Last week, my best friend was cleaning out her closet and texted me. She realized she had seventy pairs of pants.

That’s not a typo: 70.

She asked me, “What is a normal amount of pants to own?”

My first thought was: I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s 70! 😆

Two days later, we went to an event put on here by Dress for Success, a nonprofit helping women find economic mobility by providing them with interview outfits. The event was a lot like the designer sample sales I used to go to when I lived in LA: a room full to bursting with rolling racks of clothes and tables of shoes and purses, stuffed full of women digging through the racks for the best finds.

Except everything at this event was second hand.

(I joked to my friend that she couldn’t buy any more pants! LOL!)

I’m not telling this story to make fun of my friend, or to shame her.

Rather, these two events made me think about how we consume when it comes to fashion — and how I opt-out of fast fashion and over-consumption when it comes to my wardrobe.

My mother, for example, can remember having two or maybe three dresses for school, a set of “play clothes” for home, and a church dress. That’s it.

But by the time my sister and I came along, we had as many clothes as we wanted, as many as would fit in our closets and drawers, and new clothes every school year at minimum (usually a few additional things for birthdays and holidays, too).

Did we wear all of those clothes? Almost certainly not (as I can remember my mom getting mad at finding clothes with the tags still on in my sister’s closet!).

Now, I try to find my own balance somewhere between minimalist austerity and having a wardrobe of clothes I love to wear. And a lot of what I buy these days comes to me second hand or consignment.

It’s a system that’s evolved over the past decade or so and I have it to a place that works for me.

And, in case you’re wondering: I currently have 10 pairs of pants, but I’m putting half those away to see if I can live with just 5.

So how many pairs of pants (or any other garment) should you have? A loaded question, to be sure.

A lot depends on your lifestyle and individual needs. For example, if you love to hike your wardrobe needs will look different than someone who loves to go to fancy clubs or restaurants every weekend.

A lot has been written about the ills of fast fashion — both from a consumption standpoint and a manufacturing standpoint. If you’re looking for someplace to start educating yourself on those issues, Aja Barber’s Patreon and her book, Consumed are an excellent place to start.

But let’s assume you’re not interested in the fast fashion over-consumption side of the fashion world and are looking to build a more sustainable wardrobe.

As my anecdote about my mom’s school clothes suggests, wardrobe sizes have grown exponentially since the 1950s. In the 50s and 60s, media suggested that a stylish, average woman could have a full wardrobe for all occasions and seasons with around 40–42 pieces (not including underwear!).

An interesting report from 2022 suggests that 74 garments, including shoes, could be a smart goal for climates with two seasons, and perhaps 85 garments for a climate with four seasons. That breaks down to 20 outfits (and an outfit could include 1–4 pieces): 6 outfits for work wear, 3 outfits for home or lounge wear, 5 outfits for sports/active wear, 2 outfits for special occasions, and 4 outdoor jackets plus appropriate trousers or footwear for the weather.

If you chose your separates carefully, you could mix and match those number of pieces into many more variations of outfits as well.

In addition to simply aspiring to own fewer clothes, the report also looked at how an individual could combat climate change with their wardrobe:

“The results indicate that the two solutions with large emission reduction potential are reducing purchases of new garments and increasing use-time.”

So, buying things second hand — instead of buying new, not in addition — and using our clothes longer by keeping them in good condition, will have the biggest impact when it comes to climate change. The report says a good goal would be for more than 20% of your wardrobe to be second hand. My favorite place to shop for second-hand clothes? ThredUp.

Finally, it’s important to think about what goes into each piece you purchase. Polyester is everywhere — and it lasts forever. It’s a big contributor to microplastics in our environment. So opting for natural fibers (cotton, wool, silk, linen, etc.) whenever you can is a great goal.

Plus, there are plenty of personal benefits to buying and owning fewer pieces of clothing. You’ll have less to store, organize, and maintain. Getting ready in the morning may be faster because you’ll have fewer (but better) choices.

But the biggest benefit for me is that you’ll save money — and because of that, you’ll be able to afford higher quality pieces that will last longer. By shopping second hand, I’ve been able to afford much higher quality, designer pieces than I would have been able to afford otherwise.

Just this week, I bought a designer silk cardigan off ThredUp for more than 80% off the original retail price, and I found a beautiful leather Kate Spade tote at the Dress for Success sale that would originally have cost around $400 for $25.

I’m keeping these pieces out of the landfill, extending their useful life, and getting some high quality, designer pieces to add to my wardrobe in the bargain.

Of course, your mileage may vary. I don’t share these numbers as absolutes, but rather as a guideline if you, like my dear friend, are wondering what “normal” could look like.

Before you go out and buy anything new, it’s a good idea to go through what you’ve got.

Whether you’re a “take everything out at once” kind of person or not, the goal should be to first get rid of anything you:

You can sell or donate anything that’s in good condition and recycle anything that’s not.

Then, here’s a trick to discover what you actually wear: tie a ribbon or a scarf around the bar in your closet and move all your clothes to one side of it. When you wear something and put it back in the closet, put it to the other side of the ribbon.

After a few weeks, you’ll be able to easily see what you actually wear. You can do the same thing in drawers or on shelves with a piece of cardboard, a file folder, or even a magazine, and put unworn clothes on one side and worn clothes to the other side.

The average American routinely wears only 20% of what’s in their closet! Once you know what you actually wear from your existing wardrobe, you can identify any holes you want to fill.

I actually really like the idea of a capsule wardrobe, and the ones curated by Classy Yet Trendy are some of my favorites, but you can search on Google or Pinterest for “capsule wardrobe” and your style and find lots of suggestions.

Of course, the problem with a pre-made capsule wardrobe is that you will probably be tempted to go out and buy the pieces you don’t already have to fit the plan.

So, a different fun option I’m trying this season is a grid wardrobe.

Here’s how the original author describes it:

Here’s the one I’m working on with the clothes I bought at the Dress for Success event and pieces I already had in my closet.

(A quick tip if you like this visual format: Google the brand and description of pieces you already own and see if you can find images of them (or something very close) already on the web that you can copy into your grid. Saves a lot of time photographing your clothes.)

The benefit of this visual style of capsule wardrobe is that you can easily see where you might need a few new or different pieces — without sending you out to the shops without a plan.

Bonus: if you create one grid for summer and one for winter — which represent 30 pieces each — you’ll be close to that climate goal of 74 garments with plenty of wiggle room for special occasion outfits and outerwear.

I’ve got a few more pieces than the ones pictured here that fit into this capsule for color and style, so I’ve decided to wear them for a few weeks and use the ribbon trick to see what I actually reach for. Then I can edit appropriately at the end of the season.

So if you want to opt-out of the destructive cycle of fast fashion, where will you start?

Choose one to focus on for a while and see how it changes your shopping and consumption habits.