When my great grand mother fled as a refugee from Germany in 1938 she bought with her a particular piece of clothing: a cream lace peplum jacket with pearl buttons. In the intervening years, it has some how made its ways into my wardrobe. It is a deeply impractical item - fragile in its age, completely the wrong the colour for my complexion and way too fancy for any event I go to these days.
But despite my tendency towards a minimalist wardrobe, I can´t seem to get rid of it because whenever I look at it, It tells me her story, her story of her survival and of my place within it. It is my most beloved piece of clothing I own.
Fashion Revolution this year is asking us to share our own fashion love stories like these and to celebrate, ethical underwear brand Mighty Good Undies invited 11 celebrities and changemakers to share their own love stories in a series of vox pops.
It may seem a really simple act, but listening to these stories, and creating our own personal one (you can see how here) is a deeply radical, and motivating, act.
Why? Because each one of these stories reveals a universal truth about our relationship with what we wear -- we don´t necessarily love the clothes we purchase on a bargain in a fast fashion store, our true love is for the clothes that tell the story of us.
And it turns out, that focussing on what we love, and the stories behind each piece of clothing, is a rather liberating experience that reminds us that what we have is enough and that the true joy in our lives are the experiences and not things. That our stories are enough and, by extension, we are enough.
By falling back in love with what we have in our wardrobes, we are undertaking that most profound political act of rejecting the commercial imperative which tells us to buy more, and more and more. When an economy, indeed a whole culture, is dependent on the concept of a weekend shopping spree, what could be a more political act than choosing not to participate. To say, quite publicly, that we have had enough buying for the sake of it?
Hannah Parris is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Mighty Good Undies. She's an eco-fashion warrior and entrepreneur with a love of coffee and chocolate (organic + Fairtrade of course).
READ THIS NEXT: Ethical Fashion: The Unlikely Hero Of Our Oceans
Header Image: Unsplash