Hi kenuchelover,

> supermarkets don't depress me as much as the
> average boutique.... or for that matter, the
> clothes section of the average department store.

If you read any 19th century novels, it seems that the less well-off people had one outfit that they wore on weekdays, and another they wore on Sundays - their Sunday best; and those two outfits were expected to last them for several years.

Then the consumer society came into being ... I suppose that some of the discarded garments might eventually find their way into charity/thrift shops, and so get recycled that way.

From the ecological point of view, though, I think there's something to be said for the way the French used to things in times past. The thinking was that, if you had a limited budget, you should concentrate on getting things like one pair of really good shoes, and one or two accessories like a good handbag and/or belt. That would leave less money for clothes, of course; but you might buy just one new (nice) skirt or jumper, so that you could have two or three outfits that you could wear through a season. French women (in those days, at any rate) didn't seem to mind having fewer clothes, as long as they looked good in them. Whilst the individual garments might not have been always made from fabrics from sustainable resources, or incorporated environmentally-friendly dyes, there was at least less emphasis on the idea that maintaining one's image depended on having an endless succession of different garments, to be worn once or twice and then discarded. It wasn't quantity that mattered, but quality. Unfortunately, times have changed.

Hermione
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