Let's Go Rule of Five, 2025!

All aboard for the challenge that saves money, delivers style, helps the planet and teaches you about yourself and the world around you. I'm three years in, and here to help.

Welcome to all the new Rule of Five joiners - this is the 2025 challenge that you will not regret. It will teach you about yourself and your wardrobe, about consumerism and the value relationship you hold with your possessions, and it will teach you to be a better shopper and a better saver.

For those doing this for the second - or even third year - I salute you veterans! What does it mean when you get deeper into the challenge? We will come to this later in the post.

First a question. Why Rule of Five in 2025?

This time of year there are a lot of new resolutions, including, I notice, lots of ‘nothing new’ challenges. Super admirable, but I like Rule of Five because it means you can still enjoy fashion, shopping and playing with style, it’s just practising moderation, (never easy to achieve, but always worth it).

This newsletter is a resource of tips, tricks and inspiration, better shopping directories and strategies. It’s all free, but the more you support, the more I can give. And by paying, you are also pledging your own commitment. Look on it as a downpayment on your intention! (And if you get to the end of the year and want your money back - you can have it.)

If you need further inspiration, remember that fashion is the third most polluting industry on the planet. Emissions from this toxic industry are set to double by 2030, and our craven consumerism and irresponsible attitudes to waste are driving this. The Rule of Five is rooted in science: it’s the number the Hot or Cool Institute came up with when they worked out how fashion could achieve its 2030 1.5 warming targets, (see below).

The Science: How We Worked It Out

As sustainability slips further down the agenda for fashion brands in this economic downturn, the need for us, as consumers, to practise better habits has never been greater.

If you want to know more about this, check out my other Substack, It’s Not Sustainable, here.

Right then: a quick reminder of the rules - any questions leave a comment below the post and I'll do my best to answer them.

What’s Allowed

• Lingerie (but don’t go mad)

• Tights and socks (but don’t go mad)

• Renting

• Mending and altering

• Swapping

• Borrowing

• Dressmaking (extra points if you upcycle your own or deadstock material)

• A small amount of second hand (but don’t go mad. I allow myself 4 items. There are always questions on this, see below for some answers)

Why can't I buy more second hand?

What’s Not Allowed

• Buying more than 5 new things

• Gifts (they count I’m afraid)

• Shoes and accessories (they are part of your ‘five’)

The Seasons

It can be helpful to break the year into five seasons, allowing yourself one purchase per season. Try these:

• Winter: Jan 1st to March 7th

• Spring: March 8th to May 25th

• Summer: May 26th to August 16th

• Autumn: August 17th to October 31st

• Christmas: November 1st to December 31st

Subscribe to this newsletter and I will walk you through the process as the year unfolds. Better still, share it with a friend and go into it together.

Let’s Get Started: Avoid the Sales

First up - rule number one - do not shop the sales. There's a reason why all that stuff is on sale (it wasn't needed in the first place) and the idea that you need 'to stock up on cashmere' or whatever, needs to be dispelled from your mind. You need to take control over what you want, not what the marketing directors and algorithms are telling you.

And so turn off all those emails, social media follows and relentless ads that are trying to sniff out if you ‘need’ to buy a new pair of pyjamas because they are 30% off. You don't.

The Wardrobe Audit

Next up - take a long hard look at your existing wardrobe. It is about to become a different type of friend to you. A loyal one, full of secrets not yet recognised, buried treasure and long forgotten joy. A wardrobe audit is a way to get to know it a little better.

Wardrobe Clear Out? The Dos and Don'ts

Read the post above for a deeper dive, but sorting out what you wear and don’t wear will identify your most popular pieces (and these will obviously change with the seasons) which will tell you a little about your style.

How to Find Your Style

But the purpose of a wardrobe audit right now is to tell you what you're missing. You have only got 5 purchases this year, so you need to make them count. They need to be beautiful, long lasting, needed and valued. They should grow with you, become old friends that you can parade out in a year, 5 years - even 10 years time. You probably already have a couple of pieces like that in your wardrobe - notice what they are and what it is about them that makes you value them so much.

It's helpful to think about a capsule wardrobe and the pieces that form the foundations of your style - what are these? For me, I identified 10 easy pieces I could mix and match, invest in heavily and buy the best version I could find and afford:

• white shirt

• smart jacket

• comfy trouser

• playful knit

• everyday dress

• warm, smart coat

• good pair of day shoes

• good pair of boots

• warm knit

• midi skirt

In my first year of this challenge I invested in a white boyfriend shirt (still going strong, unmarked, hallelujah) and some fabulously comfy gold trousers; last year I bought an oversized wool blazer and two fabulous knits. This year I want a dress or a skirt. I don't know yet what style these will be, but the thrill is going to be looking for it, trying lots on, hunting down The One.

Next you are going to look for repairs and alterations, breathing new life into what you already have. Then as this year rolls on, you will rent more, swap with friends, borrow, upcycle. You will feel deprivation (I famously licked the windows of Selfridges on Oxford Street one spring), but out of deprivation will come resourcefulness and creativity. Find yourself a good seamstress, and look to what you already have.

Make do and mend

The Veterans

For those of us embarking on this challenge second or third year running, here’s my learnings. Last year I found buying good things, just a few of them, much, much easier. I have totally altered my value relationship with shopping. I no longer feel the need to pop into Zara, and when I do, just to see what’s going on, I’m quite repelled by the volume of stuff on display. If that’s not enough, flip a label and look at the fabric content - it’s depressing.

However I did make allowances for active wear. Running, yoga, outdoor activities - all of these things are conducive to a healthy lifestyle and inevitably you will wear through your garments. Buy the very best you can, (and make sure they are non toxic, see below), but I did not count new sports bras, workout trainers and waterproof jackets in my five, (hand on heart they were not fashion choices).

This post below is from my other Substack, It’s Not Sustainable. You can sign up to that here.

How toxic is your sportswear?

I think that is enough for now - spend your January avoiding the shops and avoiding the sales, auditing and researching your own wardrobe, and get cracking on some mending and alteration. You’ll be so surprised by what you can achieve!

Also please do tell me how you are getting on, it’s so helpful to be in this together. How did 2024 go for those here again?

See you soon,

Tiff

If you get into this, and start to see how you can make a difference with the clothes you wear and the choices you make, please do check out my book What to Wear and Why, you can order a copy of the book here.