2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PollyWollyDoodle

‘Wishcycling’ is the phrase I have heard. I think we are all guilty of this - I know I have been

florianatwobob

Certainly, I recycle as many things as possible, but I wonder how much of it actually gets recycled and how much is "recycling optimism" that ends up going to landfil. (There's a better phrase than that but, for the life of me, I can't remember what it is.  All I can say is that I heard it on a BBC podcast.)  Our local council is pretty good, but we've all seen horror stories about British "recycling" being shipped around the world to end up in landfil in a poorer country.

With the increase in recycling we now have a couple scrap men that come around regularly (and will come if you message them too). 

My last lot of ‘scrap’ metal is forming an obelisk in my garden. Before that was it was a tap and a shower valve that was donated to a man who was making a scrap metal sculpture to be auctioned for charity. 

Our district council is very good at recycling and are backed by the county council who also declared a climate emergency in 2019. 

PipneyJane

PollyWollyDoodle said:

‘Wishcycling’ is the phrase I have heard. I think we are all guilty of this - I know I have been

Wishcycling?  Yes, that's the phrase!  Thanks @PollyWollyDoodle.

florianatwobob said:

Certainly, I recycle as many things as possible, but I wonder how much of it actually gets recycled and how much is "recycling optimism" that ends up going to landfil. (There's a better phrase than that but, for the life of me, I can't remember what it is.  All I can say is that I heard it on a BBC podcast.)  Our local council is pretty good, but we've all seen horror stories about British "recycling" being shipped around the world to end up in landfil in a poorer country.

With the increase in recycling we now have a couple scrap men that come around regularly (and will come if you message them too). 

My last lot of ‘scrap’ metal is forming an obelisk in my garden. Before that was it was a tap and a shower valve that was donated to a man who was making a scrap metal sculpture to be auctioned for charity. 

Our district council is very good at recycling and are backed by the county council who also declared a climate emergency in 2019. 

Your county council are to be commended, @florianatwobob

Nobody is perfect, but if we all do what we can, it will make a difference, even if we can't commit to everything.  In my old company, when I worked for the environmentalist division*, we had a lovely commercial director who would talk about incremental gains.  She was a big fan of Sir Dave Brailsford, the British Cycling coach, who used it to coach Britain's best cycling team, but she would use it in terms of improving the environment, etc.

- Pip



* I won't use their real name, but what else can you call an operating unit that consists of ecologists, archeologists, the river-mapping team, polution testers, a few stray geographers and a handful of economists.

maryb

sadly, I can see the need to buy a jacket suitable for funerals next year. I normally wear blue as my basic instead of black. I have black trousers and skirt but I don't want a jet black jacket as a lot of people don't wear all black any more and it would look OTT so something subdued/tweedy would be useful

Laura_Elsewhere

maryb said:

sadly, I can see the need to buy a jacket suitable for funerals next year. I normally wear blue as my basic instead of black. I have black trousers and skirt but I don't want a jet black jacket as a lot of people don't wear all black any more and it would look OTT so something subdued/tweedy would be useful

That is sad, maryb, but sensible o plan.

My Dad happily stopped wearing suits when he stopped officially giving lectures, and around twenty years later was suddenly in need of a funeral suit - he searched in the cupboards and came up with a suit from around 1972 - a classic cut so not too flared in the leg or lapels, and in a subdued but lovely black and white herringbone tweed wool. The trousers only just did up, but a belt allowed an elastic ponytail-band of mine to become a hidden extender! 

So you might consider a dark tweed jacket? 

My funeral-blacks are any dark skirt (sometimes black, sometimes very dark coloured) worn with a black wool blazer of my Dad's, bought in the late 1960s around the time I was born, and only needed a tiny bit of darning on one elbow. 

For my sister's funeral, there was a midsummer heatwave and we were all caught, and had to dash out and buy various black linen skirts, black chinos, etc... it surprised me to realise I had never before (or since) needed hot-weather funeral-blacks... 

TwibbleDee

We only own hot weather blacks down here.  Of course, if I step outside right now, the high today is still 70F (yesterday was 82F!).

I do need to focus on more suitable dark shirts, since I end up working at least a few funerals a year in addition to any I might be attending otherwise.

thriftwizard

4 coupons duly added, and another 50p cashmere jumper/sweater rescued... this one's been in my freezer for a month, as it had definitely been well-nibbled around the hem & cuffs. So I stitched a tiny zig-zag above the worst of the damage, then cut it off & crocheted around the edges using some C0lourmart sample skeins. I also darned a few little holes above the crochet-line, then felted gently round the edges by rubbing between my fingers with soap & warm water; it's drying now. This one's not so posh (M&S) and is a polo-neck, so will be worn under my big winter jumpers. Every layer helps, to paraphrase a well-known advert!

CapricornLass

Do people wear black for funerals these days?  I always wear navy or a dark grey with a plain cream jumper/top, rather than black, and the last couple of funerals I've been to, most people seemed to be wearing similar as opposed to black.  The main reason for me is that black doesnt  suit me at all.

Mind you the worst I saw at a funeral was a person who wore a black top covered in sequin flowers.....

Laura_Elsewhere

CapricornLass said:

Do people wear black for funerals these days?  I always wear navy or a dark grey with a plain cream jumper/top, rather than black, and the last couple of funerals I've been to, most people seemed to be wearing similar as opposed to black.  The main reason for me is that black doesnt  suit me at all.

Mind you the worst I saw at a funeral was a person who wore a black top covered in sequin flowers.....

At my sister's funeral I was quite startled by the number of younger people, teens into twenties who were wearing black, but, well... tights with holes in, saggy shapeless cardigans with holes their thumbs stuck through, scuffed old black plimsoles, black jeans and hoodies with paint or food stains... it was weird. And no, they weren't a bunch of scruffy hippy-goths They just seemed to have worn black but with no formality, no significance to the black, if that makes sense. 

My Utterly Wonderful Aunt waned bright colours worn to hers, so I wore a colourful outfit - but what I really really really really waned was to dowse myself in the blackest of full-mourning, veil and all, and howl my loss to the skies, which of course I really couldn't. 

So I crocheted a little black silk lace cap and wore that discreetly on my dark hair and I knew that I was plunged in darkest mourning for my beloved darling wonderful brave aunt, even if nobody else did... 

PollyWollyDoodle

That sounds as if it worked for you, Laura. It’s not uncommon for people to specify bright colours these days and I understand why, but there IS a certain ritual to mourning and it does have a purpose. The Victorians had a very rigid code - black for a year, then you could move on to purple etc, but most cultures have customs around mourning clothes because it was an important part of the process. 

I’m always reminded of a Stanley Holloway monologue that my parents loved, ‘Brown Boots’ about the man who wore brown boots to a funeral, a shocking breach of rules. 

I’ve attended hundreds of funerals, in a professional capacity I hasten to add, and nothing surprises me any more. The turquoise fluffy mules have stuck in my mind though!