I was lucky to move to Austria from the Czech Republic at the age of 14. Until then, my life was shaped by frugality. If I left the bathroom light on after I left, my mother would immediately tell me off for leaving it on. We never wasted anything. Never had too much of anything either. On my birthday, which is on Earth Day, every year we went on a school trip to pick up trash in the surrounding forests and parks.   

When I arrived in Austria, I couldn’t believe my luck! I was suddenly able to afford as many clothes as I desired. They weren’t expensive. Instead of spending money on food, I saved it so I could spend everything I had on clothes. The realization that something was off came once I enrolled in a vocational college of fashion and textile technology and realized that making dresses, skirts, and coats takes me days and that I could never realistically make a living as a fashion designer – my childhood dream since  the age of 5. 

For the last two decades, I’ve been observing and learning how systems work. In my academic work, I wrote about the history of American housewives and consumerism, taking a closer look at manipulation techniques, advertising, and propaganda. Later on, I analyzed the value system of fashion consumption in western countries.