A Closet for Life
Imagine having a closet for the rest of your life. Just a few staple pieces that you can have forever. What would they look like? What brand would they be? Is it even possible?
In a world of fast fashion selling mass-produced Chinese clothes for pennies on the dollar and hype beasts trying to gain notoriety by wearing brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Supreme just to outclass their peers. In this realm, it seems almost unimaginable that one could create a closet to not only fit every climate and activity but budget as well but it is.
Companies like Patagonia, Arc’teryx, and Darn Tough Socks are staples that offer not only great quality clothes but will repair their clothes for life.
This opens up to lines of thinking to a general approach of having one closet for life and my approach.
The overall approach to this is how can one own as few clothes and keep them for as long as possible?
For most people who already have a closet full of clothes, it is about assessing if they have any needs. Maybe it’s a pair of pants or a new jacket. This initial evaluation helps us to figure out if there is anything missing. If there is, ask yourself, is it something that you really need and why don’t you already have it?
This point leads into my philosophy that if I can own 2 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shorts, a few shirts, and jackets I will never have to buy clothes again. How do I do this? I started by looking at different companies with lifetime warranties. While there are numerous different choices, I ended up choosing Patagonia for several reasons. When I was growing up I always loved their sustainability image and being able to make a long-term environmental impact however I never thought I could justify a $300 jacket and afford it. As I continued to grow up and earn more and more money I reexamined it as a brand and as an option. While I truly believe that a lot of people could afford it if they simply saved over time there are a lot of options to purchase it no matter your budget. Some good options include looking into their worn wear section or better yet your local thrift store.
Very few people know that Patagonia’s LiftTimeWarranty extends to all their products no matter if you just bought it directly from them or if you are its third owner. This is where the magic is.
Remember when you were a child, you had one pair of jeans and shoes that you wore every day until they ripped so bad you could see through them? I’m sure many of us remember the feeling of your clothes being so reliable and comfortable that thats all you wanted to wear, but why did it end? Why did we really need to start owning 10 pairs of pants shorts and tons of everything else? There wasn’t really a reason and there still isn’t.
For me, moving from dorm to dorm and apartment to apartment I realized just how much I hated owning things. I was always fascinated by private school uniforms and Steve Jobs’ famous turtle neck. These simple articles of clothing became staples in their wardrobes. The sheer simplicity of rolling out of bed and throwing on the same clothes is tantalizing. Not only not having to think about the clothes that I wear but not having an impending dread of wearing a jacket that you know feels terrible. This continuous cycle of forgetting about the things that make us uncomfortable is repeated in our one-use mentality. In this journey to simplicity, we need to examine everything we own, discovering the usefulness and practicality of the items we use.
For me, I finally realized that I had a choice. While I have always been practical with my clothes I wanted to reach a new level of freedom. Recently I have begun to search through the internet to find my perfect pair of shorts, pants, and jackets. While it’s truly subjective this was my tipping point.
Even though I keep iterating and reiterating if there is any other clothing I need I do see there’s a stopping point on the horizon, but this is just a start. You can just continue to look at every facet of your life trying to reach this harmonious freedom.
Additional Resources to Explore Companies with Lifetime Warranties:
https://www.themanual.com/culture/brands-with-lifetime-warranties/
https://www.google.com/search?q=Icebreaker&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
