Shared Use : a dress for many...

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[Background on, & press coverage of, Unconsumption can be found here and here.]

Consumption is a word used to describe acts of acquisition – generally, the acquisition of things, in exchange for money.

Unconsumption is a word used to describe everything that happens after an act of acquisition.

Unconsumption is an invisible badge.

Unconsumption means the accomplishment of properly recycling your old cellphone, rather than the guilt of letting it sit in a drawer.

Unconsumption means the thrill of finding a new use for something that you were about to throw away.

Unconsumption means the pleasure of using a service like Freecycle (or Craigslist, Goodwill, or Salvation Army) to find a new home for the functioning DVD player you just replaced, rather than throwing it in the garbage.

Unconsumption means enjoying the things you own to the fullest – not just at the moment of acquisition.

Unconsumption means the pleasure of using a pair of sneakers until they are truly worn out – as opposed to the nagging feeling of defeat when they simply go out of style.

Unconsumption means feeling good about the simple act of turning off the lights when you leave the room.

Unconsumption is not about the rejection of things, or the demonization of things. It’s not a bunch of rules.

Unconsumption is an idea, a set of behaviors, a way of thinking about consumption itself from a new perspective.

Unconsumption is free.

CONTRIBUTORS:

Founder & Editor: Rob Walker, journalist, Savannah, GA

Editorial & Community Manager: Molly Block, marketing and business development geek, Houston, TX

Brian W. Jones, designer & writer, Göteborg, Sweden

Kashvi Kumar, Environmental Studies and Economics major at New York University

Deirdre Nelson, ever threading artist, Glasgow, Scotland

Lee Sachs, writer, user experience consultant, filmmaker, New York, NY

Shanna Trenholm, writer. catalyst. force of nature. San Diego, CA

* * *

Alumnus & Unconsumption logo creator: Clifton Burt, graphic designer, Portland, OR

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Further information about Unconsumption can be found here.

1:23 pm - Sun, Dec 18, 2011: 19 notes

Shared Use : a dress for many generations

“Sharing clothes saves resources if it means fewer pieces are bought. For garments to have multiple users, fit matters; but they also have to be shared with the right people. Sharing works when a bond and joint identity is reinforced by common use; when a memory is re-lived; and when access is gained not just to more and different pieces but also to the values and sensibilities of the owner.”

Mother: “The people who lived next door gave me this dress from Antibes which they had worn there over many seasons and they said I could have it for our holiday. A great success. And, I can’t think how many more years I wore it…

Daughter 1: “I am one of three sisters and we were very keen to wear this dress and have shared it since we were old enough to have a grown up figure… a period of about forty years…

Daughter 2: “So this dress has been going for a long time! It’s a sundress, it’s worn really on very joyous and special occasions so, for example, we have photographs of one or other of us wearing it… for example, my middle sister wore it at my mother’s seventieth birthday party.”

Daughter 1: “There’s a certain amount of jealousy between me and my middle sister, and she’s always asking if she can ‘have a go’ with the dress for our summer holidays. We often go away together in the summer and the dress always comes with us. And now, almost every holiday I’ve been on, I think, to a warm place the dress has come out and been worn.”

Mother: “We say, ‘Who’s got the dress this year?’, when they want it. And in the beginning I had sole possession of it.”

Daughter 2: “Well yeah, because we were too young to wear it.”

Mother: “Well, yes but it soon came the time…

Daughter 2: “And now there’s another generation coming up, our children, who have got their eye on that dress.”

Via Local Wisdom