Mélissandre decided to stop buying clothes on September 1, 2021.
More than a year later, she continues this challenge.
Its approach is ecological and ethical but it also aims to question its relationship to overconsumption.
A little over a year ago, on September 1, 2021 to be exact, Mélissandre Blanc decided to stop buying clothes and only live with those she already owned.
" Why ?
This is the question that was asked the most when she mentioned the subject.
And the answer seems obvious for this 17-year-old high school student, who has just returned to her final year in the Nice region.
“I had been aware for some time of the ecological and ethical impact it had,” she says.
After a while, it's time to stop thinking, you have to act.
»
"The hardest part is breaking the habit"
A “rather simple” process to launch for this Niçoise surrounded by “models”.
One of her older sisters and her aunt have already taken on "similar challenges" by stopping consuming all types of products for a year.
The high school student also received an “eco-responsible” education from her parents, she says.
Today, her father is proud of her.
"It is she who now pushes us to question our habits," he says with a smile.
Eventually, he wins too.
Anyway, financially.
Even if Mélissandre was not an “addict” person.
“I just didn't really ask myself the question when I wanted to buy, I did it automatically.
Sometimes it was even my mother who brought me something back when she found a nice item of clothing,” she explains.
It is this rhythm of “automatism” that she wanted to break.
“The hardest thing at first is losing the habit, analyzes the teenager.
But the aim of the approach is to question what this consumption brings us: do I need it, what does it bring me, am I happier with this garment, is it what do I really want?
I then quickly realized that the answer to the phrase "I really need this dress" was simply no.
We must cut off this euphoria of purchase.
»
A challenge that “pushes creativity”
In her current closet, she estimates that she has enough to “get dressed, without washing, for at least two or three weeks”, depending on the season.
“At the time of starting the challenge, I still had a good base of clothes and then, chance of life, I had the opportunity to have others through donations from my family.
I never felt naked or tired of my clothes”.
She adds: “On the contrary, this kind of challenge pushes you to be creative, to invent new associations, to create different outfits and thus rediscover your clothes.
Thus, we realize what we bought by impulse and what we really like.
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And then the 365 days were reached.
Mélissandre then felt “simply happy” to have succeeded in this personal challenge.
"I understood that once we were launched, everyone could get there, it rolls on its own," she says.
A challenge that calls for others
She describes an "empathy that woke up more and more over the months" with "a thought of the liters of water used to make jeans" or "the person and the conditions in which she worked to make a tee- shirt”.
For her, the most satisfying thing was seeing influencers unboxing everything they had just bought or ads in front of their cameras and not feeling any envy at all.
Or to see reports and say that she did not participate in “this disaster”.
“I felt it was possible to get there.
Then, I succeeded, it means that I can do many other even more impactful things!
“, she says.
She concludes: “In the end, it's almost easy because I had to stop something while for other ecological commitments, something has to be done.
We can then have more the impression of making an effort.
Mélissandre will continue this challenge as much as possible.
If she has to buy something, she promises that "it will necessarily be something second-hand".
In the meantime, she is thinking about her next actions in connection with the preservation of the planet and "passing the torch" of this challenge to her 14-year-old little sister.
357 days (or more) left!
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