently add excessive garments to your wardrobe while daily fit checks will convince you that you can never wear the same outfit twice.

Social media amplifies our fears of outfit-repeating, but our culture of consumerism is the root of it all. Coddling our irrational fears and rewarding us with the ability to buy more, our consumerist society is what causes our aversion to repeating outfits. This paired with the unprecedented ease of acquiring clothing today has functionally created disposable clothes, thus creating an attitude of dispensability reflected in our shopping behavior. 

We no longer shop with longevity or practicality in mind, rather our access to a seemingly endless amount of fast fashion has led us to shop with overindulgent eyes and the expectation that we can buy an entirely new wardrobe at the click of a button if we so pleased. We shop for the fit check, for the hauls, and for the Instagram pictures.

Trends like “Blind Thrifting” exemplify this growing frivolousness with our clothing.

Participants in this ‘challenge’ randomly pick garments at a thrift store and throw together laughably bad outfits to go out in and ultimately post a TikTok about. Not to be a buzzkill but this is extremely wasteful. Now more than ever we intentionally and frequently purchase clothing that we only plan on wearing a few times with no regard for where they’ll end up. Fast Fashion has designed a system that both enables and thrives off this behavior.

In addition to normalizing wastefulness, the fear of being an outfit repeater is slowly chipping away at our styles and identities within our wardrobes.  As we constantly search for something new to buy and wear, we become susceptible to microtrends and fall victim to substituting personal style for what’s popular.

The ability to buy new garments is not a metric of style.

 Take time to figure out what you like and build a wardrobe centered around exactly that. Be skeptical of what’s trending and when you make new clothing purchases buy things because you like and need them, not because you were influenced to.

Developing your style should be a conscious act. Most of us have the privilege of being far removed from the pollution we cause indirectly via the production of our garments, but the reality is there are people directly and severely impacted by our choices.

 Accra, Ghana home to Kantamanto, one of the largest second-hand clothing markets has functionally become a dumping ground for our textile waste. People living there and other places that have become the final resting zones for our unwanted garments pay for our enjoyment of clothing with their entire environments, livelihoods, and futures as they are forced to deal with the immediate consequences of pollution and waste from the linear economy. 

(Muntaka Chasant/Shutterstock)

Recently, fires ravaged the Kantamanto Market not only burning up the source of income for many second-hand traders but also further adding to the environmental catastrophe–pluming chemicals into the air, littering toxic ash across the soil, contaminating the water, and so on. The environmental and health impacts are immeasurable. I encourage everyone to watch this short trailer for Dead White Man’s Clothes to get a better understanding of what’s happening in Kantamanto. 

Lastly, let’s all read the room. There’s a lot happening in the world right now. While your wardrobe might understandably be the least of your worries in these times I urge you that if you have the privilege to comfortably clothe yourself every day, consider adding discipline and solidarity to your wardrobe by opposing consumerism. Shop second-hand, use what you have in new ways, share clothes with friends but seriously shop less!

We may never get over our fears of being outfit repeaters but as warmer months roll around and the seasons change, consider the words of the great and wise Lizzie Mcguire while getting dressed and especially before buying brand-new items,

 “I may be an outfit repeater but you’re an outfit rememberer and that’s just as pathetic.”