Sales season is here. What is your relationship with these fashion sales?

Sales are usually an event that many people look forward to. They happen at the end of the “season”, when brands have to clear out their inventory from their last collection before they bring in the new one. With the exception of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which are known as the mother lode of all sales.

Like all things, sales have their pros and their cons.

When done correctly, sales allow us to afford things that have been on our wishlists for months

Maybe a timeless sweater made out of recycled cashmere, or a one-of-a-kind upcycled coat that will be in our wardrobes for a very long time. It is a great option for people that don’t have the budget to shop regularly from sustainable brands and that want to try something different from thrift stores. Maybe there is a pair of organic cotton jeans that caught your eye online but they were too pricey to get at that time, but now you can afford them!

But in the worst of scenarios…

They push people into buying things they don’t really need just because they are affordable now

This is something that tends to happen quite often. “I don’t really need it but the price is too good to say no to.” We have all been there before, buying things we don’t need because of a price that we cannot reject. And we cannot fully blame ourselves…

As soon as sales season begins, our inbox gets flooded with promotional emails and newsletters, our Instagram feeds get plastered with discount posts, and so on. We get so brainwashed by these ads that we forget what happens afterwards: overconsumption of items that we never truly wanted that later end up either buried in a corner of our closets, or in a landfill.

There’s something good and something bad about sales

And in order to avoid the bad part, we need to really become conscious of what we are buying. Do I truly want this item? Is it something I plan on keeping for a very long time? Or am I just attracted to it because I can now afford it, even though I never really wanted it to begin with?

It’s best not to buy things we don’t need. Buy full price if you can, & shop responsibly. Always.