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A guest on my podcast -- Lorna Davis, the key leader behind the largest B Corp to date, Danone USA, and a c-suite executive from Danone and other multinationals
by spodek 7y ago
A guest on my podcast -- Lorna Davis, the key leader behind the largest B Corp to date, Danone USA, and a c-suite executive from Danone and other multinationals -- committed not to buy clothes for a year. Within a few weeks she started getting rid of clothes she didn't wear and even relationships that were distracting her from more meaningful ones.
Within months she was sending me contacts of other high-powered executives from big corporations who were following her lead. She sent me pictures of clothing she repaired that she would have thrown out before.
When she was invited to give a TED talk that year, she told me she felt liberated from wondering what to buy to wear, instead getting to feel like herself and focusing on her message.
Hear for yourself. Our conversations, before and after: https://joshuaspodek.com/guests/lorna-davis https://joshuaspodek.com/guests/lorna-davis (also a great primer on B corps, given her significant role)
Her TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/lorna_davis_a_guide_to_collaborative_leadership https://www.ted.com/talks/lorna_davis_a_guide_to_collaborati...
- HenryBemis 7y agoFor women: it may be worth your while checking out Project333. I have searched for a respective project for men, but haven't found something similar/worthy. When I finished listening to the Minimalists podcast (first 120 episodes) for the second time I was already immersed in minimalism. I donated 90% of my clothes, I now have 5 t-shirts, 4 sweaters, 2 jeans, 10 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of shoes, and some snow/skiing related accessories (hoods, etc.) I also have "office clothes" which I don't count as clothes, I treat them as a uniform, when not in the office, they don't exist for me (and Coronavirus-->remote working was a great 'gift' for me on this area)(I hope the deaths stop and we continue the WFH). I see fashion as a "subscription" scheme. You spend £€¥$, you get clothes and after X seasons you need to spend another load of £€¥$ to renew your "trendy-ness". I can never forget that in the term "fashion VICTIM" the word that sticks with YOU is the word "victim".
- dominotw 7y ago> I now have 5 t-shirts, 4 sweaters, 2 jeans, 10 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of shoes I take it you don't live in place with cold winters?
- wurst_case 7y agoI follow the same minamalist lifestyle. I have a bin with my summer clothes. I'll switch them out soon for the winter ones. Even still it's very few items overall. I used to have 100s of pieces of clothing.
- dominotw 7y agooh ok. I thought that was complete listing of your clothes, not just 'summer bin' :) .
- dagw 7y agoOr do much in the way of outdoor activities. 2 pairs of shoes Having to decide between wearing my climbing shoes and my ski boots to work would suck :)
- 11235813213455 7y agoI've the same single pair of 20€ shoes since 5 years. Some holes, but they still work well, probably for another 5 years. The only drawback is when it rains, I need to dry them with newspaper. I do a lot of sports (mostly bike (I've no car) for all my commuting, hiking/trail, ..
- KozmoNau7 7y agoWhat 20€ shoe will last for 10 years of hiking and trail walking?
- inertiatic 7y agoOkay, but why would you want to put up with drying your shoes with newspaper?
- HenryBemis 7y agoI got 1x Nike for lounging/running that I just bought (the previous one was 'retired'), and 1x Salomon for hiking/snow/outdoors activities (bought in 2009). I spend one month per year in the very northern parts of Scandinavian countries usually Dec-Jan. My "office gear" includes two pairs of "office shoes" that I absolutely never wear when not in the clients' offices/meetings/interviews. I hate those clothes :)
- nicehat 7y ago> When I finished listening to the Minimalists podcast (first 120 episodes) ;)
- GeekyBear 7y agoI just took to wearing business casual clothes in my off hours as well as my working hours. Although I did keep my shorts and tshirts for occasions where I will be outside since it is quite hot and humid in the summer where I live.
- nradov 7y agoHaving extra clothing beyond the minimum allows me to put off doing laundry (or going to the dry cleaner). It's a significant time saver, a "life hack" if you will.
- jobog 7y agoGood. Now that has become fashionable among corporate robots, next can we get them to stop running marathons, climbing mountains etc. I mean my roof needs be repaired and my vegetable patch needs to be weeded and my loo needs to be cleaned. All that burns fat too. Please tell them we need a TED talk where the CEO tells us how he switched from going to the gym to burn fat to cleaning the office and scrubbing the septic tanks. Fucking corporate robots and their bullshit.
- clairity 7y agodoes she talk at all about how to patch/mend jeans? because that's a skill that'd be super-useful to learn, given how fast jeans wear out (between the thinness and the added stretchy but less durable fibers nowadays).
- KozmoNau7 7y agoI've had great results with "boro" stitching, which doesn't try to hide the repair, but makes it a personal design element. The key is to use nice thick embroidery thread.
- clairity 7y agothanks! i like the style of boro stitching, and have 5-6 pairs of jeans i need to repair, so it seems like a good time to dig into it.
- spodek 7y agoShe doesn't cover that in particular, but: 1. Here are videos on how to mend jeans: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=patch+jeans&oq=&gs_l= https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=patch+jeans&oq=... 2. The bigger picture is that when you force yourself to live by a value, you learn all these things. When I first challenged myself to avoid buying packaged food for a week, I had no idea I'd go from emptying my garbage weekly to less than once per year. Looking back, it seems inevitable, but when I started 5 years ago, I barely knew about farmers markets, CSAs, fermenting vegetables, etc.
- clairity 7y agothanks, i may need to stop opining and start actually mending one of these days!
- thesmok 7y agoI take my jeans to the nearest clothes repair booth, they stitch on a patch from inside. Here doing one patch costs $4, that's much better that >$100 for a new pair of Levi's.
- nradov 7y agoThat doesn't work for athletes. Clothes just wear out in less than a year of hard training. The only way you can go a year without buying new clothes is if you already have more than you need stored away.
- pauljurczak 7y agoTrue, but you can extend their life by reducing washing frequency and accepting less than perfect appearance.
- nradov 7y agoGross. It's the smell, not the appearance.
- blaser-waffle 7y agoMost people aren't athletes. A handful of workout clothes is enough for even the hardiest gym rat.