Slow Fashion Season is right around the corner and to prepare for it, I decided to reorganize my closet and do the Closet Mass Index.

Before we start, let’s clarify a few things:

What is Slow Fashion Season?

Slow Fashion Season is a collaborative challenge where tens of thousands of people across the globe vow to slow down their clothing consumption for three months. When you sign up, you promise to purchase no new garments from June 21 to September 21. This year, they made a small adjustment to the “nothing new” rule to allow consumers to support small sustainable fashion brands.

How does the Closet Mass Index help?

The Closet Mass Index is a tool developed by fashion design students in Amsterdam to help consumers better understand what they actually own. It prompts you to sort your garments into four categories: ”new,” “secondhand,” “gifted,” and “unworn”. While there are only technically four groups, I like to use this as an opportunity to really go through my wardrobe and note how long I’ve had a garment for, as well as a rough estimate of the number of times I’ve worn it in the past year.

When I participated in Slow Fashion Season last year, one of the things that helped me curb shopping tendencies was knowing exactly what I had in my closet. Getting crystal clear on what I already owned and what I was looking for when thrifting helped me remain focused on buying pieces that would enhance and elevate my wardrobe.

Okay, so now that that’s out of the way…here’s a fun video of me trying on every single garment that I own during this process.

Key Takeaways:

My Final Breakdown:

New: 86
Secondhand: 13
Gifted: 1
Unworn: 0

Compared to last year, my closet has definitely grown in size though notably, most of those pieces were secondhand or I had already owned them previously for several years and just dug them out of a box from my move. I noticed that I own a lot of black and a lot of repeat garments from when I used to work in the service industry. 

I hope this inspires you to go through your closet and do an evaluation too! If you’re interested in learning more about or signing up for Slow Fashion Season, visit this link! Have you done the Closet Mass Index? What did you find?

• G