“You don't need more space, you need less stuff”.
This sentence by Joshua Becker, American philanthropist and writer with a literary production focused on minimalism and intentional living, opens the discourse to a series of considerations (.. and yes, we also come to the point raised in the title!).
The question I ask you is: can you say that any item of clothing you have in your closet has been used at least once in the last year?
From personal experience I can answer “no”, and, aware that on average I am less inclined to buy than the majority of the population, I think this answer is valid for many individuals, especially for those who complain of a perennial lack of space in the closet.
Since in reality the answer would be “yes” even if a person had 365 T-shirts in the closet and wore one a day, asking the question in the perspective of wanting to have a sustainable approach to lifestyle, I rephrase it as follows: how often should be worn a garment, for example a T-shirt, for its purchase to make sense?
Let’s say that the answer is “tot times” and, leaving out the economic aspect, this “tot times” depends on the sensitivity towards issues related to sustainability in a broad sense: consumption of the resources used in the production of the garment, pollution of logistics, awe to passing fashions etc ..
Wanting to go further, after realizing that this T-shirt we will certainly use it the number of times that justifies the purchase for us: how many people at this point are wondering if there is not an alternative T-shirt that can fulfill the same purpose that raised the need for its purchase and at the same time be useful in other situations?
Example: I joined the gym and I do not have a suitable T-shirt because in the closet I only have those that I have were bought in a period in which through my T-shirt I expressed my personality and my tastes, but now that I have grown up and I am a different person from many points of view, I use them only when I am at home or doing chores in the garden, partly because the messages they convey with their graphics no longer represent me but also, and above all, because in fact years that they have on their shoulders are noticeable and honestly they are not in excellent condition.
If that weren’t enough, the prospect of having paid upfront for a certain number of months of gym membership reassures me that the T-shirt I will buy shortly will be used a good number of times. The decision is done.
My beliefs impose limits on me “only” as regards the materials (I do not want to wear synthetic fibers deriving from the waste from oil processing) and European manufacturing.
At this point I move to identify the purchase “T-shirt for the gym”! I found a cotton T-shirt, made in Europe, that fits quite tight – without the excesses of the 100% synthetic ones that dominate gyms – and has the brand logo printed on the chest. I am quite “mainstream” and will be able to enter the weight room quite unnoticed.
Example: I joined the gym and I do not have a suitable T-shirt because in the closet I only have those that I have were bought in a period in which through my T-shirt I expressed my personality and my tastes, but now that I have grown up and I am a different person from many points of view, I use them only when I am at home or doing chores in the garden, partly because the messages they convey with their graphics no longer represent me but also, and above all, because in fact years that they have on their shoulders are noticeable and honestly they are not in excellent condition.
If that weren’t enough, the prospect of having paid upfront for a certain number of months of gym membership reassures me that the T-shirt I will buy shortly will be used a good number of times. The decision is done.
My beliefs impose limits on me “only” as regards the materials (I do not want to wear synthetic fibers deriving from the waste from oil processing) and European manufacturing.
At this point I move to identify the purchase “T-shirt for the gym”! I found a cotton T-shirt, made in Europe, that fits quite tight – without the excesses of the 100% synthetic ones that dominate gyms – and has the brand logo printed on the chest. I am quite “mainstream” and will be able to enter the weight room quite unnoticed.
Now I ask myself the question we had left unanswered: having ascertained that this T-shirt would be perfectly suited for gym activity, which was the need behind this research, I wonder if there could be one that could also fit in other occasions, for example in those frequent casual situations in which I do not want to wear a shirt but would prefer the comfort of a T-shirt that is soft on the skin, breathable and thermoregulating, made of fine fibers.
On these last occasions I prefer not to have graphics on the chest and I prefer a slightly more comfortable fit.
I wonder if these characteristics are also suitable for the “gym” T-shirt and the answer is “yes”: the logo does not improve performances and the tight fit that I see going for the most in the Weight-lifting Room actually fulfills more exhibitionistic needs how functional, I would say (and an “average gym goer” like myself has no ambitions of this type).
All this to say how important it is, in our opinion, to have a less mainstream approach, less impulsive and with a broader horizon, even when buying a simple T-shirt.
Leaving aside speeches related to materials, the ethics of production, the sustainability of textile fibers, which are certainly concepts well settled in the conscience of anyone who has arrived in his online navigation to this post, being the foundations of the CAMCO philosophy, the intent is to stimulate a reasoning also on the versatility of our purchases.
This is because versatility can mean fewer purchases, with all the good that this entails for the planet, for the wallet, for the “logistics” inside the home.
Sustainable are the processes, the products, the purchasing habits. Versatile products can allow you to meet multiple needs and therefore limit the amount of products purchased and the behavior of each of us helps to move the market, in its own small way.
To conclude with a joke (but not too “a joke”): with a less crowded closet it is also easy to make decisions … with a nice saving of time! After all, isn’t it an established truth that, round and round, in the end we very often wear the same things despite having all the wardrobe alternatives well supplied?
All this to say how important it is, in our opinion, to have a less mainstream approach, less impulsive and with a broader horizon, even when buying a simple T-shirt.
Leaving aside speeches related to materials, the ethics of production, the sustainability of textile fibers, which are certainly concepts well settled in the conscience of anyone who has arrived in his online navigation to this post, being the foundations of the CAMCO philosophy, the intent is to stimulate a reasoning also on the versatility of our purchases.
This is because versatility can mean fewer purchases, with all the good that this entails for the planet, for the wallet, for the “logistics” inside the home.
Sustainable are the processes, the products, the purchasing habits. Versatile products can allow you to meet multiple needs and therefore limit the amount of products purchased and the behavior of each of us helps to move the market, in its own small way.
To conclude with a joke (but not too “a joke”): with a less crowded closet it is also easy to make decisions … with a nice saving of time! After all, isn’t it an established truth that, round and round, in the end we very often wear the same things despite having all the wardrobe alternatives well supplied?
P.S. In the opening photo a Bulètt T-shirt in lavender-grey is paired with a sports jacket to quickly resolve the dilemma of how to dress in a casual situation.
The same shirt is regularly used for training in the gym, hiking in the mountains, staying comfortable at home, with all the well-being of exclusively natural fibers in contact with the skin.
In fact, CAMCO products are made entirely in Italy with a single fabric: half GOTS certified organic extrafine merino wool and mulesing-free and half TENCEL ™ fibers from Austrian Company Lenzing AG.
A clarification: previously I added the footnote “leaving out the economic aspect” in the reasoning. This is because every purchase event is ultimately an economic transaction, the closure of a contract in which a good or a service is received in exchange for money, therefore the amount of the disbursement is always a strong constraint in the experience of purchase. The point is that I would like to pass the concept behind what we think is the correct way to live the consumer experience: even thinking “with infinite resources” you shouldn’t want more than what is necessary, for the only important reason. that this helps the planet, and the purchase of what is needed should be evaluated on different dimensions (materials, place of production, ethics and sustainability, versatility), weigh the price in the light of these evaluations.