There is something about linen which is wonderful. The way it looks and feels is like nature itself. For me, beach and linen go hand in hand with each other. If I was lucky enough to live in a house by the sea, I would dress in these clothes every day in the summer. It’s the fresh, light crispness of it which somehow gives one a sense of freedom and wellbeing.
Peer pressure very much dictates what a lot of us wear these days. We want to be fashionable and don’t want to be the odd one out amongst our friends. So many clothes these days are made from cheap fabrics, which when washed a few times, look like you have had them for years. Not to mention garish and glittery, the stuff of nightmares for me. I realise a lot of people don’t have the money to buy high quality clothes, and of course, the shops have to react to that. However, people are misguided. Due to the clothes costing less, people buy more because everything seems like a bargain. The shops can only afford to do this because most of the clothes are manufactured overseas, often by people who are paid very little and who are exploited in a terrible way. If you talk to people about the exploitation of others for the sake of fashion, most of them admit it is terrible and they are sorry to hear about it. However, most of us don’t care enough to do anything about it.
Wouldn’t it be better to simplify one’s wardrobe with a few quality pieces (preferably made locally) rather than filling the entire wardrobe with cheaper items? People say that high quality clothing is out of their budget range but if they bought a smaller quantity, the cost would probably be the same. It is also false economy as poor quality clothes do not stand the test of time and need to be replaced more often. We are suffering from the terror of choice these days and people want to have zillions of outfits in their wardrobe. How does this end up? Half of the things we buy don’t get worn or they end up being thrown out or given to charity shops. Absolutely senseless, and what of the people that have suffered to make those items. Worked till they drop and paid pennies for doing it. I think us humans need to re-think our behaviour, for the sake of the planet and humanity, if nothing else.
Of course, one could say now that if we didn’t have all those retail outlets, the amount of jobs would go down and people would be out of work. Well, maybe we should be manufacturing our own clothing in the UK, which would in turn, create jobs. Less and less is being produced in the UK. We used to be a manufacturing nation. Where has it all gone? So many things are imported now and we seem to have lost the power to produce anything ourselves, let alone for export.
Enough digressing! Back to the linen. Here are a few pics of the kind of feel good clothes I would like to wear on a daily basis during the summer. They make me feel all comfy inside just looking at them. Here’s to lovely linen for lovely living!
