Consume Less

Yumi and I went to an inspiring talk at COFA given by Liane Rossler of Dinosaur Designs fame. She gave the Al Gore presentation on Climate Change and then related it back to her own practice and home. We've decided this is something that souzou will strive for and felt that the best way to start this was by making some changes in our own lives.

So  I have a problem with consuming goods in a major way - I just love stuff. Which is fine, but thinking about how much energy has been put into producing the product make me a little more hesitant to purchase - magazines, clothes, anything packaged in a major way... it's all a bit over the top.

We've decided, over the next 3 months we will try our hardest to Consume Less by not buying apparel brand new (vintage is okay). This is going to be hard but I think it's an interesting experiement. Maggie Alderson of  The Good Weekend (did you know her husbands name is Popi Popovich?) did the same this year, and I have a feeling that buying less forces you to be more creative with what you've got already. I quite like the sound of that.

So far, 4 days into the Consume Less scenario, I have purchased a Vintage Dress (see below) from Eva's in Annandale, and 2 glass domes from Salvage 42 in Glebe. But I have to confess the awful truth. When buying said dress, I also bought a necklace thinking it was vintage, but as I walked out of the shop I looked at it a bit more closely and it was obviously new (tag and all still attached). And if I was stronger I would have walked right back into the shop and demanded they take it back. But I didn't. Because I love it, and it's such a lovely colour. 

I'm wondering how successful this project will be!