Women wearing stylish shaded black leggings

What Is Minimalist Fashion? And why is it good for you.

Minimalist fashion is having a minimal amount of clothes in your wardrobe.

A lot of people claim that it makes them feel happier and massively helps reduce the number of decisions that you have to make on daily bases well or at least one, but that is a big deal. I invite you to keep reading and find out how to start your minimalist staple wardrobe along some of recommendations and tips from the founder of Shaded.

Whether or not you consider yourself to be a Minimalist, there are no set of rules to fit in or tick certain criteria to quality to be a minimalist, but what is important and damaging - you may have heard is Fast Fashion. 

Fast Fashion is bad yeah it might make you look stylish for an actual second, but then you realise that the trend is gone and your cheap Primark T-Shirt that you bought for £3 is no longer serving you nor does it make you feel good anymore, so you do the same thing again with one or another high street fashion brand, oh and the worst part - toxic dyes, tons of textile material waste that ends up in our oceans not to mention suffering cotton farmers who are loosing more and more business each decade thanks to polyester... The list goes on.

Minimalism helps eliminate this even if the numbers are barely scratching the surface. But it begs a question; can a minimalist wardrobe make your life happier and better for our planet? Also it's not just the fashion industry there is also consumerism, evil ways of advertisers selling us shit that we don't need and for cheap.

If all of this is a bit too "blah" for you, don't worry. The trend of opposition to consumerism and fast fashion for that matter promotes lower levels of stress as well as naturally better financial health since you would stop buying stuff you don't really need, oh and sustainability how can we forget that?

There is a growing trend in opposition to consumerism and fast fashion, which touts benefits such as more time, decreased stress, as well as better financial health and sustainability. And the best part is, we can all do something right now that will impact our overall happiness and footprint on the planet.

What is minimalist fashion? And Who the Hell is Marie Kondo?

Who is Marie Kondo should be the next line you type into the google search bar, this article is not about her. But if you already know her, then Minimalist may already be familiar to you.

In the shortest and best way to describe Minimalism to you is this;

Sell, donate recycle shit that no longer brings any value to your life, and keep only the things that provide you with real value and joy. Minimalist fashion means having minimal clothes in your wardrobe that feel right for you and bring you joy. 

The trend of minimalism will basically say “Hello Stranger! Have you ever thought about intentionally having less stuff?” Like less debt, less clutter, stress, and less stuff in general.  Why? Less debt and stress for you, and less valuable resources being extracted for stuff you don’t really need.

Where do I sign up?  Start with your clothes dude! or dude's 

Sure a lot of people out there will tell you that being a minimalist is sitting in an empty house with 1 spoon, 1 fork, and 1 chair... you get the picture. Well, I am here to tell you that it does not need to be that. 

Shaded Founder's Introduction to Minimalism. 

For me, It all started about 4 years ago, when I accidentally discovered a channel on youtube called Matt D'Avella which talked about this life-enhancing method of decluttering your mind and physical life of items that no longer serve you. He's basically a minimalist guru who talks about personal development and Minimalism, this was the first time I actually got to grasp what Minimalism was.

The reason why I liked it so much was that without even knowing I was already a minimalist, it's just that I now had a label for my way of life and being.

Since being a child I never liked having clutter around my room or the house, to the point where my way of tidying up was hiding everything in cupboards, drawers & wardrobes to then only get shouted at by my Mum or Dad when they could not find anything. But that is just a glimpse of some kind of satisfaction that it brings you, having less, not being able to see everything around you is good for the mind. As an adult, I have been clearing out my wardrobes and drawers on average every 6 months, if I have something that no longer serves me such as a piece of clothing or an item that is no longer useful to me I just simply stick it on eBay or gift it to someone who might... or worst case -  throw it out. That said, if I am going to bring something new into my life, I have to absolutely Love it.

To this day I have not missed one single item I have given up, because the lightness of de-cluttering is simply life-changing. I actually want to invite you to try it… Now. Like literally put your phone down and go to your wardrobe. Now. 

How to start your minimalist Journey 

Keep only the items that make you feel amazing when you wear them. But before you go and get started, here are some tips.

1. Go to www.shadedclothing.com and buy everything and claim to be a minimalist because you wear clothes by a minimalist brand... Just Kidding that would not be very minimalist. But you may be able to find some staple pieces of quality to get you started on a minimalist wardrobe. 

2.  There is no magic number of clothing items (or any items for that matter) to achieve a minimalist wardrobe.

3.   Minimalism is about fine-tuning your own personal style and the only rule is to rid yourself of excess

4. Minimalism doesn’t have to be monotone. Keep it colourful and versatile, Even tho at Shaded we do Love Monotone's - Black is Life :D 

5. Don't Actually just throw your stuff out,  stick them on eBay, or Donate to a friend or younger family member who may benefit from your old clothes 

6. Soak in the awe when you finally declutter your wardrobe, that was the first step that you took towards Minimalism. Have a beer, or a bath whatever.

I hope this inspired you a little. share your wardrobe photo in the comments of it looking clean and sexy.  In return, we will enter your name & photo into a secret competition where you will be able to win a Hoodie, T-Shirt & Accessories of your choice from www.Shadedclothing.com 

Tips:

By wearing monotone colours or pieces of clothing (for example just Black) you free up your mind from making decisions such as matching your clothing in the morning, Imagine waking up and not needing to think about the clothes that you will wear, all you do is open your wardrobe and pick up any piece of clothing that is in there and wear it. 

My go-to outfit is a black t-shirt, black jeans and a black hoodie, when I need to dress up I will replace the t-shirt with a black sexy shirt, throw on a leather jacket if its a bit chillier or in winter you can dress the shirt in a wool pea coat or a puffer jacket, again black is my personal favourite I genuinely worship it, but you can rock any colour that you like as long as the outfit makes you happy. 

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Find one, two or three brands of clothing that you absolutely love and treat it almost like an extension of your style get to know their sizes, their staple items that you are sure will be around for a long time and just keep the relationship going .. until death do you apart :D 

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Fit is Key... That is all... You can wear the fanciest pieces of clothing available to man, but if it's too small or too big for you - you won't look good unless you purposely make the effort and wear oversized clothing, which is different as they are designed to look good when you wear them. 

Choose the size & fit that compliments your body shape, ask a friend, ask a stranger, and don't ask your grandmother or mom, they love you too much and will always tell you that you look good. Also when a shop assistant tells you that you look good when trying something on, they are lying - they could not give more F*** about how you look, just buy the item and leave them be as their shift is about to end. 

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Check out some Youtube pages:

Watch

Check out Matt D'Avella on Youtube 

Watch on Netflix The Minimalists 

Search Marie Kondo on Organising 

I kindly ask that you Like & Share our page and maybe, just maybe we can help someone find their new style with Shaded whilst decluttering their mind & Life 

 

 

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