In a fashion system that thrives on disposability, one of the most radical acts of care is to love the clothing in our wardrobes. For this, a powerful tool is to understand your personal style which helps you use your clothes well and with love, instead of buying new. This prevents fashion waste while also allowing you to gain a deeper understanding of yourself and your style – sounds like a win-win!
To help you on your personal styling journey, here are South African stylist, Tandekile Mkize’s four tips on how to restyle your clothing in a way that helps you fall in love with it again:
1. Focus on timeless style and forget about the trends
Fashion trends are made to make people feel like what they currently have isn’t enough or out of style, driving consumers to buy more to keep up with what’s hot. Focus on developing your personal style and refining your taste. Personal style is a person’s chosen way of expressing themselves using clothing and accessories as a medium.
Developing a sense of personal style allows you to hop off the hamster wheel of endless trend cycles by defining what style means for you, instead of what the media says you should be wearing. As soon as we dictate what we wear, we dismantle trends.
2. Repair and Restore
Before discarding damaged, torn, or discoloured clothing, get creative with visible mending which is an ornamental approach to repairing garments that embraces the imperfection in creative ways and breathes new life into your clothing. Revive discoloured clothing by dying them.
3. Do a closet audit to reflect on your current wardrobe
Pull everything out of your closet and do an audit of what you have. Through this audit, you’ll see exactly what you have in your closet and you may come across some pieces you forgot about that you may fall in love with all over again that deserve more wear.
This process will also help you reflect and notice patterns in your clothing – which clothes you wear the most, which have been tucked away for ages, and what styles are most common in your wardrobe.
4. Wear your star pieces more
Growing up my mom would buy those special occasion pieces that I could only wear for those special occasions. Of course, there’s a time and place for everything, but what a waste to wait until then. Life is too short to not wear the clothes you love. See every day as an occasion to wear the pieces that you love the most!
About Tandekile Mkize:
Tandekile Mkize is a fashion stylist with a unique, yet distinctly South African visual narrative, that aims to serve as a reminder that we don’t have to adhere to linear ideas. Tandekile’s fashion and wardrobe styling has been featured in Cosmopolitan SA, The Mail & Guardian, Twyg, Nataal, Bubblegum Club, and Unlabelled Magazine. He reflects the future of fashion as being sustainable and championing local fashion brands and labels.
- Cover image: Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels
