I think it's very important to point out that "Fast Fashion" is not another way to say, "low price, low quality clothing". It usually ends up that way, but that is not what the term means.
Fast Fashion is the rapid, consistent cycling of micro trends, which requires an acceleration of the design > manufacturing > sales chain. That's it.
(You can also have year-round garments like plain, white t-shirts that have also tanked in quality over the years -- this is not a Fast Fashion problem, but related to general cost cutting in fabric production.)
Yes, this disproportionately affects low income populations, but you have *got* to understand how this is a business model that goes beyond clothing and crosses income brackets.
I want to point out 2 things that often get left out of this conversation:
1) To dislike fast fashion is not to say "fuck you for wearing the only clothes you can afford". It is to dislike a very modern and unsustainable production model that is the realization of the "endless growth" model of late-stage capitalism.
2) Garment (and other production) workers are consistently left out in the "how dare you piss on the poor" hot takes. We have *got* to encourage liveable wages for everyone.
"The $10 shirt is all some people can afford" and "a new shirt should never be $10" are both unfortunately true.
In a similar vein, I am getting increasingly frustrated at the "it's a privilege to be able to thrift" discourse.
Thrifting as a hobby and thrifting to be able to clothe yourself are two different practices that are increasingly getting conflated. And the existence of the former is being used to discourage the latter.
I will continue to recommend thrifting for both fashion and needs-based clothing, with the suggestion that one check the fabric content label and try to get something with as low a spandex content as possible. (And if you can, learn a couple of other earmarks for longevity or suitability for alterations.) You may not luck out every time, and some days you may not have the time to inspect everything on the rack, but a little knowledge here could score you a garment that you won't have to replace so soon.
Same thing with learning how to care for your clothing. Got things prone to shrinkage because of spandex or it was never pre-shrunk? If you can spare the day, let it air dry vs running through a machine. You can't always avoid shitty garments, but you can try to eke more life out of them, and it helps to know *why* they are shitty to begin with.
And that is really the point of these conversations when you, yourself are part of the worst impacted class of people. A little knowledge that can tip the balance when confronted with what you thought were 2 identical purchases. A little reassurance that, no, you didn't fuck up washing these clothes, they ripped or shrank because the quality is worse than what you grew up with.
I am getting so frustrated with people who are determined to turn conversations about clothing into opportunities to create increasingly minute class distinctions to encourage either fighting or nihilism. It is important to be able to describe what is going on with capitalism without that being perceived as a personal attack. And likewise understand that solutions range from the personal to the systemic, and sometimes the personal is all you can try at the moment.
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