Fast fashion and Gen Z- felt really old reading this article

[onlychildhamster]

www.theguardian.com/fashion/2021/oct/06/out-of-style-will-gen-z-ever-give-up-its-dangerous-love-of-fast-fashion

Alessia Teresko, a 21-year-old student from Nottingham, seldom wears the same outfit online twice. Which is why, last month, for a friend’s birthday, she bought a minidress: a 70s-style Zara dress in a swirling print, for which she paid £27.99. On Instagram, she posted a photograph of herself in her new dress, with a caption that read “Besties wknd”. The post racked up 296 likes and with it, Teresko’s Zara purchase was sent to the giant wardrobe in the sky. (Namely, the Depop account, where she resells the clothes she no longer wears.) “I can’t take another picture in it because I already posted it,” says Teresko. “I know that sounds very superficial.”

Scott Bowden, 23, a delivery driver from Saltash, has online shopping delivered to his house so frequently that his dad has a running joke with the postman. “The guy who delivers to my house finds it funny how many clothes I’ve ordered,” Bowden says. Bowden estimates he spends around £50 a week on clothes, usually from Asos, but occasionally from the ultra-low-cost retailer Shein. Bowden is aware of some of the ethical issues around purchasing fast fashion. “Recently, when all the stuff came out about people [at other companies] not being paid the minimum wage,” he says, “stuff like that makes you feel awful, if it’s true that they are getting paid that little.”

I am 29 this year and it never occurred to me that people can't wear the same outfit twice? Where do they get all the closet space? I am not that great at buying sustainable clothes- my dresses range from £20 to £50, I buy from Joules, Boden, Monsoon but also buy from charity shops and have recently bought a dress i love from Gudrun Sjoden (would be buying from them more). But all my dresses are well loved and worn at least once a fortnight (unless they are summer dresses). I have a dress from 8 years ago that I still love and wear regularly. I wear my shoes until they break.

I don't mean to be critical cos of course it isn't just Gen Z that is mass buying lots of cheap clothes but I am genuinely curious. If you buy clothes to only wear a few times, firstly

1. How do you afford it. Yes there are £3 dresses, but I wear my £35 dress at least once in 2 weeks. That is 26 times every year and assuming i keep it for 5 years, that is 30 p per wear. Even if I wore it once a month, it would be 60p per wear. Based on this article, the £3 dress is thrown away after 1 wear and even if sold, you probably can't get more than £1 for it. Also I am sure most of the fast fashion outfits amount to more than £3
2. How do you store it if you don't sell it?
3. Do people really notice?!

Well, I can only speak for DD and her friends, but their most recent purchases have been from an on-line second hand shop which specialises in designer/expensive brands. I don't know the name of it, but she was thrilled to get designer brands at half price, and pre-owned. She was particularly chuffed with a pair of Reiss trousers for £40.

Well it says the first one resold it. So made some money fit the next purchase and it’s not taking up space in her wardrobe

Vestiaire collective BigWoollyJumpers

Easy enough to fit any theory to an article, which is what the press are best at - finding a knee jerk, headline grabbing concept then shaping some evidence around it to pad it out.
People love feeling indignant about 'others' so long as the arrow isn't pointed at them.

As for Gen Z, I have no idea why this makes you feel old. Fast fashion has always been aimed squarely at youth.
However, I would be careful not to take the age presumptions too seriously. Whenever I have witnessed gross overconsumption of fast fashion online it has been with women over 40. There are a plethora of well known British ladies getting through a fuck ton of polyester each week, and apart from s very small handful, most of them never wear the same thing twice.

I would say we can observe all age ranges falling prey to this. Just look at MN, how many people here really wear the same thing season after season, even if it remains in good condition? Some, I know, but not all by any stretch. Ive seen countless threads with women over 40 bemoan the 'dated' skinny jeans whilst saying they don't want to part with them, but wind up ordering 10 pairs of mom/wide/carpenter jeans just to keep up with what teen DD is wearing.

Mass consumption is destroying the planet, this is a fact. But articles which try to lay the blame at the feet of one generation are laughable.

I do agree it’s not just one particular age group. In fact oftentimes as we age or have kids we gain and lose weight and things just don’t even fit, it’s not a choice then.

We read loads of posts on here about ‘bin bags’ of stuff being cleared out and probably quite a lot of that stuff is ill considered purchasing. We feel fine as we think it’s going to benefit charity but often it’s pretty worthless. Even developing countries don’t want it.

Bargains (‘check out this £5 dress, I bought three’, ‘look at my haul!’) are seen as desirable. People claim sustainability is for the rich as they can’t afford £40 on a T-shirt, whilst simultaneously buying 4 £10 T-shirts. It’s tough though as we are conditioned to want new stuff and our styles do evolve over time. It’s also not as easy as saying ‘spend more to get better quality’ as that doesn’t stack up. Primark tops last longer than Jigsaw etc.

I do think we could all just buy less. Even selling on eBay or Vinted incurs environmental costs and is often used by people to justify/afford buying new stuff. It’s just such a shame we’ve ended up like this over the last 20 years.

@lolliwillowes
Great post. Totally agree it’s wrong to place the blame on any one generation.
A lot of Instagrammers I follow claim to be all about sustainable fashion but then post a new outfit every day - this totally defeats the point. Just because your outfit is expensive and produced sustainably doesn’t mean you should have a new one every day. The whole point is to buy fewer and rewear the item - but that won’t keep your followers interested will it 🙄

I suspect many of them get into debt. This is why ASOS changed their returns policy a few years ago - instagrammers wearing something once then sending it back - but doing it with bags of clothes.

It's the new keeping up with the Joneses.

It’s sickening, but it’s not just gen-Z. All age groups are guilty. I know I buy far too much as a 37 year old and I really want and need to stop. Primarily for the environment but also for my wallet.

I don’t understand the notion of wearing something once and discarding it. Obviously selling it on is better… it is still so wasteful though. I love looking through Instagram for inspiration but the culture of influencers is depressing.