有多少新衣，你舍得放弃？

Gregory+Beyer

In June 2015， Emily Hedlund gave herself a challenge： She would go an entire year without buying any clothes.

At first she thought shed try it out on her own. But because she was also in charge of clothes shopping for her husband and young son， she expanded the experiment to also include them. Hedlund calculated that she spent hundreds of dollars each year on thrift store finds and cheap fast-fashion impulse buys， stuff she and her family didnt feel any connection to and never actually wore.

Together， they had enough of a stockpile to keep themselves dressed for a year， Hedlund thought. There was just one potential hitch： She was pregnant—her second child was born two months after she started the challenge—and would need clothes in various sizes. Fortunately， she had a strong rotation of summer dresses， activewear， leggings and jeans， including items from the first time she was pregnant.

Hedlund shared her pledge on Facebook and her personal blog to keep herself accountable. And to eliminate temptations， she unsubscribed from emails from companies like Old Navy， Victorias Secret and American Eagle， which peppered her inbox with emails about sales.

It worked. With the exception of a single pair of running shoes， Hedlund succeeded in not buying any clothing for anyone in her family for one year. Along the way， the exercise in frugality1） brought her attention to something else entirely： the clothing industrys staggering wastefulness. This problem， Hedlund realized， was fueled in part by people like herself， who bought too many clothes they didnt need or even really want.

Worldwide， people buy more than 80 billion pieces of clothing each year. Compared to other household expenses， Americans are buying more clothing than ever before but spending less. These purchases power a fashion industry where pollution， waste and unsafe working conditions are too often seen as simply the cost of doing business—unsettling truths that Hedlund realized as her experiment progressed.

“Theres this whole dark side of the fashion industry that Id heard of but wasnt really aware of，” Hedlund told The Huffington Post. “It definitely wasnt at the forefront of my mind when I started the ban， but now it just makes me want to keep not buying clothing.”

Its not necessarily na?ve to think that one persons actions can impact a trillion-dollar global industry notorious for its lack of transparency. Consumers can pressure retailers into slowing the hyperproduction that leads to so much waste， said Christina Dean， founder of the fashion waste reduction organization Redress.

By controlling their consumption—that is， buying less stuff—consumers can “send a clearer signal to the big players that are producing billions of garments a year that they dont want to buy so much and they dont want to buy cheap stuff thats badly made，” Dean said.

Hedlund， who lives in St. Louis， began to think about her own place in a larger system when， in the midst of her yearlong experiment， she invited a group of friends to her home for a clothing swap. They arrived toting2） garbage bags full of unwanted items， many of which were from fast-fashion brands like H&M and Forever 21. When theyd finished picking over each others stuff， most of it remained unclaimed.

“There was so much left over，” Hedlund said. “I could not believe how much.” Afterward， the bulging3） trash bags sat in her dining room， waiting to be donated. “It just gives you an idea that theres so much overconsumption going on.”

Hedlund has assigned herself other challenges， including frugal grocery shopping and buying （almost） nothing at all for an entire month. Shes part of a community of bloggers responding to consumer culture with an ethos of minimalism， a lifestyle category containing everything from decluttering to tiny houses.

Even some businesses， counterintuitively4）， are encouraging people to buy less. Cladwell， a minimalist clothing app， helps customers curate a wardrobe of fewer， higher-quality items， with a stated goal of crusading against the fashion industrys wastefulness.

“As a society， weve consumed our way into this mess，” Cladwell founder Blake Smith told HuffPost. “So its my belief that we cant consume our way out of it.”

Self-congratulatory expressions of minimalist living have earned plenty of critics. To people who dont have enough in the first place， celebrations of “less is more” can sound more like a luxury than a sacrifice.

“Minimalism is a virtue only when its a choice， and its telling that its fan base is clustered in the well-off middle class，” Stephanie Land wrote in The New York Times in July 2016. “For people who are not so well off， the idea of opting to have even less is not really an option.”

Hedlund gets this. She was able to go a year without buying clothes for her two children because she was able to inherit hand-me-down coats， mittens， socks and shoes from a friend with four sons.

For those who take dramatic steps to curb their shopping habits， its about bringing sustained attention to a part of everyday life they once took for granted.

When Andrew Morgan began making The True Cost， a documentary about the human and environmental consequences of the fashion industry， he vowed not to buy any clothing until he finished the film—which ended up taking two years.

“I just wanted to reset. I wanted to step back and say， ‘I want to figure out what I believe in and where I want to buy stuff，” Morgan said. “And that was an awesome exercise.” He kicked his habit of buying cheap， poorly made items at fast-fashion companies and now shops almost exclusively at secondhand stores.

For Hedlund， changing habits took some time. At first， she missed the feeling of buying and having new things， and even the act of shopping itself. As summer turned to fall， she felt the urge to rush out and buy fleece-lined leggings， leather boots and other cold-weather comforts. She even kept a list of things she planned to buy once her yearlong embargo5） lifted.

But as time went on， the urge to shop began to fall away. In the three months since her challenges end， she has treated herself to two $3 dresses from her local Goodwill. She hasnt even looked at her list， and doesnt intend to.

“I didnt actually need those things，” Hedlund said. “I just thought I did.”

2015年6月，艾米丽·海德伦德对自己发起了挑战：她将在一整年内不买一件衣服。

起初，她打算仅是自己一个人尝试这个计划，但由于她负责为丈夫和儿子购置衣服，于是她把实验范围扩展到全家人。海德伦德算了一笔账，她每年在旧货店购买的东西和在快时尚店冲动买下的廉价物品花去了她数百美元，而这些衣服她和家人都不大喜欢，甚至一次都没穿过。

海德倫德觉得他们全家储备的衣服够多了，足够穿一年。目前唯一可能的障碍是她怀孕了——她的第二个孩子会在她开始这项挑战两个月后出生，到时候将会需要各种尺寸的衣服。还好，她有一堆夏季衣服可以轮换着穿，有夏季连衣裙、运动服、打底裤、牛仔裤，而且第一次怀孕时穿的一些衣服也能派上用场。

海德伦德在Facebook和个人博客上分享了自己的承诺，让大家督促她日后言出必行。为了避免受到外界诱惑，她取消了许多品牌的邮件订阅，如老海军、维多利亚的秘密、美洲鹰。这些品牌的售卖信息塞满了她的邮箱。

这一招果然奏效。在接下来的一整年里，除了一双跑鞋之外，海德伦德没有给家里的任何人买一件衣服。践行节俭的同时也让她把全部注意力投向另一个现象：服装行业浪费惊人。海德伦德意识到，像她这样的人在这一问题中起了部分推波助澜的作用：他们买了太多不需要或根本不想要的衣服。

在全球范围内，人们每年购买的衣服超过800亿件。与其他家庭支出相比，美国人购买衣服的数量不断增加，可花费却在下降。这些购买行为支撑着时装业，而在时装业内，人们经常单纯地把污染、浪费、不安全的工作环境看做是做生意的代价。随着实验的推进，海德伦德逐渐意识到了这些令人不安的行业真相。

“我以前听说过时尚产业的这些黑暗面，但从未真正意识到，”海德伦德接受《赫芬顿邮报》采访时说道，“禁买实验开始时，我首要考虑的不是这些，但现在这些黑暗面却让我想要坚持不买衣服。”

一个人的行为能影响一个产值万亿却众所周知缺乏透明度的全球产业，这种想法未必是天真的。致力于减少时装浪费的组织Redress的创始人克里斯蒂娜·迪恩说，消费者能通过向零售商施加压力来迫使其放慢过度生产的速度，正是这种过度生产导致了如此多浪费。

通过控制消费，也就是少买衣服，消费者们能够“对那些每年生产几十亿件服装的大公司传递出更清楚的信息：他们不想买这么多衣服，也不想买价格便宜但做工粗糙的衣服”，迪恩说。

海德伦德住在圣路易斯，在她为期一年的实验进行到一半时，她开始思考自己在一个更大的体系中的作用。她邀请一些朋友到家里进行旧衣交换活动。朋友们来的时候，每人手里都提着几个垃圾袋，里面装满了他们不想要的衣服，很多都是像H&M和Forever 21这样快时尚品牌的衣物。他们互相挑选完衣服后，还有大部分衣服无人问津。

“还剩这么多衣服，我无法相信竟然有这么多。”客人走后，海德伦德家的餐厅里堆满了鼓鼓囊囊的垃圾袋，等着被捐献出去。“看到这一幕，你才会意识到有这么严重的过度消费。”

海德伦德也试过其他挑战，例如节俭地购买食品，或整整一个月（几乎）不买任何东西。她还加入了一个宣扬极简主义精神以对抗消费文化的博客社区。极简主义是一种生活方式，内容丰富，包括重视清理、住小房子等。

令人意外的是，不少商家也鼓励人们少买。Cladwell是一款极简派穿衣app，帮助顾客规划衣橱，让衣橱里的衣服更少，但质量更好。该app明确宣布，其目标就是要对抗时装产业的浪费。

Cladwell的创始人布莱克·史密斯说：“作为一个社会，我们的消费习惯使自己步入这种困境，所以我相信：我们不能依靠消费摆脱这种困境。”

对于极简生活的洋洋自得的表述已招致许多人批评。对于生活用品本来就不充裕的人来说，推行“少即是多”听起来更像是一种奢侈，而不是牺牲。

斯蒂芬妮·兰德在2016年7月的《纽约时报》上写道：“极简主义只有是一种选择时，才算得上美德。其拥趸主要集中在相对富裕的中产阶级，这一点就很说明问题。对于那些本就不富裕的人群来说，少拥有一些根本就不是真正的选择。”

海德伦德明白这一点，她之所以能够坚持一年不给两个孩子买衣服，全依赖一位朋友的援助，衣服、手套、袜子、鞋全都“传承”自这位朋友的四个儿子。

对于那些采取果断措施遏制购物习惯的人来说，他们需要持续关注的是他们曾习以为常的一些日常生活。

紀录片《真正的代价》讲述的是时装业对人类和环境的影响。安德鲁·摩根在制作该片之初就承诺，影片完成前不购买任何衣物——结果影片拍了两年。

“我只是想重置生活。我只是想后退一步告诉自己：‘我想弄清楚自己相信什么，想在哪儿买东西。这真是一次很棒的经历。”摩根说。他改掉之前的习惯，不再买快时尚公司的劣质便宜货，现在几乎全部在二手店买东西。

对海德伦德来说，改变习惯需要一些时间。起初，她会怀念购买并拥有新东西的感觉，甚至会怀念购物行为本身。夏去秋来，她也会按捺不住想冲进店里去买羊毛打底裤、皮靴和其他御寒类衣物。她甚至列出一张扫货清单，上面写满了长达一年的“禁令”解除那天要购买的东西。

但是随着时间的流逝，那种想要购物的冲动开始消散。在结束挑战后的三个月里，她从当地的Goodwill店里买了两条价值三美元的裙子。至于清单，她连看都没看过，也不打算看。

“我真的不需要那些衣服，以前我只是自以为需要。”海德伦德说。