Thirty times minimum. This is the number every item of clothing should ideally be worn. I try to do this as much as possible. Do you?

When it comes to clothes there is an attitude that’s developed over recent years, that new means best or better. But it simply isn’t true.

You don’t always have to have something new to wear. For a wedding. Interview. Or night out. You don’t have to keep spending money you don’t have on new clothes to keep up with influencers or every trend.

You should be wearing your clothes. More than once. Many times in fact. You should own and wear them for months, years and sometimes decades.

The way we have become accustomed to shopping and dressing over recent years is wrong and it’s not healthy.

For you. Your purse. Or the planet.

Cheap throwaway fashion and our cheap, careless, throwaway attitude towards clothing is gripping our style, finances and destroying the world in which we live. It’s time to stop. It’s time to wear what we already own. More! And to be proud of that.

Does that mean you should never buy anything new?

No, of course not. But we need to get smarter and be more mindful when it comes to shopping. We need to buy better, with care, things that we adore and that suit us, that we will cherish and proudly wear for years, before hopefully passing on!

It’s so easy to think you need something new, everytime a special occasion comes around in your diary or you pop onto social media and see influencers doing their thing.

But you really don’t need half as much new as you think as you do. In fact it’s probably much less than that.

So before you buy, stop and think:

• Do you really need to spend? Do you really need that garment? Is it a necessity? Is it a must have, will love it for years kind of piece?
• Are you buying for the sake of it? Because you’re bored, tired, fed up or feeling low?
• Are you buying because you don’t feel good enough? Or beautiful enough? What stories are you wrongly telling yourself?

Think about what you already own. How can you make something work? What ideas haven’t you tried? Could you borrow from a friend or rent from somewhere instead? And if you do want to buy, consider preloved or vintage shops and sites.

Continually spending money does not equate to great style. So think, plan and understand your emotions will often drive you wrongly to spend. You don’t need to keep up with everyone else.

Always remember – you don’t need new, to be fabulous you.