Transforming Consumerism by Dina Chehrazi

Consumerism has a bad rep, and rightly so, given the ways in which it’s being practiced. But in its essence, it possesses so much of the creativity, innovation and progression we value in our modern lives.

How can we explore reconstructing our consumerism in a way where our ethics and values can work *with* our desires for creative expression and innovation?

“Let’s redesign your bedroom together every year!”

I remember my mum exclaiming this with excitement to me when I was 8, she and I are a mother daughter duo with a shared passion for design and creativity. We had just moved into our new converted flat and recently discovered the world of fast furniture, Argos catalogues and IKEA showrooms changing every mid-season with brand new looks and ideas which set our imaginations on endless adventures. As a single parent, immigrant family in London we didn’t have a lot of money and previously, the interiors of our house remained the same for years, we made the most of what we had, whether we really loved it or not. By the time I was 8 our financial situation hadn’t changed but we realised that the price of cool furniture had.

my bedroom at my London flat.

Some of my favourite childhood memories are of redecorating our flat. No matter our situation, our quality of life felt improved because the walls surrounding us always represented us, and we had the freedom to express ourselves through them. Family and friends would come over, excited to spot what we changed from the last time they visited, marvelling out how a small attic room we had as a kitchen was also turned into a vibrant, multi-functional living room and dining room we didn’t originally have. From patterned yellow to green to chalkboard and forest mural walls, bunk beds with slides and make-do four poster fairytale beds; the flat was a canvas for our ever-evolving experimental creativity, albeit one without much thought about the story of the products who inhabited it.

It was only when I hit about 13, a little after Steinbecks’ words came true for me and it walked into my “grave little head that adults do not always have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just” that my world fell into “panic desolation”. I was mortified at all the ways in which the adults in power created vicious cycles of scarcity, with the perspective that people, the animals and our planet are expendable assets. Without the means to effectively integrate these realisations, I fell into an overwhelming cocktail of anger, sadness, guilt and responsibility to fix everything.

I stopped buying clothes and furniture that I loved or needed. I would fill my school backpack to the brim with plastic litter that I would pick up everywhere, angrily and constantly, and gave myself headaches when sitting in cars or airplanes from the sheer rage of knowing that it was letting out CO2. I understood that corporations and governments were at least half the reason we were all in such a mess, evident when Stenbo, who quit IKEA in 2008 stated: “That’s why I have a problem now with discussions about climate change...it’s corporate-driven but we always talk about consumer behaviour.” Yet I still somehow internalised all of the world's problems onto myself and the people around me, and for a couple of years it really impacted my relationships, my creativity and the way I interacted with the world.

Through growing up, living and learning, it's clear that it requires a joint effort, whereby both consumers and producers, big corporations and the average person, interdependently work together, to transform the way that we live with the world as a species, where we can honour our creativity and also honour the planet, without sacrificing our peace in the process. Simultaneously, if we don’t end this zero sum game that we’re playing, it will be as a team, and it will lead us to extinction.

The word consumerism undeniably has connotations with consuming, taking more than we need, or more than we can even use, grossly reinforcing poverty, taking horrific advantage of workers, materials and the environment. However, I recently discovered another interpretation of the word which suggests that it comes from the term ‘Consumer culture’, which is defined by AQR as: “A culture, which may be understood as a pattern of beliefs, values, meanings and customs shared by a group of people, often existing at an implicit or taken-for-granted level. Consumer culture suggests that consumption - the act of buying goods or services - is a cultural activity, one imbued with meaning and driven not just by practical or economic factors.”

If we were to adopt and use this interpretation of the word consumerism as our guide, our current application of consumerism would cease to exist. Imagine if every time any of us consumed or produced something, we slowed down to consciously think about the meaning it holds to us and to its environment, the journey of the product and the story behind and ahead of it. If we all considered this every time, our current application of consumerism would cease to exist and instead, we could embrace and utilise consumer culture for the diversity, innovation, creativity and progression it breeds. Consumerism is not the culprit, but the meaning we give to it, and the way we act on that meaning, is.

It's easy to romanticise the ease of this, and I passionately believe in the phrase “your pound is your vote”, in that when we put our money into certain companies or products, we’re creating a demand that suggests we want more of what we just bought in our world. Yet simultaneously, it's not completely realistic, in systems that are built to make joy and ease a struggle, striving for that is difficult and subject to unavoidable mistakes and imperfection, and beating ourselves for not being the perfect human only makes things worse, I would never want to return to the anger and guilt I felt as a young teenager. Moreover, when considering the intersections of race, sexuality, gender, class and health, many people, even in so called ‘developed’ countries are barely surviving, stuck in a catch 22, and thinking about being able to have access to, let alone choose sustainable products is a luxury. While we can individually use our pound as our vote, at the end of the day, the result is seen collectively and we have to work together to reach it. It’s not the ‘who’s the wokest, most sustainable person’ competition , and at different times, different people hold the privilege and ability to put in more effort to make up for our ‘collective vote’.

Transforming consumerism is a global task and simultaneously it will be made up of many of us facing and transforming our own consumerism, which I’ve come to realise is a very personal, subjective and ever-evolving venture. For me, it’s all about finding a balance, which changes as I do, but nowadays, I try to my best to buy sustainably, mend and make with the materials I already have, buy things I love and know that I will use long term and make sure I’m intentional about the past and future of the products I own. While I make sure to hold myself accountable for my mistakes, I won’t beat myself up over buying a few things I really don't need from Tiger, and I always consider my financial, mental and emotional state. It’s up to each individual to set our own boundaries and goals and do what we’re comfortable with, and simultaneously we must push ourselves outside of our comfort zones knowing that there’s always room to grow and do more.

For a few years I completely rejected the tradition of annually redecorating my room, but now I’m excited to start the same tradition with my own child, albeit with many differences. I would try to find as many sustainable alternatives to buying fast furniture as I’m able to find while still allowing myself to update the way I express myself through my style. Lets challenge ourselves to find solutions that honour our dreams and our lives wholly so that they don't contradict each other but instead compliment each other.

As a young adult looking for work post-education, working for a company with aligned ethics was hugely important to me, and I’m so grateful to have found that with Revolution.

Our whole business is a creative solution to consumerism, that allows people access to sustainable, beautiful and affordable products. To read more about what it is that we do specifically, you can head over to our ‘About’ page and have a scroll through. The way this business is run, and the way people, like our founder Lois, who genuinely cares about transparency and ethics, run the company, makes me comfortable to dream that transforming our relationship with consumerism is not only possible but currently happening.

This blog was written by Dina Chehrazi, Creative Content & Community Engagement Manager at Revolution.