The No-Buy
Here we go.
This year I am undertaking a ‘no buy’ in which I buy no clothes, bags, shoes, or accessories for the year. It’s something I’ve done before (quite a while ago) and whilst there is the financial motivation, I am trying to shift the time and energy I spend thinking about/looking for things to buy.
In Navaz Baltiwalla’s The New Garconne there is an interview with fashion designer Bella Freud, in which she talks about consumption. Whilst she admits she enjoys consuming she talks about this tension ‘There’s a weird sort of test that happens when I do go shopping. I think, ‘Am I really going to buy this?’. I think about this often, and especially now I think to myself ‘is this what I am going to break this promise to myself for?’
When restrictions are put in place it’s easy to find a convenient substitute, similar to the person who is not drinking alcohol that suddenly develops the taste for sundaes from McDonald’s. I have noticed myself buying lots of makeup. Which is funny (but not really) because I thought stationery might be the issue. I guess there’s still time. Returning to work after taking a year of parental leave has meant that the desire to buy myself something to mark the occasion or as a ‘reward’ is incredibly strong. But to be honest, gift-giving is my love language which just seems like a great way to support my consumerist habits.
There is also new identity formation at play, and a large part of that is how we present ourselves, so there is the desire to buy things which more accurately represent this new version of myself. But I don’t even know who that is yet.
The world doesn’t want you to stop buying things; I have to unsubscribe from emails and sms lists, ignore whatever trends I see anywhere and remind myself I’m old enough to have seen them before, and didn’t even get into them the first time round, regardless if I bought into them or not.
I’m sure there are some people reading this who feel like they could do a ‘no buy’ really easily, and I am happy for them. I am not one of those people and I keep finding myself looking at things and thinking to myself, ‘Am I really going to buy this?’
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