Thursday, August 13, 2015

End of an era. The trial era.

What started out as a month-long project quickly became three months.
I wore the same outfit day in and day out for 12 weeks straight, that's 84 consecutive days. 
In this time period I had to make some small adjustments, like for example when I went to Berlin and the temperature went up to almost 30 degrees, I used a pair of shorts that I had made from some old jeans. And when we drove around Iceland and slept in tents in 5 degrees and rain, some outerwear and hunting gear was added to the wardrobe. But apart from those rare cases, I have worn the exact same thing every single day. 
No jewelry added, no nail polish, no high heels, nothing extra, just the same 6 items.

And these 12 weeks ended three weeks ago. Not because I wanted to, but because I had to. 
After less then two months of constant wearing the pants started to show some signs of wear and tear. The fabric had gotten extremely thin in the crotch area, where the thighs tend to rub together when walking (unless you have a massive thigh gap, which I apparently don't) and quickly after that they broke. From this point on I just had to suck it up and wear the pants despite the fact that I had a holes growing larger with every day, since I had set my mind to a specific date to finish this on. I want to point out that the shirt is really long, going down to my knees so nobody would ever know. (unless I sat with my legs open - which for obvious reasons I was conscious about not doing) 
And to be honest I just couldn't imagine stopping - I couldn't just go back to wearing my old clothes like nothing ever happened - because so much happened, and the effect was too big.

Pants after 12 weeks

Pants after 12 weeks
Here you can see how one of the pairs looked like after these 12 weeks. And I want to note that I had two of them, worn equally much. So actually I wore each pair for 6 weeks. That's only 42 days! And note that most of the time I hand washed them and hung up to dry. This is the quality we get for cheap clothing.

Another story for the shirt thought - both of them made it through alive with no visible stains, tears, odors or anything. Of course clothes on the upper body - especially if they are wide, don't go through as much rubbing like pants, and therefore they are easier to take good care of.
Shoes, jacket and sweater also made it through, with normal wear and tear - nothing drastic.

Even thought the trial era officially ended for me at this point - now three weeks ago - I still haven't gone back to my other clothes. I have been in Spain and in Norway with my family and only just wear the shirt and my shorts when I am not in my bikini, work-out clothes or my pyjamas.

Right now I am deciding how to proceed with this in the fall and winter back home in Iceland. I have decided that I wan't to adapt this lifestyle to my every day, all days. But what to wear and what to do has been harder to figure out than I expected. And durable or sustainable clothes are not so easy to find - I have found out.
I will keep you updated when I have figured out more.

Lastly, I want to point out that today is earth's 'overshoot day', meaning that today we have used up all our planet's resources, that it is able to regenerate, this year. This day is six days earlier then last year, but we are currently living like we would have access to 1,6 earths. This is just something that we all should really think about and try our best to contribute to making a difference, because we only have this one planet. Read more about it in The Guardian.


J

2 Comments:

At August 15, 2015 at 1:38 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Frábært framtak...smá forvitni...hvar fékkstu skyrtuna?
kv
Sigrún

 
At August 15, 2015 at 7:20 PM , Blogger J.Hafberg said...

Sæl Sigrún ég keypti í byrjun 2 eins skyrtur og 2 eins buxur í tilraunaskyni í búðinni Monki :)

 

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