If you’ve ever wondered ‘how much is too much’ when it comes to shopping, well there’s an actual figure for that. One way to gauge whether your purchasing habits are becoming toxic could be by benchmarking it against the national average. However, when it comes to buying clothes, the Australian average is still… A LOT. 

The Australian Fashion Council reports that Australians, on average, purchase 56 items of clothing per year.

That’s more than one item of clothing a week. Each. 

In a word, yikes. 

Globally, Australians are among of the worst offenders when it comes to buying – and wasting – clothes. 

In terms of the amount purchased, we are second only to the United States. 

What’s worse, according to the University of Queensland, 85% of all our textiles purchased each year end up in landfill. 

Why Do Australians Purchase So Many Clothes?

Firstly, while excessive purchasing habits are never good, it’s hardly the consumer that’s to blame for the world’s fashion waste problem.

In fact, earlier this year The Guardian pointed to the issue of “oversupply” – where 40% of clothing made, isn’t purchased. Nowadays, fast fashion retailers operate on there being “52 seasons” per year. Meaning, they stock a suite of new products every single week. 

We also operate in the age of online shopping, which is conducive to some less-than-desirable purchasing habits. One such example is a ‘try to buy’ culture. This is when you buy clothing to try it on, meaning we often purchase clothing that won’t fit us, never gets worn and ultimately is discarded. 

Some experts also refer to a “disposable” mentality when it comes to shopping, i.e. the idea that it can only be worn once and then thrown away, as opposed to viewing clothing as an investment to be cherished. 

How Much Clothing Should We Buy?

According to Berlin’s Hot Or Cool Institute, a “sufficient” wardrobe consists of 74 items of clothing in a “two season” country or 84 in a four season country, including shoes.

Most of Australia has four seasons.

The report says this should be enough for 20 outfits, which it breaks down as follows:

• 6 work outfits
• 3 home outfits
• 5 sports / activewear outfits
• 2 festive occasion outfits
• 4 outdoor outfits (They don’t say what this means, exactly. Though it mentions jackets, trousers and skirts. Perhaps it just means “other” or “outfits you wear out of the house”.)

How Many Times Do We Wear Our Clothes, On Average?

The average person reportedly only wears 40% of their wardrobe. 

When it comes to how often we are wearing each item, Macquarie University professor of marketing and consumer psychology Jana Bowden tells the ABC it’s an average of seven wears. 

Of course, in an ideal world, we’d be wearing our clothes much more often over the course of many, many years.

What Do Sustainable Shopping Habits Look Like?

Here are a few suggestions from Clean Up Australia:

Senior Writer

Rebecca Mitchell

Rebecca Mitchell is a senior writer at ELLE Australia. She graduated from Charles Sturt University in 2011 already with solid media experience under her belt. She started her career in broadcast news, simultaneously hosting the Never Talk Politics radio programme on 2MCE and as a reporter at WIN News. After returning to her hometown of Sydney, she worked as a journalist in lifestyle media, including at Mamamia, SheSaid, and Foxtel’s Lifestyle group. Formerly a freelance journalist, you can find her words at Refinery29, Urban List, Broadsheet, and more.