Lauren Bravo Educates Us On 'How to Break Up with Fast Fashion'

by tieganlucy - January 20, 2020

After reading Lauren's first book 'What would the Spice Girls do?' I deeply and all at once fell in love with her writing. Immediately after reading her book I started following her on Instagram, which is where I learned she had decided to give up fast fashion. I was interested in her decision to do this in today's society where influencer culture and clothing in the media is more dominating than ever before – especially for young women of her age. It didn’t come as a surprise to me (but a great excitement nonetheless) when she announced she was writing and releasing her newest book ‘How to Break Up with Fast Fashion’. I didn’t hesitate to pre-order it and began counting down the days until I could absorb all her reasoning and research behind the huge lifestyle change that she’d undertaken.

In the anticipation of this book, I became slightly worried. I was worried that as Lauren’s Instagram stories all seemed to be her in beautiful preowned clothing, or her seeming to constantly be in local charity shops in London, that the book would be strict and take a ‘holier-than-thou’ approach. I was worried that stepping away from fast fashion just wouldn’t be something I could do successfully and that by reading the book I would feel like an awful person - because just think of the helpless poverty-ridden children and the poor planet I’m destroying, HOW COULD I BE SO SELFISH!. Thankfully, (and I should’ve known this by how kind and approachable Lauren has been on direct messages to me), the book followed the same nature as her; understanding, informative, light-hearted and comical. It teaches you how to make you love your own wardrobe, how to get stains out of clothes you own instead of binning them, and how to mend broken items without replacing them. And it doesn't fall short of a pop culture reference or a Friends quote here and there.

The aspect I love most of all about this book is that it manages to have the tone of education and explanation, but without feeling like an essential university reading that you can’t wait to be over. It can be enlightening without feeling like an elderly grandparent going on at you about how much more sustainable they were at your age… *insert ‘back in my day’ quote here*. It doesn’t feel like a pestering ringing in your ears telling you how you are singlehandedly killing polar bears and should be ashamed of yourself. Instead, it tells us why we are all terrible (but in a nice way). Lauren admits to her own flaws in terms of sustainability and tells of how her old self used fast fashion as a way to make herself feel better, but actually, it ended up making herself feel worse. Ring any bells? I certainly relate.

Lauren has helped me realise small things I can do to become more sustainable around clothing. I’m not going to go out and suddenly buy all my clothes from charity shops, but I will gradually change my lifestyle to benefit the world around me. I’ll wash my clothes at 30 degrees or below because that’s all they need. I’ll continue to donate my used clothes to charity shops, and if they don’t accept them, I’ll recycle them. I’ll stop buying as many new clothing items as I have in the past (it’ll help the bank out too). Instead of spending hours trawling through ASOS or PLT, maybe I’ll take a look at a sustainable fashion website.

Overall, Lauren’s book has taught me so many little ways I can improve my shopping habits, without having to go cold turkey on buying clothes. If you want to learn more about the fast fashion industry, its negative implications, and how to stop it creating the huge clothing waste problem that it is, then READ LAUREN’S BOOK. Also, if you’re curious as to how sustainable you currently are, you should follow this link and take the quiz. This could be a useful way to track your improvement if you take any of Lauren’s advice https://www.thredup.com/fashionfootprint/. And remember: if you wouldn't wear it thirty times, or can't think of at least three things you already own that you could wear with it, don't buy it.