Back when I was a child it was K-mart or JCPenny. And let me tell you.. to be spotted in either was HUMILIATING. I can remember being small and my Mother dragging me into K-mart. I begged to wait in the hot car, windows rolled up, no water. I would rather be grounded then step a toe into THAT place. I wasn’t sure why. Just knew it was social suicide to be seen there.
Now “affordable fashion” as they call it is everywhere.. Forever 21, Target, even Macy’s is a shit hole these days.
Yes, I am a label whoring fashion snob but this article is about more than just that. And let me preface it by… I blame the internet.
Let me just say.. I am not against affordable clothing.. I am against what human beings do with it. Buying MASSIVE heaps of crap at a time. Old navy.. jeans 3 for twenty cents. It’s not just the lenders that are predatory. It’s not just the mortgage brokers and credit card companies… What are these clothes made from water and sand?? Who made them? How much did that child get paid for you to pay 7.00 for a pair of jeans? Here is some retail math.. in order for you to get that “great deal” 7.00 retail= 3.00 wholesale= 1.00 cost. and from that dollar you have to get fabric, dye, marking, grading, buttons,zippers,tags, cutting, sewing, packaging, shipping. And I will tell you right now it takes at least an hour to sew a pair of pants. And that without a waist band.
Don’t even get me started on the carbon footprint and the impact on the environment. WASTE.
You think you scored this amaze-balls deal when you stroll out of some hideous chain with 12 bags of polyester eyesores but you are really helping the art of fashion end. No one can afford to create anymore. And high end companies are just as guilty. The industry INSISTS you have a lookbook, product shots, editorial shots, and now an eff-ing VIDEO. Where is the budget for all of this? All because people want to be entertained for free while they waste life tooling around the internet.
Art programs are being ended with budget cuts. It is as if art is not important to us anymore. Numbers are important. Look what has happened to the music industry… next up… fashion.
Most of the beautiful ateliers in France are gone as well as the sample rooms and production houses in Italy. America is up next.
So, keep on filling your bedrooms with disposable clothing girls… while it lasts. Soon no one will be able to afford to make garments so we will all be fucked. And all those shotty clothes you bought for pennies will be literarily falling apart at the seams.
OR.. buy in boutiques… if you can afford it why not buy nicer more expensive better made clothes… just LESS of them. Make sure they are made in a country with labor ethics (USA, Europe etc) And if you are broke.. 2nd hand is KING. You will look WAY more fashionable than if you are wearing some slop off the mass produced rack. Fashion is about looking good. Not looking like 10,000 other people in the exact same outfit. Have some fun… create your style.
xx
Ali