Recycling is a good thing to do. It makes people feel good to do it. The thing I want to emphasise is the vast difference between recycling for the purpose of feeling good and recycling for the purpose of solving the trash problem.
— Barry Commoner, American biologist
If you are a young girl, will you wear your mother’s old clothes?
Two teenage daughters of famous award-winning American actress, filmmaker and humanitarian, Angelina Jolie, 46, did so recently at the Los Angeles’ film premiere for the upcoming Marvel film, ‘Eternals’.
Zahara Jolie-Pitt, 16, wore the same Elie Saab silver fringe dress that Jolie wore to the 2014 Oscars while her younger sister, Shiloh, 15, wore a beige-coloured Gabriela Hearst dress that the actress previously wore this summer.
Jolie attended the premiere with five of her six children and all wore matching monochromatic neutral-hued outfits: besides Zahara and Shiloh, the other children were Maddox, Vivienne and Knox.
Among the YouTube and newspaper headlines the next day or thereafter were “Angelina Jolie’s kids upcycle her fashion for ‘Eternals’,” “Angelina Jolie’s kids wear her old dresses on ‘Eternals’ red carpet,” and “Angelina Jolie’s daughter Zahara, 16, wears mom’s 2014 Oscars dress for ‘Eternals’ premiere.”
What was your initial reaction when you read the headlines? While some people said “it was cute” of Zahara and Shiloh to wear their mother’s old dresses, I gave Jolie and her daughters the thumbs-up for recycling the dresses and for protecting Mother Earth in the process.
I would not describe Jolie’s old dresses as ‘old’. They were as good as new and they were not faded or torn. I wonder how many times she actually wears them, knowing that every day and every moment someone in the fashion magazines or fashion world is keeping a tab on her wardrobe.
Although Jolie is a wealthy woman, encouraging her daughters to upcycle her dresses shows she is very practical and that she is no spendthrift. It also shows that she has brought up her daughters well — the girls are not ashamed to wear their mother’s so-called old dresses.
Some teenage girls I personally know will never wear their mothers’ old dresses. They also refuse to wear even their elder sisters’ dresses or their own old clothes.
They insist on shopping for new clothes everytime they have to attend an important function. These are the spoilt, modern teenagers.
Another royal celebrity who encourages recycling of clothes is Sophie, the Countess of Wessex and wife of the Earl of Wessex Prince Edward.
Her daughter Lady Louise Windsor, 18, has been spotted a few times recycling Sophie’s clothes. Thumbs-up to the humble young royal who is not ashamed to wear hand-me-downs.
I do not know if Jolie ever re-wears her own clothes but the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William’s wife Kate Middleton often recycles her favourite clothes from her wardrobe, including statement jackets and glamorous gown.
She often pairs her recycled outfits with different hairstyles or accessories and tends to repeat styles by Jenny Packham, Stella McCartney, and Alexander McQueen. Middleton also recycles her children’s clothes.
Queen Elizabeth’s favourite event, the Royal Ascot, highlighted something unusual — second-hand and charity shop items — in its annual style guide this year.
It encouraged racegoers to avoid buying new items for the 2021 event. The event worked closely with fashion stylist Bay Garnett, the ‘Queen of thrifting’, to show racegoers they could still dress up in sustainable clothes.
According to Handyrubbish.co.uk, re-wearing or recycling of old clothes is good for Mother Earth.
“The more you’re able to reuse or recycle old clothing, the less room it takes up in the landfills which are already bursting at the seams.
“As a result, you help reduce greenhouse gases, spread of diseases, and damage to the natural landscape and help to protect wildlife,” it said in its website.
My dear friends, I have an important message for you all this week. If Jolie, Sophie and Middleton, who have lots of money in their banks, can recycle their clothes, we, too, should wear hand-me-downs.
Together, let us save our hard-earned money and save Planet Earth.
