Comment by spodek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by spodek | Hacker News Reader

A guest on my podcast -- Lorna Davis, the key leader behind the largest B Corp to date, Danone USA, and a c-suite executive from Danone and other multinationals -- committed not to buy clothes for a year. Within a few weeks she started getting rid of clothes she didn't wear and even relationships that were distracting her from more meaningful ones.

Within months she was sending me contacts of other high-powered executives from big corporations who were following her lead. She sent me pictures of clothing she repaired that she would have thrown out before.

When she was invited to give a TED talk that year, she told me she felt liberated from wondering what to buy to wear, instead getting to feel like herself and focusing on her message.

Hear for yourself. Our conversations, before and after: https://joshuaspodek.com/guests/lorna-davis (also a great primer on B corps, given her significant role)

Her TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/lorna_davis_a_guide_to_collaborati...

For women: it may be worth your while checking out Project333. I have searched for a respective project for men, but haven't found something similar/worthy.

When I finished listening to the Minimalists podcast (first 120 episodes) for the second time I was already immersed in minimalism. I donated 90% of my clothes, I now have 5 t-shirts, 4 sweaters, 2 jeans, 10 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of shoes, and some snow/skiing related accessories (hoods, etc.)

I also have "office clothes" which I don't count as clothes, I treat them as a uniform, when not in the office, they don't exist for me (and Coronavirus-->remote working was a great 'gift' for me on this area)(I hope the deaths stop and we continue the WFH).

I see fashion as a "subscription" scheme. You spend £€¥$, you get clothes and after X seasons you need to spend another load of £€¥$ to renew your "trendy-ness".

I can never forget that in the term "fashion VICTIM" the word that sticks with YOU is the word "victim".

> I now have 5 t-shirts, 4 sweaters, 2 jeans, 10 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of shoes

I take it you don't live in place with cold winters?

I follow the same minamalist lifestyle. I have a bin with my summer clothes. I'll switch them out soon for the winter ones. Even still it's very few items overall. I used to have 100s of pieces of clothing.

oh ok. I thought that was complete listing of your clothes, not just 'summer bin' :) .

Or do much in the way of outdoor activities.

2 pairs of shoes

Having to decide between wearing my climbing shoes and my ski boots to work would suck :)

I've the same single pair of 20€ shoes since 5 years. Some holes, but they still work well, probably for another 5 years. The only drawback is when it rains, I need to dry them with newspaper. I do a lot of sports (mostly bike (I've no car) for all my commuting, hiking/trail, ..

What 20€ shoe will last for 10 years of hiking and trail walking?

Okay, but why would you want to put up with drying your shoes with newspaper?

I got 1x Nike for lounging/running that I just bought (the previous one was 'retired'), and 1x Salomon for hiking/snow/outdoors activities (bought in 2009). I spend one month per year in the very northern parts of Scandinavian countries usually Dec-Jan.

My "office gear" includes two pairs of "office shoes" that I absolutely never wear when not in the clients' offices/meetings/interviews. I hate those clothes :)

One thing I really don't like about minimalists is they boast too much about the numbers of different items they own. Not all wears are made by the fast fashion industry as a result of consumerism. I have bike wear, climbing wear and running wears but I use them interchangeably and try to buy less because I'm relatively poor. IMO minimalists should expand their hobbies (which are rarely low-cost so they will try to optimize their spendings) rather than confine themselves in the established social norms.

In my opinion it shouldn't be about the absolute number, but rather about having relatively few but long-lasting items. Obviously individual needs vary, because of hobby activities, weather and such.

So I have 8 pairs of shoes, but I still consider it relatively minimal, because each serves a distinct purpose, such as my safety boots.

I also have multiple pairs of leather boots (military surplus), because leather boots/shoes really should be aired out for a day after you wear them, especially if you've been doing anything strenous. By having a couple of pairs, each pair will last significantly longer than if I just wore the same pair every day.

Minimalism can easily go way too far and become counterproductive.

I now live in northern (mainland) Europe (just left England) in temperatures of as low as -25 C in the winter. I have a jacket that can make you sweat in -10, and I now go running at 0 C with shorts&tshirt (temperatures 5 C and above make me sweat after the first 5 minutes). My latest long distance run was in Italy and I ended up walking half the race because of the heat (+10).

> I have a jacket that can make you sweat in -10

Isn't sweating the worst thing that happen to you when you are cold ? What do you do when its slightly warmer?

I wear a similar minimalist wardrobe in a place with -40° winters. My winter outfit is the same as summer, plus thermal undergarments and a good coat/gloves/hat. It’s surprising how well layering works.

> and a good coat

I guess if your coat is good enough at -40 with just base layer and a tshirt wouldn't it be too hot( and ineffective) when it isn't that cold?

I just took to wearing business casual clothes in my off hours as well as my working hours.

Although I did keep my shorts and tshirts for occasions where I will be outside since it is quite hot and humid in the summer where I live.

Having extra clothing beyond the minimum allows me to put off doing laundry (or going to the dry cleaner). It's a significant time saver, a "life hack" if you will.

does she talk at all about how to patch/mend jeans? because that's a skill that'd be super-useful to learn, given how fast jeans wear out (between the thinness and the added stretchy but less durable fibers nowadays).

I've had great results with "boro" stitching, which doesn't try to hide the repair, but makes it a personal design element.

The key is to use nice thick embroidery thread.

thanks! i like the style of boro stitching, and have 5-6 pairs of jeans i need to repair, so it seems like a good time to dig into it.

She doesn't cover that in particular, but:

1. Here are videos on how to mend jeans: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=patch+jeans&oq=...

2. The bigger picture is that when you force yourself to live by a value, you learn all these things. When I first challenged myself to avoid buying packaged food for a week, I had no idea I'd go from emptying my garbage weekly to less than once per year. Looking back, it seems inevitable, but when I started 5 years ago, I barely knew about farmers markets, CSAs, fermenting vegetables, etc.

thanks, i may need to stop opining and start actually mending one of these days!

I take my jeans to the nearest clothes repair booth, they stitch on a patch from inside. Here doing one patch costs $4, that's much better that >$100 for a new pair of Levi's.

i tried getting a pair patched once and the patch tore open after a few weeks =(

that's why i thought i might try to learn a better technique myself, but maybe i should look for a different repair shop.

That doesn't work for athletes. Clothes just wear out in less than a year of hard training. The only way you can go a year without buying new clothes is if you already have more than you need stored away.

True, but you can extend their life by reducing washing frequency and accepting less than perfect appearance.

Gross. It's the smell, not the appearance.

Most people aren't athletes. A handful of workout clothes is enough for even the hardiest gym rat.

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