5 Reasons To Customize Your Clothes
Humans have been wearing clothes for anywhere between 100,000 to 500,000 years.
Before the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s, it was common for families to make their own clothes. As machines began replacing workers, fewer and fewer people had their hands on textiles.
As a result, many of us are missing out on the liberating process of making all of our items perfect for us.
Here are five reasons to customize your clothes along with a few simple ideas of how to do it.
1. It Fights “Fast Fashion”
“Fast fashion” is a term used to describe cheap, trendy clothing.
New trends come out seasonally, chasing what’s gone down the catwalk. To reach the widest market possible, fast fashion producers utilize cheap labor and cheap materials.
This results in inhumane working environments and clothes that need an upgrade within a few months (due to it going out of style or wear and tear).
Instead of supporting a wasteful capitalistic habit, you can make your own clothes how you like. Follow what feels good to you rather than trying to keep up with ever-changing trends.
The true secret of fashion is that it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing — it’s how you’re wearing it.
Rock your customized threads with confidence and it really doesn’t matter what you’re wearing.
2. It Saves Resources
Since you’re creating the look you want, you won’t use as much time or money buying new clothes.
Forget spending weekends perusing clothing racks only to come out empty-handed. Use your time creating instead of searching.
It’s as simple as learning how to make patches or ripping holes in your own jeans. You don’t have to go to design school or have extensive knowledge.
Plus, if you start dabbling in do-it-yourself clothing enhancements, you’ll save money when it comes time for repairs. Learning how to hand sew and similar practices can save you a fortune over time.
This reduces the number of clothes rotating through your closet, which is key because we don’t really need as many clothes as we have. The phrase “less is more” holds a lot of truth here.
Experiment and figure out how you want to represent yourself to the world. Then, take pride in creating the look for yourself — while saving resources.
3. You Can Customize Your Clothes To Fit Perfectly
Unless you customize your clothes, I’m willing to bet you only have a few things that fit perfectly.
That doesn’t have to be the case.
When you customize your threads, you choose what to adjust so you can have the best look and feel.
Try on clothes you already have and think to yourself, “how could this item be better?” It might need an adjustment to the neck, wrists, or waistline.
There’s no reason that you shouldn’t have unique clothes. You’re a unique person (we all are) and should show that a little more.
Speaking of unique, we all have unique bodies. Customizing your clothes is an opportunity to honor your figure and increase body positivity.
Rather than feeling frail or frumpy in your outfit, feel like a boss.
Speaking of boss, you really should customize your clothes if you own a business.
4. You Can Become a Walking Advertisement
Whether or not you’re marketing a product, the way you adorn yourself is advertising. You’re expressing a message to the world about what type of person you are.
If you or your friend owns a business, let that be a part of your message. Customized clothes catch the eye, show ingenuity, and create a perfect photo opportunity that you can then share on social media.
You can save money by going this route with marketing. Plus, it’s a functional advertisement.
If you want to fully go for it, you can make money by customizing clothes. You can either find ways to get paid to wear people’s brands or you can start an online store for customized products.
Combining a side hustle like this with money-saving practices can really help improve your financial status and make you feel independent and empowered.
5. It Enhances Creativity
Creativity isn’t restricted to drawing or making art. It’s about thinking outside of the box and creating something different from what’s already there.
Approximately 75% of people think that they’re not living up to their creative potential. Does that include you?
How can you incorporate more creativity into your day-to-day life?
If you can learn to be creative with physical things in your life, it will lead you to you being more creative with the intangible. This means better problem solving and an ability to adapt to a wide variety of circumstances.
So get out your scissors and start cutting some sleeves off. Go through your “get rid of” stack and rethink some of those choices.
If you make mistakes, keep the extra fabric. You may be able to use it for something else.
You might be thinking, “I lack the creativity to have new ideas about customizing my clothes”. That’s alright! That doesn’t mean you aren’t creative.
Get inspired by DIY clothes on websites like Pinterest. Not every idea has to be a completely original one. Give yourself a starting point and go from there.
Embrace Uniqueness
Reacquaint yourself with the age-old tradition of clothes making. You don’t have to hand sew your whole wardrobe, but it would be wise to pick up a few tricks to customize your clothes.
There are deeper psychological layers to the practice of wearing and collecting clothes. Read more here about what those deeper layers may be.