2026 Will Be Different
The last pieces of the puzzle for a stylish mostly secondhand semi-sustainable wardrobe
In the last two decades I’ve gone from a trend-obsessed womenswear buyer with a closet full of fast fashion to a secondhand first outfit repeater who still loves trends but doesn’t get swept away by them. It only took a casual 15+ years to get to this point1, and now that I’m here I’m all in.
The biggest shift in my fashion POV happened over the past few years. I did two low buy pledges. I prioritized secondhand shopping. I went from a maximalist aesthetic to a mostly minimalist one. I made the decision to jump off the vegan leather train in favor of preloved animal textiles. I stopped saving my nicest clothes for special occasions and wear them to the grocery store. I decided if I liked an outfit or an item, I was going to rewear and restyle it into the ground.
I’m happy with this mindset and what it’s done for my wardrobe, but something still felt off. What I was doing wasn’t quite gelling with everything I’ve learned about fashion’s impact on the planet. I tiptoed my way into some changes in 2025 and started to get more serious about them towards the end of the year. I’m hoping these will get me closer to where I want to be because never buying clothes again isn’t a viable option.
How 2026 Will Be Different
My three goals all build off each other: prioritizing natural fabrics, exploring vintage, and buying for longevity. If you’re already here, I’d love to know how you found making these shifts. If you’re working your way towards any of these, I’d also love to hear about how you’re approaching them.
1. Prioritize Natural Fabrics
My biggest change centers on my synthetic fabric consumption, a deeply entrenched way of life due to an eight year hiatus from leather and wool. I started prioritizing natural fabrics in 2025, but synthetics still crept in since they’re becoming impossible to escape even at resale. I’d given myself a pass when buying artificial fabrics secondhand, rationalizing that I was keeping them out of a landfill. On the flipside I was shedding microplastics everywhere I went. While my good intentions can’t prevent microplastic shed, investing in more of the right materials can.
Although it doesn’t sound like much, I’ve removed several 100% synthetic items from my secondhand wishlist in favor of tracking down a natural fiber alternative. Is this the end of artificial materials in my closet? Realistically no. I’m still going to wear what I own and do my best to mitigate the shed. 100% natural fibers are my ultimate goal with flexibility to buy blends as I’m gearing up.
2. Explore Vintage
I used to think that wearing the latest recognizable trend meant I was incredibly stylish in an “are you wearing the Chanel boots?” way. I’ve since realized it’s actually incredibly stylish to wear something unique to you that’s not easily identifiable and didn’t require an entire paycheck to purchase and had another owner before you.
I wrote in last week’s 2026 Fashion Trend Forecast2 that personal style and vintage are gaining real traction and will take on a new form of fashion credibility in 2026. You might have noticed a spike in vintage and secondhand shopping mentions in your feeds as 2026 style resolutions are being rolled out, a much-needed shift in our hyper-consumptive shopping culture. Be prepared for this to become a larger theme over the next 12 months.
I’m slightly intimidated to get started with vintage because it’s less straightforward than contemporary secondhand: harder to reverse image search into an on-model image, more difficult to understand the fit and condition, and virtually impossible to know if there’s a stubborn smell baked into older items3. On the bright side I usually shop at a glacial pace and this gives me time to research and learn as I go.
3. Buy For Longevity
This is the one I’ve slowly been moving towards over the past couple of years. I didn’t always get it right as my style was evolving from a heavily maximalist wardrobe to a more minimalist way of dressing. Last year I had the goal of wearing everything in my closet to decide what to keep and what to thoughtfully put back into the circular economy with Future Reference.
Now when I want to buy something I ask myself will I still want to wear this in five years? If the answer is a hard no, it’s an immediate pass. If it’s a maybe and a special piece then I’m going to roll the dice, like on my balloon skirt. If it’s a yes, I’ll probably still sit on it for a week or more and watch it get sold out from under me. I’ll still have some duds because I’m human, but much fewer of them, fingers crossed.
Just Wear It January
If you’ve been with me since fall 2025 you might remember Secondhand September where I challenged myself to my bête noire of daily outfit selfies.
I created a sister version of this to kick off 2026 with a larger focus on getting the most out of your closet. I called it Just Wear It January in the hopes this might inspire small changes you can make in your own wardrobe. The goal is to really wear what you already own and encourage shopping secondhand to displace new purchases, encapsulating the year of the mindful wardrobe. If this is up your alley, I’d love it if you tag me in your Just Wear It January outfits or follow along in Notes through the end of the month.
I was thrilled to be included in Anna Newton’s post on what to wear when you have no idea what to wear. Outfit repeating, shopping your closet, inspirational reference images, and go-to looks feature heavily here, all tenets of Just Wear It January. If you’re new to fashion Substack, Anna is a must follow for so many reasons: fashion, beauty, baking, organization, life, etc etc. Ditto for the talented fashion writers and stylists with great ideas to make getting dressed less fraught.
That’s it for this week, thank you for joining me in 2026! This is my 71st post and I’m so grateful for your support since I launched Semi-Sustainable in September 2024.
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It all kicked off with my first The RealReal purchase in 2014 (I could finally afford designer fashion!), then a supply chain talk with the Mara Hoffman team shifted my perspective to sustainability over affordability in 2018, then working at a trend forecasting agency really moved the needle in 2023 (also the year I started a low buy pledge), then more research into responsible fashion and sustainable materials for my masters program in 2024 and 2025 got me to where I am today.
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I say this because I primarily shop online. Once an online merchant, always an online merchant.
I don't disagree with the idea of buying for longevity but in practice I feel like it can be a trap. Life is full of change – body, job, moving cities, climate, pregnancy, illness, even lifestyle/hobbies – and there are so many reasons that a piece that you "should" have been happy to wear in five years now isn't wearable much or at all. We beat ourselves up over that, like we should have "known" that our body was going to change. Then we get into a spiral before we buy anything at all, like, but what if??? (And on the flip side, occasionally an impulse or experiment piece becomes a hero piece you never expected to wear regularly!)
Obviously there's a huge value in being more considerate about if something is "just" a trend or an experiment, if you can really picture yourself wearing something. But it's not always easy to know if you'll still be wearing something in five years.
Love this, Tina! You know I adore vintage, but it is fraught with peril. Sizing is wacky (always get measurements), get photos of all tags and the inside of the garments (linings disintegrate).
FYI, your Vanity Fair “skirt” is a long half-slip; they made primarily undergarments. It’s probably from the 80s or earlier and will last forever.
Vintage fabrics are always better than modern, even polyester. 💕
Here’s to 2026!