Labour Behind the Labels - Six Items Challenge - Part 2

Things have changed so much since I started the Labour Behind the Label - Six Items challenge only four weeks ago. We are now living in a different world that is alien to us all.

It's hard to continue with daily life when so much has happened in such a small space of time, making other things you are doing seem so irrelevant!

Things that seemed like such a mammoth task a few weeks ago have really been put into perspective.

The six items challenge itself and what it stands for is still just as powerful and relevant as it was, and the importance of the message hasn't changed.

Covid-19 has made us all slow down whether we like it or not but the message to slow down on consumption hasn't been received. The panic buying and selfish hoarding of essential items has made this very clear. We have not learnt our lesson, we are not being kind to each other. Are you still consuming fashion the same way? Albeit, online...??

There is a plus side to all this...

Now that we (literally) have nowhere to go, we could all give the six items challenge a whirl...Find out how here...

I challenge you to get involved, share your six items and let us see how many outfits you can come up with! Let's do this together!

Find out the Top Six Items challenge Tips below...

No Debutante's Six items outfits

Soldiering on with the challenge, here's how I wore it and how I coped in the first week...

I started the challenge with my first items the (Lucy & Yak X Emotional Waterfall) dungarees -  I love these dungarees and everyone knows it - paired with the pink long sleeve top; a late comer to the six items party, replacing a t-shirt at the last minute when I realised I was gonna get cold and needed more warm layers. Outfit one complete!

Day two introduced the Kuccia bomber jacket, a stalwart in the No Debutante wardrobe, it was obviously in my six items, wore this sexy piece layered over the dungarees, long sleeve pink top worn underneath. One outfit three items...keep up!

Day three welcomed the cuddly pink hoodie and the polka-dot trousers to the game. Items four and five. I actually wore this outfit to the Greta Thunberg climate strike in Bristol. REPRESENT! The outfit was hidden away under waterproofs, so I wore the same outfit again the next day as nobody saw it! Boom!

.....Don't worry, I am not going to do a rundown of all the items every day like a charts countdown, from here on in there will be tips and new outfit combos only, plus we haven't even clapped eyes on Item Six yet....(unless you follow me on instagram that is!).




No Debutante's Six Items Tips

Tip 1  -  Get comfy and wear your PJ's in the evening, it gives your clothes a chance to air so you don't have to wash them so frequently.

Tip 2 - Hang your clothes up after wearing them for the same reasons as above and to keep the creases out of them.

Tip 3 - Accessories are your best friend during this challenge, they can continuously transform the same outfit! Get creative!

Tip 4 - Underwear as outerwear - only for the brave....I wore a sports bra top underneath my dungarees on a night out..Technically, it isn't cheating as underwear is not included as one of the six items! I was very pleased with myself and things seemed to be going well....until.....

Six Items Accident - Pink top one (right & centre) pink top two (right) 

The Six Items accident!

Just four days in and things start to go wrong...I seriously am one of the clumsiest people I know....Somehow I managed to get permanent marker splodged right in the middle of the pink top!? I have no idea how and when this happened! I tried to Vanish the stain away but that was an epic fail, just like my six items challenge was becoming...just four days in though???  Fuming!

I had worn the top for the rest of the day after getting the stain on it, thinking nobody would notice, but three people independently told me I had a stain on my top, that was the last straw!

I know I shouldn't care about such a small thing but I'm wearing just six items for six weeks (if I can manage not to ruin them all) for my sanity and my confidence I would rather not be wearing shabby, stained clothes for six weeks, so I 'fessed up and put the question out asking the insta community what I should do...

One suggestion was to applique something over the stain and another to dye the top, both good ideas but..I didn't want to ruin my top anymore with dodgy amendments  - which they would be - plus I will still wear this top, just not as a separate - so due to a lack of time and creativity at this point, and being so early on in the challenge, I decided to swap my pink top for another - very similar - pink top I found in my husbands wardrobe.

It looks pretty much identical (see photos above) just with slightly different print placements. This is not a new item and it will be the pink top that will be worn for the following six weeks of the challenge, I felt justified, I hadn't failed and, to be honest, I was over it pretty quickly....Item six to be revealed in the next post...



A little heartfelt request.....


Please, in these mad times, don't let boredom take hold of you and start carelessly buying fast fashion online to cheer yourself up, lets fight fast fashion (and coronavirus) together & get equal rights for those garment workers around the world too. Why not put your time to better use and try out the six items challenge??

Please support & get involved.

Donate to Labour Behind the Label

#sixitemschallenge

No Debutante Vs Kecks Clothing - A Contradiction

My Bristol buddy and fellow fashionista mum Helen from Kecks Clothing has been taking part in a challenge set by Labour Behind The Label to wear only six items of clothing for six weeks, a challenge that I know I could never consider (as shallow as it sounds, I just love all of my clothes too much!!) so it's a challenge that I am very intrigued by and definitely wanted to find out more about as well as helping Helen promote her challenge.

Helen, loves fashion and clothes and works in an environment where she is surrounded by clothing everyday, new ones, coming in all of the time, can you imagine any fashionista resisting all the lovely new (or rather salvaged) clothes??? I know this is a personal challenge for fashion lover Helen who took on the fundraising challenge for Labour Behind The Label - a campaign that works to improve conditions and empower workers in the global garment industry. 

The challenge itself is an anti Fast Fashion campaign, or a Fashion Fast as it's been named, against the fast fashion turnovers which now take place within the fashion industry. Fast fashion gets products onto the high street quicker, to meet the desire for new fashion trends, which can change on a 4 weekly basis now that social media spreads the word quicker than the monthly fashion mags used to. With the desire to sell more, consume more, make more, waste more causing a devastating effect on the people who make our clothes. 
This anti fast fashion challenge makes you look at how many clothes you are buying, wasting and hopefully will make you see that you can live with fewer items in your wardrobe and that you do not need to buy extra items just because they are cheap. Plus if the items are cheap, how low is the wage of the person making your cheap fast fashion?? Consider upcycling and fashion salvages to save items from landfill and get creative with upcycling your own clothes.

The Challenge

Helen's challenge is now completed. WELL DONE HELEN!! However you can still donate or help fundraise for  Labour Behind the Label, So dig deep people.

Helen chose her six items, which can be worn with any coats, shoes, accessories (and of course underwear) and then covered up her (already filled to the brim) wardrobe with a big sheet to stop her lusting after extra fashion items. Please check out how Helen is did on the Kecks Clothing blog.

Four weeks in  Helen had reported to No Debutante that having only six items of clothing to choose from each morning had made getting ready in the mornings simpler but she wishes she had chosen warmer items as the weather here in Bristol has been pretty cold the last few months.

 'But all in all, it's been good, despite a few moments of getting bored with the six items the challenge is going well and accessorising has really helped.' 

Check out Helens blog Kecks Online to find out how the challenge went for Helen.

Helen's Six Items for Six Weeks

1. An extra large Pink Floyd t-shirt,
2. Faded denim shirt,
3. Black three-quarter length sleeve jumper,
4. Black and white striped vest dress,
5. Red wrap around dress
6. Helen's favourite ripped skinny jeans  

 A few of Helen's six items in six weeks outfits - The perfect capsule wardrobe

I am almost intrigued enough by the challenge to have a go, how hard can it be? In contradiction, let's have a look how many items of clothing No Debutante has worn over the past six weeks........You may think I am not up to the challenge...I am honestly embarrased by what is coming!

No Debutante's items for 6 weeks
(this list has been shortened into basic terms otherwise we'd be here all year)

9 x Jeans / Trouser/ leggings 

12 x Tops including t-shirts, long sleeves and shirts

5 x jumpers and sweatshirts

3 x jackets

14 x dresses (yes, 14 dresses!)

3 x skirts

(Thank goodness I didn't have to declare all of the shoes and coats that I wore too!)

A small selection of the 45 items that No Debutante wore over six weeks! 

In conclusion, I would firstly like to justify that I am a total hoarder and I have owned a lot of my clothes for years, basically I become very attached to nearly every piece of clothing I own, I really do love my clothes, perhaps I don't need to own and keep this many clothes but I am not wasting clothes and sending them to landfill, I just want to save all the clothes from landfill.....and put them in my wardrobe.....ahem! I love fashion and changing my look so much that i don't think the Six Items challenge will make me stop wearing so many clothes but it does make me stop and think about how often I am buying items just because I think I need them or because they are cheap. Do I really need them??

Don't forget to  check out Labour Behind The Label to find out more about the workers who make all your fast fashion items and fundraising and Kecks Online  for ideas on upcycling and sustainable fashion. 

Perhaps in the very near future you may get to see a 6 items challenge from No Debutante.......Watch This Space...Why not try it youself or let me know how many items you have worn in six weeks, I bet you'll be surprised!

All photos, except for the No Debutante images, courtesy of Helen Brown at Kecks Clothing.
 
If you are interested in collaborating with No Debutante or getting featured on the No Debutante blog please contact me / send me a message on any of the following social networking platforms all under the No Debutante name #nodebutante

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Thanks for checking in Fashionistas xx

ND xx