Learning like a Minimalist—Learning from a Minimalist. Consumers as Disseminators for Sustainable Clothes Usage

Abstract

Are minimalists pioneers for sustainable clothes usage? According to old and new media, minimalists use less resources and appear as sustainable consumers. So there is much to be learned from minimalists who turned from regular consumers into use-intensive consumers in a matter of months. Minimalists change their own everyday practices and in doing so, they gain knowledge that is later disseminated through blogs, videos, books or talks and seminars. As sustainability and clothing is a growing research field more studies are needed to not only understand mainstream consumers and their practices but also more sustainable niche consumption and the change from one to the other. This article focuses on the sartorial everyday practices of the niche group of self-described minimalists in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Wardrobe interviews have been conducted in direct presence of all clothing in 46 households. The results of the study document the minimalist learnings through an ongoing process of reducing material objects together with an intensification of the relationship to the remaining items. The process is analysed in the three phases of sorting, using and gaining that each contain varied patterns of the practices of knowledge appropriation, trying out and establishing new behaviour. Minimalists, we conclude, are important disseminators for sustainable change because they broadcast the necessary change in everyday practices on a personal bottom-up level.