“Why don’t I have anything to wear?” It’s a question that many of us constantly ask ourselves – no matter the amount of clothes overspilling from our wardrobes – and one that often leads to us buying more, impulse shopping ahead of a big event, before ending up in exactly the same position next time around.
“This is a question we ask ourselves if not weekly, then at least once a month,” Andrea Cheong, author of a new book entitled Why Don’t I Have Anything To Wear?, tells Vogue. “It has so much to do with our culture: seeing so much newness on social media, [and] assuming that it’s normal to own as many clothes as you see influencers wear. [It’s also to do with] constant advertising, how cheap some clothing can be, and how discounting facilitates this process of just constant buying – we’re kind of swept up in all of this.”
To help us understand why we might feel like we have nothing to wear, Cheong has included a quiz in her book that breaks it down into five overarching themes: your physical needs aren’t being met by mainstream brands; you’re undergoing a lifestyle change; you need to practise mindful consumption; you need to invest in better quality pieces; and you need to organise your wardrobe better. “I hope that I make it practical, and actionable,” she explains. “It’s not about buying more, but helping people understand what they already have.”
Cheong – who was previously a fashion influencer before entering the sustainability space – had found herself spending thousands of pounds a year on clothes. “I was buying predominantly from fast fashion, high-street brands, and basically nothing would last,” she recalls, explaining how she wasn’t practising mindful consumption or investing in quality at the time. “I was like, ‘I can’t afford to keep doing this’, ‘Why am I still doing this?’”
That’s how Cheong created the Mindful Monday Method, a five-step process designed to encourage people to be more thoughtful about their fashion purchases. “It’s about how to shop better for your mental health and the planet, and you could actually save money while doing it,” she says.
The method begins with a wardrobe audit, to help you work out the clothes you actually like and wear – and more importantly, the clothes you don’t. “I’m interested in analysing what you don’t want, whether there are recurring retailers or materials that pop up, for example,” Cheong explains.
It can also help to work out what a capsule wardrobe looks like for you – with Cheong emphasising that it might not be full of wardrobe basics. “I think we should be curating our outfits based on what we already feel comfortable in when we leave the house,” she continues. “Anytime you’re leaving the house, take a photo in the mirror, save it on your phone, and once you’ve got about eight outfits, that is your capsule wardrobe. Count how many items you mix and match from what you already have.”
After doing a wardrobe audit, Cheong then advises you to do a budget review and set out your sustainability goals, before thinking about material composition and quality (the author regularly posts videos of herself assessing the designs of various brands). “All of these things help to inform an individual shopper how to shop best for themselves,” she explains.
Of course, many of us feel like we have nothing to wear when we’ve got a big event coming up – whether that’s a wedding or birthday party. That’s where there needs to be a cultural shift around newness and the way we consume clothes. “This has so much to do with what social media shows us, and peer pressure,” Cheong comments. “We have to be mindful about how we speak about consumption with each other, as opposed to always asking, ‘What are you wearing? Did you buy anything new?’”
Nowadays, Cheong mostly buys vintage, as well as supporting independent designers – and has saved a significant amount of money doing so. “I think this is [a] more meaningful [way of shopping],” she explains. “I try to support young brands [that offer] really great quality.”
As for whether she still finds herself asking why she has nothing to wear? Those days are long gone. “The Mindful Monday Method works,” she says. “It worked for me the year I started it.” Her parting advice? “I’ve noticed people aren’t very kind to themselves,” she says. “I think this has a lot to do with why we feel we don’t have anything to wear; we’re constantly projecting who we think we should be to get dressed in the morning and we’re also comparing ourselves [with others]. Self-compassion needs to be practised for all of this to stick.”
Why Don’t I Have Anything To Wear by Andrea Cheong (Lagom, £16.99) is out now.
