Do you think that brands that start ‘imitating’ fast fashion tactics will face a backlash in the future?

[Britpopbaby]

I’m talking of the constant ‘drops’ of new in pieces, synthetics and styles that are only really meant for one season etc.

Do you think that with the popularity of the second hand market people will increasingly turn to slower fashion and crave better materials?

No, because people are behaving the same way with the secondhand market as they did with fast fashion. The second hand market is full of people looking for a constant hit of cheap, “new” clothes.

Vinted etc aren’t a revolution, they’re just an even cheaper version of overconsumption with a veneer of greenwashing. The only way people will ever really backlash against it will be if they all resort to buying very expensive pieces that they have to look after, mend, and wear and wear. I’m sure someone will pop up and announce that they do that, but it’s VERY rare behaviour and would need to become completely mainstream.

Well people do crave better fabrics and quality as lots of threads on here will attest. But that doesn't mean they're either willing or able to pay for it. I'm not having a pop there, a lot of people are struggling.

I think we're all losing touch with the real cost of clothes - lots of posters won't even remember shopping before the 1990s - and, the longer this goes on, the less chance there is of coming back.

And I agree with the previous poster about Vinted. You've only got to listen to sellers talking about how hardly anyone is willing to pay the asking price, even when it's low.

<Pops up> …

I can’t believe how cheap clothes are now compared to the weekly shop for example. It hardly seems worthwhile economizing when it’s such an affordable way to treat yourself. £20 for a new top or £20 on a Sunday joint?
Ironically I recall economic theory in the 1970s being that as consumer goods were mass manufactured and became cheaper we would not need to work as much as we could easily afford what we needed. We would have more leisure time to spend with our families or on our hobbies. That didn’t happen. Instead we just consume more. In the same way that cheap air travel has made us want more holidays per year. Can anyone imagine sharing a normal 3 or 4ft wardrobe with their partner these days? Or owning just one coat for all eventualities?

I love quality clothes but real quality doesn't mean paying £60 for a top instead of £15, as you've said the dearer brands are all using cheap fabrics anyway. To buy really good clothes, you need to spend hundreds, and even then need to be careful it's not all about the brand name. So I have to stick with what I can afford.

This is unfortunately true. I do mend my clothes and I prefer buying more expensive good quality things made of wool, cotton, linen and hemp that last years than cheap plastic but I realise I am very much in the minority. I am professionally in the field of sustainability so I assume this comes with practicing what I preach.

People’s shopping habits are far from rational and the strive for filling your life up to the brim with plastic is not necessarily driven by poverty, research shows that fast fashion buyers buy way too many clothes and churn them constantly - having space and resources for that is not a sign of poverty .

Shein and Temu's core market is women in their 30s spending £100 per week. It is not people who can't afford to buy elsewhere. People want piles and piles of actual junk.

If you think rationally, one of the most precious and expensive things in life is space. People pay a lot every month in mortgage, pay extra for living in beautiful places and close to nature, put a premium price on naice suburbs. And then this precious space gets filled with single-use, environmentally harmful garments that often cost way more than someone can reasonably afford.

I don’t think there will be a backlash. Right now the rich countries can still export the problem and people don’t make any links between their buying choices and the environmental and health impacts. It’s going to be harder and harder to get rid of the clothes though, the oversupply is enormous. There will be more fly tipping and our lovely leafy suburbs will turn into something from a dystopian novel. The process will be slow though, we are already living like the proverbial boiling frogs. It will be a future like in “The Machine Stops” - slow decline till it’s too late to save anything and anyone.

You're probably right. I think I'll just pull the neck of my (mohair, darned once) jumper up over my head & pretend it's not really this bad ...

No it's simple supply and demand they'll keep existing as long as theirs people still buying it you might not purchase it but enough do that they stay open