Want to shop less? We've created The Buy Once List for exactly that

I’ve been thinking about how people shop for more than a decade. Not just because I wrote about products for giant eCommerce business for years, seeing thousands of designer clothes and the varying quality and hype amongst them. But also because, in working for small fashion brands in London early in my career, I noticed one common thread among the top creatives: they all had a uniform. Trends came and went, but those at the head of the design table arrived to the studio wearing variations of the same thing day in, day out. 

It seemed like they knew a secret: what separates “style” from “fashion” isn’t buying the latest trend as soon as it hits the shelves, it’s knowing what you love, what works for you, and then trusting yourself to only invest in that. 

It’s not easy though. There’s the social pressure to shop that is amplified if you work in the industry or, really, if you have any kind of social media. And then there are the practical limitations. Cost. Materials. Size availability. Avoiding virgin animal materials and synthetics, as we’ve outlined in our editorial policy. 

These challenges became even clearer when JD and I curated anxiety.eco’s very first Buy Once List. A selection of items that we genuinely want to wear forever, from brands whose values we believe in and have researched. But style is about creativity, and creativity thrives under constraints, as JD told me when I lamented just how difficult it is to find a pair of practical shoes that aren’t leather or PVC (spoiler: we found some). 

The Buy Once List isn’t a shopping list packed with products a PR emailed us. It’s a list to help you buy less, from the personal taste of JD and me — co-founders and friends but with very different aesthetics. Your taste might not be the same as ours and that’s cool (in fact, that’s great), but we hope these stylish, beautifully made items will inspire you to seek out the items you truly love and can see yourself wearing regularly, and to build your wardrobe from there. 

We’ve verified everything in this list using Good On You’s sustainability ratings, who we’ve worked with for years and know the methodology inside and out; we’ve followed our editorial principles to avoid virgin animal materials and synthetics (no easy task, even with so-called “sustainable” brands); and we checked user reviews and compared that to the feedback we’ve gotten from friends. We’ve also tried to select items from brands with more inclusive sizing (with an extra list of brands at the bottom, too, since items often come in and out of stock) and offer options for tall and petite. To be clear, we can’t vouch for every item a brand sells, but this list is based on the businesses we’ve bought from ourselves, heard consistently good things about, or have gotten to know — and trust — the founders of through our years of recommending them.