Why I've Given Up Fashion (From Generic Shopping Malls & Big Box Creativity Haters)

I AM NOT HERE TO TELL YOU WHAT TO DO, but instead to give you some information that helped me make a life-changing change.

Do with this information what you will, but once you have read this I would hope that you'd start thinking about how your purchases reflect on your ethics. It took me a while to understand this concept but when you spend your hard earned money, it's like voting, it says something about your character. I understand that dire circumstances call for different actions but educating yourself about what your money is supporting is something everyone has access to these days. 

EXTERNALIZING COSTS

Annie Lenard does an amazing job of explaining this concept in her The Story of Stuff video but I will give it a shot. When you pay someone less than a fair wage it means that you can sell that product for less than you should be able to sell it for. Because you aren't accounting for the entire cost of manufacturing. So when you buy a clock radio for the 'GREAT PRICE' of $5 it is not because it's a great deal it is because the person who physically put that radio together was paid peanuts, so really they are the people who are paying the full price so that you can buy an essentially discounted product. MOST big box fashion retailers are guilty of this offense. They protect themselves by being unaware, the same way that consumers are unaware. They deal with a nice person who tells them what they want to hear but they never set foot in the actual factories themselves. 


For some extra clarification here is the wikipedia version of externalization costs.

TOXICITY is NOT FASHIONABLE

Retailers have recently been exposed for using dyes that are not only contaminating waterways but they are toxic and leaching these un-heatlhy chemicals onto our bodies and into our entire lives. 

ARTICLES:
General Info - Total Health
Formaldehyde 
Greenpeace's FInding - Natural News

TRENDS SUCK.

Another thing that makes this all possible is that I dress for my body, or at least I am learning to do so, versus trying to stay up on trends. With the way that the fashion industry works today trends are changing every couple of weeks. Trying to always be ahead of the curve would be expensive, exhausting and wasteful. Instead of always looking like everyone else who thinks they are trendy why not wear clothes that flatter your body type and look timelessly, effortlessly, comfortable in your own skin.

Quality is Definitely Cooler...

When I was a Forever 21 obsessed high schooler I would buy so many 'perfect dresses' that I would wash once or twice and the garment would lose it's shape, get full of fabric pills, or have seems coming a part. I could shop at places like Charolette Russe, H&M and Zara and the clothes would always be cute but for how long?  Quality garments, clothes that last, have more value than a cheap trendy piece. Trends come and go. 

Thrift Stories are More Fun

Thrifting is exciting to me. I am lucky enough to have a strong sense of my own style so sorting through the racks and racks of clothing is easier than for me than most. It gives an opportunity for figuring out what you actually like and dislike, when you shop in a department store you are only given a mirage of options. 

Being that there is no copyright in the fashion world no one can be punished for replicating another person's design. Big box retailers take trends that they see on  runways in Milan and NYC and create cheaper versions in their Chinese and Indonesian factories. 

Examples of how I manage to stay somewhat stylish while 80% of my wardrobe has previously lived in someone else's closet.

& once I started I couldn't stop READING...

OVERDRESSED: The Shockingly High Cost of Fast Fashion

An article in Grist

Ms. Magazine

Recovering Shopaholic

Global Post

Educating yourself is the key to making decisions that not only get you what you 'need' but also reinforce the goodness in your heart. 

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This is definitely the abbreviated version of this specific journey in my life's novel but I hope it gave you something to think about. Think twice about buying that cheap crappy tee shirt, think about the full cost that it takes to make a product and the value of your belongings being ethical. 

xoxox, kp