In my old job, I used to joke with one of my colleagues about the beige woman. She’s the kind of ultra-groomed, semi-wealthy type of person that is able to wear outfits in silk, cream, white and beige, because she never comes in contact with the world (doesn’t get dirty) and when she does, has a large dry cleaning budget, so getting stained is never a problem.
More than an aesthetic, we imagined her as a person — mysterious, self-contained, corporate job, and definitely no children or pets. We used to joke about it because I love beige woman clothing, but neither of us were beige women. I would joke about her while excitedly gesticulating with my chopsticks, sat at my beige desk, another Itsu sushi lunch al desko, inevitably splattering anything within range.
When I think about these conversations, it makes me think of how we approach fashion when it comes to the climate crisis (and so many other things that are complicated and take time to achieve, like losing weight, writing a novel or saving for retirement).
In many of our minds there is this image of how we think we will approach sustainable actions, and it feels like a version of the beige woman. There’s this picture of a sustainable capsule wardrobe that many of us have in our minds — simple, timeless tailoring in unassuming colours. As a person, she is someone different to the one we are today, requiring less of the emotional validation and sense of belonging that wearing the “right” outfit can bring.
But rather than chasing a sustainable aesthetic, what we need to do is show up as we are now, in all of our complicated, contradictory glory. The homewares version of this, of course, is throwing away all of our perfectly good, still useful plastic food storage containers to make way for more sustainable silicone options, or trying to cut down on plastic bag use by collecting dozens of cotton totes.
For many people, the pandemic period has allowed people to re-imagine themselves anew. The sense of uncertainty is bringing about a sense of take me as I am, something I spoke to Alice Birrell at Vogue Australia about recently. For those whole-heartedly embracing this shift there’s a real joy in being able to appear in the world as authentically themselves. It also harks back to a period where street-style photography was about capturing and celebrating the unique and the imaginative, rather than slavishly following the key design trend for the season.
As the nature of product trends and the methods forecasting them changes due to algorithms increasingly driving desire, rather than desire driving the algorithm (something I plan to write more about soon), making the right product for the right person has never been more important.
With attitudes to fashion changing, with sustainability becoming more important (and actually acted upon), the narrative of an item between seasons and years needs to become more important. This means that having a unique take on a trend, as it becomes harder for people to style those season-defining items further down the road.
The versions of ourselves in an item, the adventures we have in them become like a beautiful patina on leather, enhancing its personal value to the wearer. (And for everything else there’s resale, rental, etc).
The key to our success is not waiting until we become someone different, but showing up today, just as we are and then moving forward from there (messy chopstick use included).
I wrote about this for the Evening Standard, and was featured in the December issue of Australian Vogue.
Extraordinary friends doing extraordinary things
In the spirit of the New Year, my friend James Rhee did a Ted Talk on The Value of Kindness at Work (which has had over 900k views so far). It’s definitely worth the 15 minute investment to start your year on the right foot, especially as we navigate year three of this pandemic. If you enjoy the talk, sign up to his site, Red Helicopter.
Noelle Faulkner wrote this extraordinary piece on Driving While Female. I recently took a few days of holiday down on the Surf Coast, and while I’m not a ‘car person’ there’s something wonderful about having the windows down, wind blowing through your hair, great music on the stereo (singing, badly), and simply flooring it (in a Prius).
Thanks for reading (& sharing)
I’m planning to ramp up my efforts on this, which has been an often neglected side-hustle jammed between consultancy projects. Any suggestions on things you’d like to see here, then please reply to this email.