Konnie Huq reveals she hasn’t bought new clothes in 20 years
Konnie Huq has revealed she hasn’t bought new clothes for 20 years, as she campaigns to reduce fast fashion waste.
The former Blue Peter presenter is "a bit anti-consumerist" and dedicated to encouraging others to stop buying new clothes to tackle climate change.
Globally, the fashion industry is responsible for producing around 92 million tonnes of textile waste, with over 85% of textiles ending up in tips. This adds up to around 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions too.
"I am essentially a bit anti-consumerist, so I don’t buy things," she told The Independent, "I haven’t bought clothes in, say, the last 20 years – all those years I did on Blue Peter, you get clothes for the job anyway."
"The older I get, the more comfy I feel in my own skin,” she adds. “So now, I’d rather be really unfashionable, but know people like me for me, rather than the clothes I wear. I’m much happier opting out."
The average person spends around £67.20 a month on clothes (£16.80) a week, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Even one year of buying no clothes could save the average person £800 a year or £8,000 over the course of a decade.
Though Huq has had to make exceptions to her no-spend rule, such as buying essentials like food or replacing broken items such as wellies for herself or her two sons, but she always shops second hand.
“Most of the stuff in our house is furniture that’s come from my mum’s house, a bit of a set they were chucking away, and so on. My kids will be in hand-me-downs often – I don’t really do shopping as such.”
She wants to ensure the next generation including her own sons, Covey, 12, and Huxley, 10, have a strong understanding from a young age of their impact on the environment.
"It’s so important to get kids with the right values and mindset," she said, "If you’re going to use a bag for life, or take a bag with you when you go shopping, that will be an ingrained thing."
It’s a topic that Huq discusses in her new children’s e-book, Children for Change, as well as practices in her own life to be less wasteful and not "too frivolous or extravagant."
"The minute you think your happiness comes through external validation, then that’s when it’s like a drug you’re chasing – so you get your happiness through buying trendy clothes or having the bigger house, all these very superficial factors," she said.
Yet, this isn’t always easy. The mother-of-two admits that this practice isn’t "perfect" and her husband, presenter Charlie Brooker, and sons don’t always share her outlook. It "destroyed [her] soul a bit" when her husband bought her son a new pair of branded trainers.
"I can’t enforce my stuff on other people, so whereas I don’t buy things, I can’t say that my husband is the same. So it’s something I have to tread carefully with," she adds. "I do like to practise what I preach, but it’s not always perfect, unfortunately."
Ultimately, Huq says this liberation from consumerism comes from finding happiness within yourselves, not just pleasing a fleeting dopamine hit. She said: "If you could just be happy with what you have rather than what you don’t have, then you’re winning, aren’t you?"
Read more about climate change:
How poor air quality affects children's health (Yahoo Life, 5-min read)
Ten key moments in the climate change fight (AFP, 3-min read)
Here's how to talk to kids about extreme weather (Yahoo Life, 6-min read)
