By Priya Daniel (Guest Blogger)

Take a deeper look at your daughter’s closet. Amidst all the colourful pint sized ‘oh so cute’ clothes, there are many outgrown, barely worn and redundant apparel. Being a new mum myself, I couldn’t believe how quickly my one year old, Nayla, outgrew hers.

As per EPA estimates 2.2 billion pounds of consumer textile waste finds its way into American landfills alone every year due to garments made for children. That’s approximately forty-five pounds per child aged 0-11.

When my daughter was 7 months old, it hit me that there had to be a better, more sustainable solution to children’s clothing. This shifted the spotlight to the excesses of my wardrobe as well! The free enterprise economy that has been established around hyper-consumerism glorifies rapidity, obsolescence and quantity over longevity and efficiency. We simply have too much stuff that no one possibly needs!

Additionally, living in Singapore where storage space is a constraint, I have come to embrace minimalism and a ‘no junk’ rule with renewed vigour. I used some style hacks to clear out my favoured cast-offs to refashion them into stylish outfits for Nayla, without any complex sewing, while also feeling content about saving the environment in an easy, and of course pose-worthy way! Sharing some below.

The above formulae are no brainer tailoring for dummies. This way I pass on my wardrobe to my daughter, we both evolve with time and the bond feels great!

And maybe someday Nayla and I will chuckle over “who wore it better”!

These solutions can be fun, effortless chic and informative for your child as you teach them all about a sustainable lifestyle and how they can make a positive impact. Hopefully, together, us mums can evoke real change by upcycling our wardrobes, extending their value and longevity.

Please feel free to consult me on askdarlinks@gmail.com for more creative advice if you’d like to build that fashion bond with your little bean sprout princess.

Thank you Closetbuddies for the opportunity to share this attainable step that we can act upon towards spreading the love physically, sustainably and fashionably.

 A little bit about our Guest blogger:

Priya is an architect and urban designer, having worked on projects around the globe.  Her endeavour is for her design credo to reflect a purposeful, sustainable, and stylish angle to them. She is often found pencil, brush or tool in hand, headphones in ear, lost in her other passions, mixing details and vibrancy to create artwork, illustrations, and sculpture which she pursues commercially as well. Film, nature, human behaviour and patterns, economics, music, her daughter, and experiences during her wanderlust fuel her creativity.