A Classic Holiday Staple: Red and Green Tartan ⋆ Kyndal Sowers

a holiday staple: red and green tartan — Camel coat (old, similar here), white turtleneck, tartan skirt (old, but lots of similar options on Poshmark)

I’m gearing up for Christmas (only a few days away!!!) by wearing a classic holiday staple: red and green tartan! You can definitely tell that I like getting into the holiday spirit with festive wear. This skirt has been in my closet for years, and I’m not getting rid of it anytime soon.

I pulled this skirt out of my drawer at the beginning of December, aka the beginning of tartan season. It’s not new or the most trendy piece of clothing, but I feel festive and happy when I wear it. That’s what’s important! Investing in clothing that I will wear for years is something that I have prioritized more as I’ve gotten older. I instantly fell in love with this skirt when I saw Sarah from Classy Girls Wear Pearls wearing it. I was in college at the time, so I obviously didn’t have a ton of cash laying around. As much as I loved expressing my creativity and style through clothes, I couldn’t spend my money on every item I wanted. So I learned to be strategic with how I purchased clothes.

This Christmas, wear a classic holiday staple: red and green tartan — I took a stroll in one of my favorite neighborhoods in Columbus, and the homes had the best Christmas decorations.

Building a Wardrobe with Classic Staples

I mentioned earlier that investing in quality pieces that I’ll wear for years has become more important to me. This is for a couple of reasons. First, it’s better for the environment. The fashion industry creates SO much waste and is extremely harmful to the Earth. Thinking about what we purchase is just one small step in trying to reduce our footprint.

It is a privilege to be able to think about my purchases in this way. Not everyone can do that, and that’s okay. No one should ever be shamed for how they spend their money when they are trying to make ends meet. The ones truly at fault for fast fashion’s harm to the plant are the big corporations, not consumers.

Social media pressures everyone to feel like they have to wear something new and trendy at all times. There is an unspoken rule that you should never repeat outfits, especially in your photos. This mindset bothers me – I’m a shameless outfit repeater. If I love an outfit, why would I only wear it once? Also, it becomes a cycle of buying new clothes, then deciding that you don’t like them anymore. Then you toss the clothes. Rinse and repeat. I try to purchase trendy items secondhand so I can try the trend while diverting clothes from a landfill. And, I try not to buy any trendy clothing that I know I will only wear a couple of times.

I hope you enjoyed this post about my classic holiday staple: red and green tartan. And I hope I inspired you to consume more mindfully in the future. I’m not perfect – none of us can be! But every small step we take toward conscious consumerism makes a difference.

Thanks for reading.

-KS