The Men Who Made Us Spend

Just watching this on the ways we're persuaded to spend money on stuff we don't need.  I'm as guilty as anyone for wanting nice stuff (although I'm always trying to get the best deal on it). 

It's looking mainly at technology, but fashion is similar - it's so disposable, especially in the time of cheap fashion (Primarni and co).  The pressure to wear the right kind of jeans, for example.  A few years ago it was all about bootcut jeans (which I liked) and/or low-rise style.  Then it was all about skinny jeans (that make those of us with wider legs look like parsnips wrapped in denim).  Personally I'd rather wear what suits me, but once something is out of fashion it's much more difficult to get hold of (and some will ridicule you for wearing "nanna jeans"). So it's easy to fall into the fashion trap.

In the past, I've done my holiday clothes shopping in Primark, worn the clothes for 2-3 weeks, then just left them there so I had less to carry home (or more room for souvenirs) and because they were already falling apart.  I would never dream of doing that now - I'm not sure if it's because I'm more aware of where these clothes come from (and the conditions that they're made in), I'm too tight to pay out for clothes that have such a short shelf-life, or I'm getting older and just can't wear cheap fashion clothes any more...

I'm now trying to take the approach that it's better to buy something of quality rather than a number of items that I don't like as much and aren't as good quality (although good quality doesn't always mean ethically produced).

And leading from this is another reason why I'm doing Project 333 - I want to wear good quality, (where possible) ethically sourced clothes that suit me.  It's so much better to have a smaller wardrobe like this than a packed wardrobe, full of tat.