My Annual Inner Conflict About January Sales

To be honest, I'm quite repetitive. I've said all this before, last January and the January before. 

THE SALES are based on the idea that at the end of a season, no one wants those clothes anymore, and the retailer needs to get rid of them quickly, so they can tell you what new things you need to like now, and you can buy them. That was all very well once upon a time, when the seasons kind of timed in with, well, the seasons. But now, with many high street brands having 52 'micro-seasons' a year, we can end up buying way more than we possibly need. Leading to us discarding hundreds of thousands of unwanted garments, flooding landfills and developing countries with low quaity cast offs. 
​So I'm all for Ethical Consumer's campaign to use what you have rather than shop the sales.
​BUT...

Image: One Green Planet

​BUT. But I live on a fairly low budget and I love a bargain. I mean, I really love a bargain, to the extent that I think a heart monitor would show an actual, real, excited response when I see the word SALE
in a shop window. I have trained myself over the years: to buy better quality less often; to wait and buy more ethically when possible; to question how many times I would actually wear it. But the sales are a good way of making more ethical choices affordable too. Ethical bloggers like Moral Fibres often share guides to the best sales around, so you can discover really good brands and try them out for cheap.

And the innner turmoil is similar with Lost Shapes: On one hand, the clothes stand the test of time, people are still happily wearing the tops they bought when I launched 4 years ago (I have to admit the jumper above is starting to look a bit rough after 4 years of heavy duty wearing, washing and a fair bit of bike repairing). On the other, I have more ideas for designs and styles, and I have loads of repeat customers who rely on me to keep them looking good on top! And sometimes I get really carried away with something that turns out not to be so popular, or too much of one size, and I just need to shift them.

And so, after all that, we have a LOST SHAPES JANUARY SALE. And I'm even excited about this one, despite that making no financial sense as I'm the one giving the bargains not snapping them up: I'm excited about clearing some space on the shelves; I'm excited about future plans; I'm excited about rewarding loyal customers with a chance to get some quality goodies for a low price; I'm excited about the new customers who will try Lost Shapes for the first time, and get hooked on the wonderfulness of organic cotton, and the unique character of Lost Shapes.