"Why fast fashion is slow death for the planet" - by Lucy Siegle

This afternoon I just want to post a quick blog about some articles by a woman called Lucy Siegle that I have been reading. She is a writer for The Observer in the UK and has a column about how to live a fairtrade eco lifestyle.
I found her "Fast fashion death for planet" article and found that it also really just confirmed why I need to make a change in my shopping attitude. It brought to my attention how retailers also manipulate their audience, and how I need to retrain myself to not be sucked in by the mentality of "new is better and more is best".
In the article Lucy Siegle brings up some questions we should all be asking ourselves when we are out shopping, such as:

• Who made this?
• Where did it come from?
• How long will it's "life span" be?

Her articles really made me think, and that is why I wanted to share them with you.
I am just like all the other young girls out there. I love clothes and I love shoes - Oh how I adore shoes...
I happen to have a bookcase covered in shoes that I never wear. What shoes do I wear? I wear my work shoes and my sneakers and 1 pear of boots which I have continued to squeeze life out of despite the fact that the heals are wobbly, the vinyl is pealing off and the soul is starting to come away from the rest of the boot. I do this will all shoes I like, and the rest simply remain unused sitting on the lonely bookcase collecting dust.
My most recent edition is a pair of black, very steep peep toe high heals - which I still haven't worn since buying them because I am too worried about getting them wet (they're kind of a fake suede) and also don't want the blisters. But still, in the shop, even while I knew I would probably only wear them a handful of times in their "Life span" I just HAD to have them. And this behaviour is far from limited to myself. This behaviour is what every young and old girl exhibits.
So as I go on my journey, to finding a more environmentally friendly, fair and realistic lifestyle, I need to let go of this attitude.
I need to buy only the things I will wear for their whole entire life span. Now that my boots are beginning to leak, I am keeping an eye out for a replacement, but I refuse to buy another pair of boots that I don't "love" because otherwise, they will just end up another pair of sad dusty boots on my bookcase... Like the other 2 pairs I currently don't like and don't wear, yet brought years ago.
By saving money from not buying items that was only really purchased for emotional and psychological reasons, I also will then be able to save to buy items that I need, enjoy, love, and will wear for their whole entire life span. Items that I may pay more for, in order to make sure they are ethical environmentally and socially, but items that I will ultimately wear. We on average only wear 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time. If I could reduce my wardrobe to items I really only wear by buying items I know I will wear, I can save money and not encourage the mass production of clothing that goes on today.

By making better decisions while shopping I can better my impact on the world, environmentally and socially.
Our money has a lot of power over other people, and we need to learn again how to direct this power in ways that will make positive changes in the world.

Happy conscious-shopping, everybody.