INTERVIEW #37 ERIK HUSS
“I learned something from my old grandma, who survived two world wars and said to me as a kid: “Never buy anything you do not need. If you buy something, buy expensive, then you cry only once.”
Occupation: Consultant within sustainable business development
What’s your relationship with clothes?
It’s all about wearing functional and long lasting clothes. I wear clothes that has a design that last longer than one season. Clothes should be high quality and I like when they have this cool worn out look. I don’t like brand new clothes; I like the ones who have been worn and been through a lot. Since I’m an outdoor person, my clothes are pretty worn out. When I was younger, I didn’t have much money so I learned how to mend my clothes. Now I mend my clothes for environmental reasons. I still have the same sewing machine today.
How would you describe your style?
“Clothes should be high quality and I like when they have this cool worn out look.”
It’s a causal outdoor hippie style. Not very aware, I’m more into the functional aspects. I always go for outdoor clothes since I’m a skier and a mountain guy.
How would you describe your closet?
My closet is not so big. I don’t have many clothes, but my garage has plenty of outdoor gear! It’s like a huge outdoor shop. When my friends go out on hikes and stuff, they come and visit my place and they can borrow gear for their adventures. Sometimes I lose items and sometimes they come back. It’s high quality gear, which I’m proud over even if there’s a lot of stuff. But my closet is small.
What is a sustainable closet for you?
It’s about multifunctional clothes. It’s about not having a very big closet. Maximum one meter wide, one box with trousers, one box with underwear and socks and maybe one meter of shoes. And only things with high quality. I learned something from my old grandma, who survived two world wars and said to me as a kid: “Never buy anything you do not need. If you buy something, buy expensive, then you cry only once.” That has stayed with me. Today I believe her words are more urgent than ever, but for environmental reasons. You will spend less money in the end when aiming for high quality. You will buy less things, which is good for your home planet and your wallet. Expensive is the new black. It is about to put higher value to material things. We need more respect of our wardrobes and what’s in there.
“We need more respect of our wardrobes and what’s in there.”
What do you think about the fashion industry?
Ouh... sorry to say. I think it’s terrible. So much is about producing clothes that are only used once. If they are durable, with a nice design and so on, that’s something else. But if something has a very cool design put poor quality, it becomes ugly with time. If you have something that doesn’t look very fancy, but is very functional and of high quality, it becomes better and more beautiful with time. It’s the same with people. Some people might look very beautiful at first glance, but if they are self-occupied and too self-aware, they become less beautiful when you get to know them. The other way around for the average person, most of them become beautiful when you get to know them. That is real beauty!
Like my Power hoodie, for example. I’ve had it for four years and I have used in in the mountains a lot. It still looks brand new. And if it breaks, Houdini have told me they will repair it. I’ll definitively keep it for my whole life. We should use the material we already have.
“If you have something that doesn’t look very fancy, but is very functional and of high quality, it becomes better and more beautiful with time.”
I think the fashion industry must regain their respect. They have lost the respect for materials, garments, and the customers. They should only make clothing of high quality, and reuse material much more. Their whole lifecycle should be with renewable materials. And regarding this circular business model: things should not be circular. I don’t like the circular metaphor. Instead, business models should be “oval”. Because items needs to last long and can’t be recycled for ever and ever. By rethinking in this way, every product will live longer and by that have a lower environmental footprint per time unit.
What do you believe needs to change?
If you have used a lot of materials, they longer lifetime they have, the less environmental impact there is per usage. It shouldn’t be circular in a fast speed. It should be slowly circular. To just circulate fast emits a lot. We need to circulate slow. We have to start thinking slow. Like in climbing. If you think fast you lose your concentration. If you think slow, you keep calm. In the same manner, we need to think about this in everything we do in society. Not to optimise everything. Western society tries to do that in everything in life, love, home, vacation. That is stressful for you and your family. We have to be more sufficient, we don’t need to use that much energy. We are too greedy. Even in experiences. We try to maximise our fu*king lives, but we are only getting more stressful. No one benefits from this lifestyle.
“I don’t like the circular metaphor. Instead, business models should be “oval”. Because items needs to last long and can’t be recycled for ever and ever.”
I believe that some environmentalist are too aware and too urban, and then they have a high impact on the environment. When it comes to waste management, Stockholm has the highest education in the country. They are the riches, but they are the worst when it comes to recycling. High education doesn’t help. People living on the countryside shows more respect to nature. If you lose contact with “the real living world”, you don’t respect nature. In an urban environment, you have no contact with the real world. This lost contact is one of the reasons why we are environmental villains.
In Sweden the urbanisation is 87% – only 13% live on the countryside.
“I believe we need to live closer to nature, then you realise its real value.”
I believe we need to live closer to nature, then you realise its real value. Inside the city it’s all about consumption. I know a lot of environmentalist who doesn’t have knowledge about the wilderness and that is a problem. If we live more outdoors there’s less risk of being affected by viruses. Covid-19 was spread because we live so dense. There are lots of benefits of not living densely in an urban, stressful environment.
There was this research study with a group of people who were stressed, depressed and burned out. They divided the group into two parts to test two different treatments: one group got anti-depression pills, one group got sugar pills and were advised to visit nature on a regular basis. One of the groups got really good benefits, lower heart pressure, lower stress feeling etc. They started to investigate how this could be the case. Our brains haven’t developed that much the last 40,000 years. We are used to experience the wild nature, trees, lakes and so on. Now we are getting overloaded with information, from screens, traffic, and lots of sounds. The city per see is a stressful environment. I am convinced tthe city can never be an environmentally friendly or healthy place, nor for us humans , nor for any other animal or plant. At the same time, nature is what we humans really need. This might be an inconvenient truth, but it is the problem we need to face. Back to the study: The only bad thing from the results, was that half of the group did not need any medicine, which was not so good for pharmaceutical companies.
“This lost contact is one of the reasons why we are environmental villains.”
“Don’t feel sad of what you don’t have, instead be happy of what you do have.”
What can one do that seeks to create a more sustainable closet?
· Keep what you have and be proud of it.
· If you are tired of something, maybe exchange it on a market or with a friend.
· Avoid buying new stuff.
· If you are tired you can re-colour stuff and you can re-mend shirts who are worn out in the neck. Go to a tailor and they can sew on some new fabric. You can redesign your garments. In that way you respect your closet much more.