When You Can't Decide What to Buy... Be A Conscious Consumer

We’ve all been in that situation before where we’re out shopping and so many things catch our eye that before we know it our shopping basket is full, and we’re met with a bill that has a figure so high, we start to seriously consider whether it is possible to live off only baked beans for the next month in order to afford it all. After all Carrie Bradshaw famously said that when she first moved to New York and was totally broke, sometimes she bought Vogue instead of dinner because she felt that it fed her more.

Whilst I love fashion and of course love Carrie, I think I may have come up a better to overcome our shopping addiction.

I believe that our buying choices shape the kind of world that you want to live in. As consumers we are becoming increasingly more aware of the environmental and social impacts that our clothes have on the world around us. Whether it’s highlighted by initiatives such as the ‘Who Made My Clothes’ campaign by Fashion Revolution, or the ‘Green Carpet Challenge’ that showcases the latest in sustainable fashion designs on a global platform.  The fact remains that we have a significant impact on the way that the fashion industry is shaped.

That is why I believe that when it comes to answering the question of who or what looks better when choosing between two things that love two things equally as much, we need to look past the item itself and think more about the impact that our clothes have on wider society.

I know that eco-conscious clothing tends to sometimes get a bad reputation for looking, just as the name suggests, too eco after all no one wants to look like their dressed head to toe in recycled hemp. However, this isn’t the case for all sustainable fashion brands. Many brands like Delikate Rayne, Reformation and Free People work hard to combine fashion forward thinking with eco-conscious production to make clothes that not only look good but also do good – making eco-fashion mainstream.

Not only is sustainable fashion on the rise, a recent survey revealed some promising truths about what influence millennials buying choices!  The Brookings Institute found that 84% of consumers say that they seek out responsible items wherever possible, 82% consider the corporate social responsibility stance of the company that they buy from and lastly 90% of global consumers would switch to a brand that is associated with a good cause when given a similar price or quality item.

So it seems that when it comes to making the tough choice of choosing between two items that we love equally, sustainability does factor in!

When you're next in a shop or shopping online and find yourself unable to choose between your new favourite dress or shoes just think, about the power that you have as a consumer and how your buying choices help shape the world, or should we say fashion industry, that we live in.