You don't need new summer clothes
because you already have some
There’s a thing on TikTok where the audio says ‘it’s time to normalise small little houses,’ and people post their modest, lived-in, ordinarily-decorated homes - homes that they love and are happy in. Consider this post the written equivalent, except about clothes. I think I might be pro-clothes but post-fashion.
I can’t believe how many new clothes people seem to buy. I am amazed by it. Between the newsletters and social media I consume, I am presented with hundreds and hundreds of garments, shoes and bags per week. The cumulative effect is dizzying. Sometimes the clothes are offered urgently, as if grabbing some of them were a matter of utmost importance. HURRY UP! Oh my God, are you even doing summer 2024 right if you don’t have this bag or these sandals? It’s like those old ‘beach body ready’ pieces, slyly reinvented: are you ready to leave the house this season? Are you, though, actually? Because, uh, your shoes aren’t mesh or Mary Janes, so…
Sometimes the clothes are presented almost casually, more ‘I mean, I’m effortlessly stylish, but you might want to try these pieces, I don’t know, they might help you?’. Underlying both approaches is the unspoken suggestion that there is something the matter if you don’t wear these clothes, or can’t afford to buy them, or don’t care enough, or think they’re ugly - if you don’t want them. There is, obviously, nothing wrong at all. Nobody’s going to point and stare because you aren’t wearing X and Y and carrying Z. It literally never happens in real life. People are busy. Nobody cares! But now you feel more insecure than you did five minutes ago. The shoes you’re wearing and loved this morning have lost some of their lustre. You’ve avoided Mary Janes all your life because they make you feel like an adult toddler, but maybe you should reconsider? And so it goes on. It is madness.