It's also become so hard to find fabric that's actually appropriate for garment sewing, at least in-store. All the big fabric stores in my area have moved to mostly decoration and costume stuff. Completely different from what they were like in the 80s/90s, where not that many people sewed their own clothes but it was still very viable and somewhat commonplace. A lot of crafts stores closed during the recession too. It reduced the options one might have had outside cheap disposable clothing a lot. Something that could be mentioned in the debates re: accessibility of good quality clothing too is that it isn't just about physical/financial access. Try walking into a luxury shop as a poor person who's saved enough to invest in something durable? Half the time you'll be subtly driven out. And then there's the Expensive Fast Fashion shops where everything still falls apart in two months but at least you paid a lot for the bragging rights of a style that's aimed at making you look a certain class.....
Back in the 70s there were so many fabric stores and a wide choice of fabrics. Most made in North America. I watched fabric both decline in quality and increase in price over the decades. The other thing that changed was the sizing of the patterns. I went to buy a new style of pants pattern around 1980. I asked for a size 12, which had been my size for ages. The lady behind the counter told me to buy a 10. She was right. The new patterns all fitted big. It has become worse over time. If I find an old pattern from the 50s, 60s or 70s that match my measurements it will fit just about perfect. Maybe a few slight adjustments. Buy a modern pattern that fits my measurements and it will fall off of me. It seems you are suppose to find cheap fabric to make up the pattern first and spend hours adjusting it. Not worth the time.
I highly recommend the video "Why No One Wins the Fast Fashion Debate" by Broey Deschanel, where she mainly talks about how people justify to themselves to keep buying fast fashion. People in bad faith will argue that poor people need clothing, which yes, I'm from a poor family so I know, but there's a difference between a poor person buying a pair of pants and wearing them til' they wear out and a middle class/upper class person buying a huge Shein haul. So the fact that you mention it at the beginning that you are mainly talking about people buying things for the trend sake is very important, since sadly, a lot of young people missunderstand the critics against fast fashion. Because while it's true that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism (copypasta), that doesn't mean that you have to choose the worst option.
You are quite on point with your comment. I´d just like to add, coming from a lower income family that always had to spend money thoughtfully I can say that fast fashion in most cases is not a good way save money. A clothing item twice as expensive as primark will propable hold up 4 times more washings without looking aweful or falling apart. So buying a certain level of quality is actualy frugal. I save a lot of money because I buy things I love thouroughly and wear them for years. I have a pair of fairly made ecofriendly shoes that cost a lot, so what, I wear them almost every day for 3 years now and they still look great. Cheap boots would have long given up on me. I repurchased the same boot recently to have a backup, as the first ones finaly start to chow some wear and tear, because I freakin love these boots.
The fast fashion vs paying more for quality issue still affects poor people. Terry Pratchett summarized it perfectly with his Sam Vimes Boot Theory of economics-- if you don't have the money to buy the better pair of boots, you'll spend twice as much on cheap ones over a ten year period and have wet feet the whole time.
@@angryhistoryguy5657 I see your argument though there are many ways to get higher quality clothing on you. Especialy shoes and outerwear are important to be of a certain quality. Second hand rocks
And cheaper clothing isn't ALWAYS low quality. You can look at the fabrics, how the garment was made: is it cotton or polyester, did they stitch the seams shut, are the hems finished or just cut, is it dyed or printed, etc. The same price can get you very different quality items, even in the same store. I've found any line called "basics" is good quality, but super cheap, and a classic style that will last as long as the garment (and that might be a long time). The stuff that's very trendy is often lower quality, even though it costs more. If you're poor and looking to maximize your dollar, absolutely there is cheap clothing - but you have to be careful. Those middle class people buying "trendy" clothes for $10 are getting shafted, whereas someone buying jeans on clearance for $10 (or I got a sweater a the Gap for $10 on sale) are getting a good deal. So I think Nicole has hit the nail on the head here - it's not that we need to buy only custom-made hand-sewn clothing like the 18th century, but we need to look at how the clothing is made. If it's a "fast fashion" brand, look at the quality of the individual piece. I am a huge advocate for second-hand shopping, because this is where the better-made clothing ends up. People turn it in because they changed size, or they like a different style. I donated lots of office clothing because I didn't need them. Maternity clothing is worn for 6-9 months and then tossed: buy used. Etc.
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I would like to point out that fast fashion items are not necessarily cheap. Many of the brands while they use poor quality materials and cheap labour, don't sell their items cheaply. On the contrary, they sell them at 10 times its original value (or even more) because they're trendy and it's the brand "you want to wear right now". Many of the brands don't charge you for the item itself but for the item being "what xyz celebrity wears", or "Instagram ready", or simply "trendy this week".
@@rainbow_lorelei True. But in many countries the best option to save money is going to second hand, thrift shops, charity shops or garage sales/giveaways. You get better quality for lower price.
This reminds me of how I bought a few pairs of jeans from a thrift store, one of those jeans was Armani Exchange. Despite being the pricier brand they fell apart the fastest compared to the cheaper jeans I grabbed which I still own today. But yeah, a lot of these companies you pay for the brand name more than anything.
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@@brydenvargas9863 I had similar with a pair of "leather" trousers from Zara. In a month they were lousy, and in month and a half I had to throw them away because they were falling apart.
It is crazy to think we have honesty had fast fashion for over a 100 years. It is astounding and a bit terrifying how much wasted fabric and clothes there are now.
Plus fashion is a major source of greenhouse gases & overall pollution. Seems wild to me that we're destroying the planet over items we couldn't care less about.
There's also another issue related to accessibility of slow fashion, in addition to price: sizing. As a plus sized person, I've seen SO many slow fashion brands that hit my style and price needs, but NOT my size needs.
For the classic ethical brand aesthetic pretty much everything would be size inclusive if the garments didn’t have sleeves And if people in that size range were okay with being compared to literal potato sacks
@@phoenixfritzinger9185 if I wanted potato sack clothes, I could make them myself 😄 Sometimes I just want something that I'm too lazy to sew for myself.
The paper dresses thing reminded me of a family story lol. My aunt got a paper dress (this would have been in the late 60s) and the first day she wore it happened to be one of the few days of the year that it rains. My grandma had to go to her school and bring her another dress because the paper one kinda...dissolved.
So they were really truly paper? I'm now very curious because a couple years ago I saw a "paper" dress in an exhibition about a British brand and that one was more like the stuff non-woven interfacing is made out of. So for the last couple of years I've been low-key under the impression that that was what the 60s paper dresses actually were (I think the exhibition text even said something to that effect). But maybe that was just a British answer to British weather. :D ETA: Or - I wish I could remember the name of the brand in question now to look into it - they were actually originally conceived as the non-woven stuff and someone looked at that with a fast-fashion lens and went "I could make that out of paper".
@@indiabilly No, this exhibition was held in Prague, and it was a Jewish couple who had fled Prague before WW2 and settled in London. I don't think they necessarily invented it or anything like it, it was just one of the many many things they designed.
I only hope that manufacturers of appliances can follow the lead of slow fashion and build things that will last more than 10 years. My parents had a freezer that lasted more than 50 years, but my fridge died after 12 years. Same with the washer & dryer (which we repaired three times before having to replace). We replaced our dishwasher twice and our 2nd microwave is on its way out. We're going broke having to replace a major appliance every other year.
I got so mad when the $750 Kenmore computerized sewing machine I purchased in 2000 I started going out five years later and actually died this week, while my granny’s 1907 Singer 27 treadle is still going strong! And the 1961 Rocketeer and 1970s 247 as well. I’ve given up on modern machines. You can’t get parts (thanks, Kenmore) but you can for the old machines!
That is called planned obsolescence. It's a combination of cheap manufacture and marketing. Be sure: it is designed to fail, and to fail in a way that is more expensive to repair than to completely replace. Some manufacturers won't even authorize parts for repairs - so the option to repair is not there. In fact, the end user or consumer of the appliance can't order the parts to DIY the repair! You see it in cars, especially: repair manuals are black market items! It's hard to believe that the "right to repair" is an actual headline in the news. The marketing aspect of replacing your old appliances almost weaponizes your conscience against you; I keep getting notices from my natural gas utility that my furnace is older than X years, and newer, more efficient models are available, I need to switch, it's so much better for the environment! Never mind that the furnace has worked for X number of years, and replacing it would require the energy-intensive manufacture of all its components, the transport of all those components, and the scrapping of the old components. My gas bills haven't gone up, and the neighbours I've talked to about it pay more than I do with their newer appliances, for heating similar square footage. Let's not even get into the "windows and doors" people who tell me my old windows are no more effective against the elements than a colander. What is the environmental cost of manufacturing a new window, in terms of energy and water used in production of said window? And how long will it take to amortize my personal efficiency gains against the manufacturing costs?
@@daxxydog5777 I have yet to "upgrade" to a new sewing machine, though I have been asked why I haven't many, many times. My main machine is a 1969 Kenmore that is the best machine I have ever used. I have just gotten a "new" machine, though, my mother-in-law's 1960 Pfaff 360. It sews like a dream.
I work in retail/donated goods management for a large non for profit thrift store and the sheer amount of clothing recieved via donation is mind blowing. Like much of it is unsellable bc it's tok worn but just the sheer amount of clothing being cycled through is alarming at best.
Yeah I worked briefly at a charity shop in England (so slightly different to thrift stores, but similar concept) and whilst most stuff coming in was saleable condition (collection bags tell you what not to include) there were additional rules on what got put on the shelf. If the item had no brand tag then unless it looked unworn or very good condition it got put on the pile to go to be sold as a job lot of fabric to be turned into rags or otherwise recycled. It was partly because they had had people recognise brands & complained about the pricing being too high. When pricing there were categories so if it was something cheap from say ASDA or Tescos (George or F&F brands) the garment would be priced lower than if it came from somewhere like Marks & Spencers where the clothing would cost more new. If you judged the tagless item to be good enough quality to fit the price scale of the higher up brands but it was actually from a cheap place then you could end up pricing it for more than it was new. But so much was just not put on the shelves. If they had too much of one size out they'd not want more. And if the material was something that couldn't be steamed the policy was steam it anyway & stock it if it survives or send it to the recycling pile if not. Which was frustrating as there were some good items which had to be thrown away just because they couldn't be steam cleaned without ruining them. There were some items without tags which I actually took home with me because I cut tags out of my clothes to make them wearable so didn’t care & was happy to donate some money to do so. They couldn't officially sell them, but I could pop some money in the donation box and it could leave the premises lol. I got a PSP for £25 that way as they couldn't sell electronics but I tested it, it worked, so they let me take it. Probably spent more than I earned whilst working there (I was a volunteer but paid by a different charitable organisation set up to help young adults with various difficulties access work).
I didn’t know until college that people still make clothing, even for fast fashion. I honestly thought robots would be doing most if not all of it by now. That really changed the way I look at my clothes
Right? I've had to explain to so many people over the years that sewing machines are not self operating. We just don't see the process any more! (hopefully that's changing, but it's definitely going to be a generational difference)
You’re in good company, Mary. I’m just now realizing just how many people are involved in making every single thing I buy, everything I see, and everything I own.
I had to explain it to my father about ten years ago, when we were touring a locomotive factory and they had this facility for cutting out "pattern pieces" from sheets of metal by laser - which were then assembled by, you guessed it, people. I made the analogy and father was surprised. It was something of a shock to me because father is the sort of person who tends to know the ins and outs of all sorts of unexpected things. So it was something of a metric for how much the process of making clothes is hidden from the public, at the time.
@Mary Johnson - One summer, while I was in high school, I worked at a factory that made women's sleep & lounge wear. The fabric was laid out on a huge table in 100s of layers. The pattern-cutter (the most important person in the factory) would lay out the pattern pieces (made from Masonite) for the most economical cut. He used an enormous sabre saw to cut through all those layers then tied the pieces in big bundles. The women (no men) on the sewing floor worked on one small step in the process, over and over and over. They sewed like their machines were jet-engine-powered. A lot of them had scars on their hands from accidents with flying needles. They did piece work, meaning they didn't get paid per hour, but got a tiny amount for each bundle they sewed. It was hard, dangerous work for a low income. I worked as a gopher for the pattern cutter and printed out those little labels you see in the clothing. I had to quit after a month because all the fibers in the air gave me a very bad case of bronchitis. The air wasn't filtered and masks were never provided. The only sewer I knew that was paid well was a woman who worked at a nearly swimsuit factory who made all their sample models. AND she frequently brought home samples that weren't needed anymore for her granddaughter and me. (We thought that was her most valuable benefit!)
@@NicoleRudolph I think one of the things is that so much of this is massively out of sight, out of mind. I'm not sure many people have a conception of who makes their clothes and how. I went to trade school for sewing/clothing production and one of the things that was stressed to me is how quickly you need to make something in order for it to be profitable because time. is. money. Things like assembly line styles of sewing do make things faster but you need fast machines and skilled machinists (because unpicking anything takes time, and again, time is money.) Previously we used to have outworkers/sweatshops in our own western countries - like in America, how you'd have immigrants including children working in places like Triangle Shirtwaist, or you'd have people taking bundles of garments home and sewing all day - but when labour laws changed in various countries making it more difficult to get away with locking a bunch of immigrant women in a factory and getting them to sew all day where people in western countries could see it, it's mostly been taken off shore to cheaper and cheaper countries with worse and worse labour practices. And it's incredibly difficult to get transparency! Like even when I spoke to people who had ethical fashion brands, even they couldn't guarantee that the fabric itself from the farming to the weaving/knitting/textile manufacture was made ethically/with good labour practices because they just didn't have that information. Another thing I was taught when making patterns in a commercial style was to label them with colour coding and universally accepted symbols, because as our teachers pointed out, in the fashion industry often your garments will be sewn by people who can't speak English/the same language as you/might have low literacy. tldr the best we can all do is do our best. Yes, there are some folks out there who can weave the wool directly off the sheep they raise or the small plot of linen they've grown but that isn't feasible and hasn't been feasible for most people for an incredibly long time.
I actually think a more descriptive term for what is happening with fashion today is disposable fashion. It’s not just about the speed at which fashions and garments are produced now, it is the way that clothing items are now so often produced to be almost single use products.
one good quote from the Stitchess on fast/slow fashion is 'the most sustainable garment is the one already in your closet' (also i love your outfit in this video)
Alyssa Beltempo says that, too - I love her monthly series on shopping your closet to recreate looks, rather than going out to buy all the pieces in the inspiration image. (Look her TH-cam channel up, it's a goldmine of good style and slow fashion.)
My first experience with what I call "disposable fashion" was in the late 1960s when I went to a Paraphernalia store to see Betsey Johnson's designs. There were organdy shirts with a drop shoulder yoke called "squaw shirts". The seam allowances were raw! Fraying!! These were produced to be worn a few times and replaced by the next new concept. Maybe the owner wouldn't need to wash or iron even once during her brief but glorious displays.
The 2005-2007 timeline is telling. That's around the time of the t-shirt layering trend, and shirts from fast fashion brands started getting thinner. I had a t-shirt from Old Navy that was noticably thicker from the early 2000s I wore for at least 10 yrs, maybe closer to 15, until the hems were worn out, because the shirts they were selling were so much thinner.
I hadn't even thought about that! The quality of clothing did drop SIGNIFICANTLY during that era. And it really feels, looking back, that they were seeing just how far they could go with thin fabrics, everything already full of holes and faded when "new", and I remember being so mad at one company that always had cheap knit on the back of nice fronted shirts.
Is that what happened?!? I had noticed that my old t-shirts were nice and then everywhere you looked after some point they were practically see-through but since I was a little kid and not interested in fashion, I always assumed that there was an "improvement" in how the fabric was made industrially
Huh. Interestingly, now I think the whole cheap low quality fast fashion trend took a tad longer to arrive to Czechia, because I seem to recall that at the point layered tees were a trend, the tees were still fairly good quality - the sort I am now desperately searching for. I seem to recall that the boom of international fast fashion chain shops was only just starting here (there were some predecessors, but a lot of the brands you see now are relatively new arrivals). I haven't really thought of that before!
@kaypgirl - That cheap thinning goes on today. For example, Target has some stylish, cute clothing, but when you look at it up close, the fabrics are thin polyester that are cheaply made.
Totally agree with the last remarks. I am guilty of owning more fast fashion than I like to admit but, in my defense, I usually buy pretty basic styles and manage to keep good care of my clothes, so that I can wear them for at least 4, 5 years even if cheap. For shoes, the good ones I have are second hand and I will wear them for many years too. In the end being more conscious in our consumer habits is important. And on top of this, I don't care if I don't own the latest and most fashionable stuff, I agree with someone who said that trends are for the anxious🙂
I still have clothes from when I was a teenager (10 - 15 years ago now). Its very rare that I get rid of clothing - normally its clothes that are bought FOR me with the assumption that I will like it, but I don't and sadly don't have the space to hold onto it (even for experimenting in sewing which is a hobby I don't do but would like to). Even still, I tend to hold onto them for years and years and trying to get over the guilt of getting rid of them lmao . Not because I feel bad about getting rid of stuff that's still good - though that's part of it - but the guilt that I'm getting rid of something that was bought with me in mind and I seemingly have not appreciated it "enough" - though this is my problem and how I end up with battling a potential hoard situation It sounds like it would take a massive mental effort for me to go through letting go of that kind of guilt on such a regular basis that I could never even imagine to partake in fast fashion... Then I would DEFINATELY have a hoarding problem
A lot of the problem I have found is in "cut" if a garment has enough space to be comfortable in key areas like bust and armscyes is much more likely to stay in my warderobe and get reworn. Too many fast fashion pieces are not designed to move normally in.
Is it truly fast fashion if you still use the pieces bought? From my understanding, fast fashion encompasses not just how the clothing is made, but how long the item is worn. I have many clothing pieces that I've bought from companies that produce fast fashion but I still wear them years later. People like us who buy the clothes, but still keep them until they can no longer be worn, are not the problem but the companies that produce the fast-fashion items and the people who will spend 100s at these stores and throw away the clothes bought by the end of the season are.
This makes a lot of sense. I'm always surprised when you or Abby are dating something and you have SUCH specificity "this has to be 1892, because x" when I'm wearing the same things I wore 20 years ago (literally, some of my shirts are from high school) and while there are certain items that exist for a moment, general fashion changes slowly in modern times.
For many years I collected books on Etiquette. All of the very best books had several chapters on Dress and Grooming. All the chapters talked about having one classic cut coat and dress and using accessories to update to the fashion trends of the times. It was better they said to wear a well cut outfit out of good quality material than the cheap frocks not meant to last the season. The books dates were early1920s & 1930s... since I began collecting as a teen they greatly influenced me ....this "historybounding" in nothing new...with this episode I see where that attitude was developed. Pick a color- a Navy, Grey, or Brown and then all the blouses and scarves hats gloves can be had for less money to add that appearance of trendy.
I’ve listened to a number of podcasts discussing fast fashion and they always refer to it as a strictly recent problem from the 80s/90s. I REALLY enjoyed this deeper dive into the history of how it came to be. I also appreciate that you argue that the solutions will have to be creative and nuanced since we are quite literally forging new ways of doing things without being able to go back to the old. As usual, 🙌🏻!
It's the same way with the discussion about importing and the two go hand in hand! The belief that we made everything down the road, only owned a few expensive items for that reason, and never threw anything out because "fashion" for most was decades behind. The reality is centuries of global imports!
I’m guessing that it’s because the speed at which we consume clothes has really sped up the past few decades. I believe even in the last decade the amount of clothes we buy has increased tremendously. And the amount of time we own those clothes for has reduced. So I suppose people conflate the two things. I’m also really enjoying this deep dive into the history of it.
Mostly because before the 70s only people in the upper classes and upper middle class could do the fast fashion stuff. Nobody else did it. What happened in the 80s and 90s is that trade barriers went down. Suddenly you had to get your fashion made overseas because otherwise you couldn't compete. Suddenly everyone wanted a cheap outfit every season, everyone. Not just the jetset. I was involved in computerizing of the industry from the early 70s on. Only fabrics were imported then and not all of them either. By the 80s all the software was about importing, everything. And yes there was a lot of discussion about the labour practices overseas even then at the civil rights and union sides as well as environmental.
When I was a YA in 2000 we had a new top every week (couldn't wear the same thing twice) I had to use my lunch money to keep up and frequently went hungry and lived on 50p Pizza to afford a £10 top I wore only once. Looking back, I was insane.
I guess it's a Mix between misconception and romantization of the past. My mother does that one hell of a Lot. She keeps going on about how "nowadays" all Fabrics are Just plastic crap, Like it's a new phenomenon and i believed it for years. Until i got into Vintage Fashion. And Lo and behold, what is the vast majority of 60s and 70s garments made of? Polyester! In Part probably because Polyester has surived the Test of time better than wool and cotton. But also because the 70s were really into futuristic Styles and it was a new-ish fabric. But If you ask my mum, then the 60/70s were still that magical time when plastic didnt exist.
It is extremely telling that it is mostly women's fashion that fast fashion. Because women, especially young women, need to market themselves as with it and exciting in order to obtain status and "win" a upwardly mobile man. This concept continues even in modern work life where women are not in the marriage market. A woman can not wear the same outfit twice or even too frequently or she loses status. However even then what you wear is important, if you are in management you can't be too trendy or look like the clerical staff or again you lose status. Men on the other hand can go through their entire career while owning 3 suits and a closet full of shirts. Those suits can even be identical. Oh and those shirts? They cost significantly less then a woman's blouse. So in order to reduce fast fashion you have to change society.
When I began my career in the 1980s, most clothing was still well-made of natural fibers, with breathable rayon linings. Now, I find it impossible to find a blazer made of wool with even a rayon lining. I hate the dominance of polyester, I just can’t tolerate fabrics like that.
I remember my sister had a paper Mini-dress that the phone company gave away that was printed with the yellow pages. ( The yellow pages was the advertising portion of the printed phone book, which were literally yellow with black lettering). This video is really striking a cord with me.
What a nice thing you did by describing what the Yellow Pages were. Age inclusivity is so lacking, and I just wanted to let you know I see you. Thanks.
@Theresa Ann Diaz - If your sister still has that dress, it is probably very collectible. Some collectors specialize in paper goods. Have her try eBay.
I love this topic! I started making clothes again because I can't buy sustainable clothing mare for a short-waisted fluffy lady. The stuff available that fits me is badly made and literally falls apart. Making my own clothing has problems, too. I have to order garment fabric -- everything sold in stores around me is geared toward quilting or other crafts. That means I have swatches delivered, then proceed to have the fabric delivered. Which burns fossil fuels and has a real carbon footprint. At least the clothing I make wears really well and holds up in the wash.
@Jennifer Andrew - Don't beat yourself up about the carbon footprint. Clothing and fabric you would purchase in stores are also delivered by fossil-fuel-burning airlines, cargo vessels, and trucks. In addition, the stores are brightly lit with way more glaring electrical lighting than you ever use at home and they also have a much larger space to heat and cool than you have at home. We have one fabric shop where I live - a Joanne's. It, too, carries quilting / craft / costume / decorating goods. No fine clothing fabrics.
Consider thrifting Ikea Bedsheets or wall hangings for your project. If you like tie dye you can make a dress out of one light coloured bedsheet and dye it afterwards.
Part of this is that it’s definitely a vicious cycle perpetuated by wealth inequality and low wages in recent years. The vast majority of people have way less buying power than we did before the 2009 recession, and clothing along with most other goods becomes a terry pratchett boots situation. When you can only afford the cheap stuff you end up buying way more of it over time, and when your stuff falls apart, why not get something trendy? Whereas if you had the cash to buy a well made item you’d end up not buying more things but just using what you have since it’s still in good condition. I mend and patch and darn incessantly but my clothes still fall apart so fast just because of poor fabric quality!! Just realized this applies to housing too. Goddamnit
I saw a documentary about how ridiculous amounts of clothes end up being sold in big packs in African second hand markets. A lot of the clothes are worthless and end up in the environment making a whole lot of trouble. I really resent paying some of the prices that are asked when I know their workers are pitifully paid. I'd rather spend a little more on a better quality piece where people are paid fairly. (I'm no longer a buy clothes every week type. Style over fashion for me)
I find it interesting that you view the style/fashion dynamic like that, because back in the early aughts my big brother explained to me that "stylish" was the current fad, but "fashionable" transcended expectation. Possibly he was just trying to be nice about my non-stream fashion-sense for once in my life.
(Just as a foreword, this is just some general THOUGHTS I have about the fast fashion discourse and the aesthetics of slow fashion retailers like Everlane and is not aimed at any thing in particular that Nicole says in this video. Nicole is one of the best and most informative creators on TH-cam and I love her content.) A more sustainable and ethical approach to clothing is absolutely necessary but I don’t think we should allow ourselves to get into an austerity mindset. Interesting and creative clothes should not be the domain of the couture wearing few. Quality issues aside, where is it written that an embroidered, cropped, blue velvet, peak shouldered, jacket can only be worn for six months? Why are tasteful beige sweaters and nondescript white sneakers the default classic and ‘timeless’? These are cultural constructs, not absolute truths. Don’t get me wrong, low key and not flashy have a time and place but can easily slip into boring and uninspired. More importantly, ‘classic’ and ‘timeless’ have a long history of of racism and classism. And yes, there are far more pressing concerns in the world than the aesthetics of our clothing (i.e. approaching climate doom and exploitative labor practices) but that doesn’t make it unimportant and in the long run austerity is the enemy of climate activism. Also, we really need to stop putting to responsibility of stopping Climate Doom on the shoulders of individual consumers. This mess was and is largely caused by profit hungry corporations and laissez-faire gov’t and the onus for cleaning it up should be placed squarely on their shoulders.
Agreed. The minimalist aesthetic (beige, grey, white, square, etc.) is a trend. At some point, it's likely to change again and the now 'classic and timeless' will become dated. Yes, some people dedicated to the minimalist mindset and concept rather than the aesthetic will persevere in wearing that style, but it's pretty unlikely that fashion will somehow stay stagnant. I really appreciate the people I've seen doing a minimalist challenge/capsule wardrobe with clothes they truly love and that express their style and personality. There is absolutely no reason that buying less has to mean looking 'austere.' Wear that fancy velvet jacket. For that matter, don't be a 'minimalist' if it doesn't work for you. Purging your belongings because you're 'supposed to' only means you'll have to buy more when you realize you need something you got rid of, and that doesn't help the environment or your wallet.
oh man I agree that the aesthetics of the tasteful beige jumpers etc and what's "classic" are....I mean, irritating at best, a whole weird classist thing at worst. Like, I don't like plain blue jeans. I don't like wearing black, or white. For me, a "classic" garment that I wear for years might be like, a multicoloured print skirt, or something in forest green that coordinates with a whole bunch of other clothing that I have. It's like the clothing equivalent of how spices used to be very expensive and luxurious (think medieval cooking) but when colonialism made them cheaper and more wildly available in western countries, suddenly it wasn't considered sophisticated to spice your food with lots of different things, it was foreign and weird and made you ill (think more what you'd think of as 1850s-1950s English cooking.)
Elastane mixed with synthetics has been a great enabler for more recent fast fashions. I have classic clothing that is 30 years old, redyeing clothing and choosing good cut is key. I am lucky because I can make and adjust clothing. We are unlikely to change the issue easily. Thank you Nicole for showing us that this is nothing new. Birdy
No matter wether I'm rich or poor, I almost ALWAYS buy my clothing this way.... I go to the thrift stores in the "rich areas". Last year I got myself pair after pair of designer Jeans, half new with tags. And same for my daughter. She absolutely loves that I get her nicer clothes AND for cheaper!
Excellent overview, though I wish you had mentioned the option of purchasing secondhand clothing. There's a big problem there too with thrift stores filling up with fast fashion cast-offs, but is a more sustainable option for those who can't afford to shop for all the expensive sustainable brands.
While thrifting can be a useful alternative, I think that fast fashion has kind of ruined it. As you correctly pointed out, most of the donations to thrift stores today are fast fashion. These items are poor quality, so by the time they end up in a thrift store, they are already close to falling apart. Also, the prices that thrift stores charge for used fast fashion are almost as much (if not more) than what that fast fashion costs new. The days of finding nice clothing for cheap in a thrift store are coming to a close.
I thrift most of my clothing for quality fabric, then alter or remake it. I can still find good quality, classic clothes in thrift stores, but I spend a lot of time thrifting for sport. If you only thrift occasionally, your chances of scoring well-made clothes are definitely lower than they used to be.
@@kirstenpaff8946 Agreed. Low quality fast fashion, near the end of its life, is found in abundance in thrift stores. A person might as well buy it new directly from the fast fashion retailers for a little more money and better quality. High quality second-hand clothing ends up in "consignment" shops, where they end up being sold for a lot more more money than most people struggling to afford basic goods are willing to pay.
I agree for the most part, but at least where I live if you go to local charity shops you can still find good clothing because they get a lot of donations from estates and long time supporters of the charity. Not the same at a place like Goodwill, but for example there's a local animal shelter charity store, a veterans charity, and one that supports work for formerly incarcerated people. All those thrift stores receive donations from long time philanthropists in the area and sometimes have excellent finds for reasonable prices. They will usually only acceptand put out decent quality stuff.
Good presentation! Some observations: 1. When I was 10 in 1967, I received a gift of a paper minidress with matching knickers. It was uncomfortable and crackly so it went in the dustbin immediately. 2. We consumers need to focus on the life cycle cost of things we purchase. Whether it’s a car, a kitchen appliance or a garment, we need to factor in not only the initial financial outlay but the maintenance, leaning, repair, duration of use and disposal. Buying a $10 item that is worn twice and thrown in the landfill is extremely costly for the planet. Better to choose a quality item made ethically, spend $100, and have a garment that can be worn for years and donated to the thrift shop for someone else to enjoy. I have items in my wardrobe that are over 50 years old that I still love to wear. 3. Vintage closing can be stylish. Consider Billie Eilish’s outfit for the Met Gala last week. She bought most of it at a thrift store and was one of the few celebrities to nail the theme of the Gilded Age.
For me, I am trying to avoid fast fashion for fashion's sake (though my mother might claim I avoid fashion entirely :P ) but I must admit, disposable clothing does have its place in my wardrobe. My work destroys (or at least pokes holes in and gets paint and sealants all over) my work clothes, so though I just re-wear my cargo pants with paint all over them until they rip, then patch them until they become structurally unsound so, those are actually worth getting something that will last, but my t-shirts? Nope, I get the 2 for $10 cheapest ones I can find because they'll be trashed quite rapidly (I do use them as rags until they're more hole than cloth). I do have trouble figuring out if I am paying extra for good quality or if I'm just paying for a name and it's going to disintegrate as fast as the stuff I could have gotten for half the price. And some things, it just doesn't matter. My 6 for $12 underpants last as long as my $6 underpants, but I've started cutting the remaining panels into rags when they're no longer wearable. Also for winter snow shovelling (also part of my work), I've tried all kinds of gloves and a lot of time the $20 pair of gloves doesn't last any longer than the $6 pair of gloves. I have one pair of $12 gloves I got when I was a teen in the 90s that are still wearable (although I want to replace the palms if I can find an appropriate fabric), and they're still in better condition than the $20 gloves I bought this season that are already popping seasons.
I had similar issues with fieldwork clothes: salt and mud and hours of walking wrecks clothes. And also the cheap to mid-price stuff from the early nineties kept up way longer than more recent things. Except for the expensive outdoor gear. That's worth it's price.
@@yoshiew05 Thankfully, Home Depot sells some women's work gloves that fit me OK (long narrow palm and short fingers makes it exciting to find gloves that fit well), and as seasonallyd isposable gloves, I get $4 insulated rubber-dipped gloves from Dollarama that work well for cold gardening or not too cold snow shovelling (bonus, they come in purple!). But for winter gloves that keep my fingers from freezing when I'm shovelling snow at -20C (below 0F), I need actual winter gloves and those are so hit and miss in quality it's really frustrating...
@@annaapple7452 LOL if only my cheap stuff from the 90s still fit! :) I'm still working my way through a dozen or so pairs of cargo pants I got in the early 00s but the company that made them doesn't exist anymore. I'm so lucky I can wear men's trousers off the rack, women's pants rarely fit me well and generally lack pockets and fall apart...
Keep in mind inflation over the years and the quality would not be the same as back then when people could produce quality for less ,hence now the 12$ gloves won't last
Yesterday I cut out squares for the potholders I am making. I got enough fabric squares to produce 13 pairs from an American made flannel nightgown that I bought used for $3 at a thrift store in 1998, and had worn ever since. Lol.
Brilliant! It’s truly amazing what you can find in history! Personally when my kids were little (1990’s) I realized it was much easier to make it myself than fix the shoty work on the cheap stuff. Add in the fact that my daughter has a longer body than clothes allowed for I had to learn pattern alterations. These days I live close to many thrift stores so most of my clothes are bought there. As well as patterns, fabric, notions and books! I’m ok with waiting for items I would like. I also don’t really care what is in or out of fashion. There doesn’t seem to be a clear sense of that anymore. If I like it I wear it regardless and will wear it till it’s rags!
7:10 is such an amazing point about the speed of fashion changes during the 19th century. I had always known that there were several silhouettes at play, but I had never seen the mere 10-30 year gaps between radically different garment types put side by side before. Looking at the 20th century, the overall garments stayed mostly the same, with the biggest jump during the 60s and teenagers gaining purchasing power. Since then it's mostly just been relatively small changes in ideal proportion. (see a woman's business suit from the 80s vs today). The automatic looms really did change the game. And re the environment, this is why I personally shop on Poshmark, haha. There are some amazing conversations elsewhere about the viability of this for people in different situations - like the low availability of larger size clothes that make the wearer feel good, or the time that you need to devote to thrifting the perfect item while something is available now close by. But I hope that acknowledging the fashion cycle and re-use of older garments is in our future. The clothing is already made, and millions of pieces are unwanted. Might as well use them.
I’d love a similar dive into the history and rise of secondhand and reuse market since I remember buying secondhand a lot in the 90s but it was still sort of socially awkward and now there’s a real resurgence but I think there was probably a resurgence in the 70s with the punk scene etc
My grandma would take me shopping every year for my birthday--usually for a couple books and an outfit, and when I was about sixteen, I had recently become friends with someone who thrifted all their clothes (due to being the oldest of eight kids--her family didn't have the money for brand-new things), and I was taken with the idea. I asked my grandma to take me to Goodwill and she practically hissed that she wasn't buying me secondhand clothes. She either made her own clothes or bought them at department stores and her outfits were always very elegant and stylish. Then I went off to university and started thrifting most of my clothing because I couldn't afford to buy new most of the time.
I remember when I was a kid and watched the Matrix for the first time, the clothes they wore in the dystopian reality struck me as so unrealistic, how they were full of holes and basically falling apart. Now I have a shirt from H&M that looks like that lol. (I tried to mend it at the beginning but now there are so many holes that I can only wear it as a sleeping shirt before it completely turns into a rag :P)
Something serious that you completely missed is that the Fast Fashion of 300yrs ago was made from natural fibres & was therefore biodegradable, but today it's produced in more than 90% polyester - polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or PLASTIC just like drink bottles. Despite polyester being developed for durability, these clothes pill, stretch, come apart at the seams & the fabric is so thin that holes appear all over them, not from excessive wear, but just from short-term laundering. My family volunteered in local charity shops & what's most sad is that most clothing donations are now of such poor quality by the time people 'donate' (even after just a few wears) that charity shops can't resell them & they have to pay waste collectors to bring a truck & take quite literally TONNES of Fast Fashion clothing to landfill every single week. That's tonnes of polyester - plastic that will still be here another 300yrs from now.
I remember being fascinated by ads for paper dresses when I was little. My young brain got them a bit mixed up with ads for the new adhesive sanitary pads ("No Belts! No Hooks!") I wasn't sure what was going on. They were the ultimate fast, disposable fashion. Fastest if you wear them in the rain!
I wish I didn't have to rely on fast fashion. As our friend Terry has said: “The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
I keep all my clothes pretty much for years for example my oldest item i think is a cardigan from primark from 10 years ago or more (I’m 22), so idk what is going on with people buying new stuff all the time and throwing stuff away unless it doesn’t fit anymore, idk how people can be bothered following all these trends
Great video. As an (much) older viewer the term fast fashion went over my head. I wore peddle pushers as a child(50's), miniskirts(60's 70's)demin bellbottoms and embroidered jeans...power suits with padded shoulders and pencil skirts(80's&90's)wonderd through the frilly blouses and wore lots of khaki pants. Suffered through ever tight skinny pant leg and saw the end of pantyhose. Now retired I wear plain pull on comfortable jeans made from fabrics I hope will outlast me. Tops that will last years etc. I'm on the slow fashion trend for sure. Living through the last half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st I believe your comments are "right on"! Ps I missed the paper trend..too much being a hippie college student.😁😁😉
@@johannayaffe2647 how was it? What kind of paper are we talking here? Like how money (at least in the US) is made of a sort of fabric like paper, or something more printer papery than that? I'm honestly fascinated by the concept of paper clothing.
I have the same question as@@glitterberserker1029 . I've always heard about the paper suit my uncle once owned, but I wonder what it was actually like, how the texture was and how long it lasted. 🤔
@@glitterberserker1029 I dont really remember, it was a special type of paper, but could only be worn a few times, and certainly couldn't be washed. Think of The Kinks song -Dedicated Follower of Fashion - that expresses fast fashion completely eg.."1 week he's in polka dots, the next week he's in stripes.."
Honestly I've been trying to sew the bulk of my own clothes for the past year and it's working out okay thus far. I do a lot more historical costuming, but also some special event clothing/repurposing clothes into new clothes. I love the 18th century way of making and wearing clothes; i recently taught myself how to darn holes, even.
Just adding one thing: It wasn't just luxury brands that lost customers. Enough of those brands could adapt. Small businesses could not. I personally mostly refer to fast fashion "starting" in the 90s because that's when it really went global and exploded. I know that because it was the time that my parents lost almost all of the customers of their clothing shop to cheaper options. Sure, fast fashion existed before, but as you said just not on that scale. My Dad founded the shop in 1986 in Berlin and it was going amazingly! Yes, it was probably middle-class customers or even upper-class. But later, when I was little in the early 2000s, we had barely any customers left. Mostly older women who were used to buying from small local designers, didn't care about fashion hypes anymore and just wanted to be dressed well. They were still willing to pay for the, if they wanted, tailored to them clothes. The problem obviously isn't people who can't afford to buy expensive quality items. It is people who can be more responsible but won't for the sake of keeping up with trends. But these things can't be changed from the consumer upwards. Yes, we should try and make the best choice that is available to us. But that's not from where real pressure can be put on these industries. I think, there have to be some form of stricter regulations. Only from a legislative point can all of this take a different direction.
I always appreciate how you take difficult topics and break down the complexities. These are not quick fixes, but it is looking at the foundations of what is going on now to allow us to consider how we want to move forward. Thank you.
Thank you for the explanation of how this culture developed. I try to sew at least some of my own clothes as time permits and have received positive reactions when I've worn them in my daily life. I struggle to find clothes that are comfortable and attractive do to my body shape, so when I do find things that work, I generally try to get them to last as long as possible.
Only 15? I can still wear some of my clothing from the 1980s, and it looks as stylish as anything else in my wardrobe! Admittedly, I'm not a high style person. But in the 19th and most of the 20th centuries, it would have been **impossible** for any woman of means to continue to wear styles from 40 years earlier.
@@lizcademy4809 I dearly wish, I still had some of my clothes from when I was in my twenties (I'm 41 now). I have one dress, which I still love and wear, but that's about it. And lots of them I gave away, because I didn't have much storage, gained and lost (and gained and lost) weight, because fashions changed. If I had kept everything that was still in wearable condition, I would for sure gone back to many pieces after a while.
@@raraavis7782 I also gained weight since the 1980s (pregnancy will do that), but I also lost most of that weight. I didn't store most of my clothing, but I keep one large "memory box" and surprised myself last time I went through it.
That's what I love about fashion right now, everything goes! I combine new or thrifted items with stuff I wore as a teenager, my mothers clothes from the 80's, and my grandmothers handmade pieces from way back when.
@@emmamemma4162 I swoon every time, I leaf through old family photo books. My mother was quite stylish in her youth. In one picture from the 70s, when she had just started dating my dad, she's wearing a tight, canary yellow jumpsuit with wide legs 🔥. Now, I'm quite a bit taller then my mother, so I couldn't wear it, even if it still existed...but recreating it is definitely on my bucket list!
My Mother taught me a long time ago, (I’m 71 now) to have a seamstress who makes my clothing with my input. It is not a lot more expensive than purchasing from a quality store. I still have pieces that I had made in the 70s, and they hold up both materially and style.🖤🇨🇦
Thank you for a great overview of the history of fast fashion. As sustainable and slow fashion become trendy, I worry that these terms are just going to be co-opted by fast fashion marketing departments, making it even more difficult for consumers to figure out what is and is not as good choice. In general, consumers are very reliant on the information provided by companies and any company can post pictures of smiling textile workers on their webpage, whether or not that actually reflects reality. I struggle with finding sustainable clothing options. While I am distinctly not someone who constantly buys the latest trend (plenty of items in my wardrobe are 10 years old), I do find it difficult to figure out which items will actually last me multiple years, whether they are ethically produced, and if the price is actually reasonable. I feel like half of the time you can get essentially the same item from a fast fashion brand and regular department store brand with the only real difference being the price. Yes, there are online companies that market themselves as more sustainable, but I always question if the massive price mark up of these brands actually reflects a real difference in sustainability.
Justine Leconte has some good videos about greenwashing and things, and how to spot when companies are doing it, such as this video th-cam.com/video/fUzEbAkT-UQ/w-d-xo.html
And speaking of speed - if youre old enough to remember - advanced dressmakers were at the ready during Princess Dianas wedding, and by the time the wedding was over - a dress copy (scaled down of course) was already made and up in the shop front for sale. I saw a documentary on it - it was akind of "challenge" - would it be possible for a dressmaker to copy it in minutes and have it sewn up asap. As it turns out - her dress was a very basic pattern with just load sof volume and loads of frills. It was available for orders that same day!
This is so interesting, thank you for making this video! I heard a point made in another video about how in modern society the most value is put on finished products first, then manufactures, and the actual raw materials are worth an infinitesimal amount. I'd never even consider the actual fabric that goes into clothes and where that's made, and how changes in fabric preferences has a massive effect on entire towns. The middle school and High school I went to were the last ones in my state to still teach agroscience (farm science, basically) and I wish it was taught in more places! I think a respect for raw materials (and where they come from) is so important for a sustainable future, especially if married with a healthy respect for labor and worker's rights. It sucks that so much of that was suppressed in the interest of making some big wigs in skyscrapers bigger numbers on a screen and bigger houses to live in.
And BBC just posted the story on the fast fashion desert in Chili what great timing Nichole! Thank you for researching this important topic and not reducing it entirely to personal vanity. I think there is definitely that “teen girls are foolish” tact that many old folk in suits type like to pull on the fast fashion and just the preoccupation with fashion. For people firmly in their adult years the issue of fast fashion in home furnishings and electronics or the latest miracle cure in food or shampoo or craft supply. The ideas of the newest shiniest completely infect our lifestyles.
This is a great video, very well researched and objective. I think that social media like this is doing real work to teach others about the ways of the world and what they can be doing. I also like that many creatives are having youtube videos on how to make and mend, to tailor clothes etc, as a lot of clothing that is thrown away, whether due to sizing, disintegration or damage, could be repaired, tailored, used for something else such as rags, fillers for cushions, rugs, equipment, accessories like bags etc. Just because something is "cheap" or "fast" does not mean that we should lose respect for it and throw it away if it can still be of use. In that way we can save money, not consume as much and start treating products, people and the environment with the dignity and honour they deserve. It just takes the know how and so I really find youtube an accessible, educational tool that can be life changing.
I would have guessed that fast fashion did not hit us until early 2000's. Those 19th and early 20th century consumers are, via this channel, constantly surprising me. I purchase most of my clothing from online (hopefully eventually in-person stores) thrift/recycle shops. Jeans (a fast fashion brand) and shoes (pricey as I have high-maintenance feet) are my two main detours off the path of more environmentally and humanely produced attire. BTW although I am not on camera, my 2 cats also like to have the last "word" in any discussion of which they are not the main topic.
I had no idea the concept went back that far. I’ve never understood the fascination with name brand or designer clothing that just goes out of style in 3 months. It seemed like a waste. I’ve always been happy with well made, and often hand made things in “classic” styles…I know, I’m weird. Vintage style, but definitely modern values.
Just started watching. When one can find comments in really old books about something being last season or a decade old. My grandma's mother was a seamstress and would remake all of the college clothes every summer when she came home. My grandma was a bit of a flapper.
I am so glad you have pointed this out. When with someone who is not an historical costumer - we look at something and i can say "Oh - wow - thats out of date by about 2 years..." and they laugh saying thats impossible to say, how could I claim that...etc etc". SO i explain, that there were so many changes every couple of years in the 1860's, 70's and 80's - and even Edwardian has sudden shifts in sleeve fullness OVERNIGHT... Yet i can wear the same denim jeans and styled knitted top today as i did 20 years ago and no one would know!
Fascinating topic this week. And agree, the need for availability for slow fashion is huge - there is a substantial portion of the population in the US at least for whom the sort of investment that comes with slow fashion just isn't an option as that's rent or power or grocery money. I got a bit rambly, important part is above, my rambling is below. Being both tall and not straight sized (18L-20L basically), fast fashion hasn't hit quite as quickly I think, but whoa boy is it here now. 20yrs ago there weren't many options and they tended to be either very cheap or pretty expensive for garments (specifically tops, sweaters/overpieces, jeans/trousers); I knew that if I payed $50-$80 for a pair of jeans, outside of possibly one wear area (that can and have been patched), I could keep those for years (I still have a few from 2003-2004 time frame that have thinned but are still thicker than modern stretchy jeans). Same with work trousers, might need to fix a dropped hem occasionally, but they held up despite being worn every week to two weeks. In the last decade or so (2012 in particular is when I started noticing because I had to pick up clothes for an install during the install), the denim started to become more stretch than denim, tops started to show less quality between pattern matching, missed/loose threads in assembly, and general material. Some of this I think is particular to financial problems the particular chain I use went through for a while, but when one is an unusual size (or tall, never mind both), knowing where it is possible to get business dress or replacement for install damaged clothes same day while 1000+ miles from home tends to be important. Now all that said, I'm guilty of wearing things probably longer than I should professionally (pilling/fading on overpieces primarily), and wearing them out completely around the house, because I am cheap and dislike shopping and will not replace something unless I absolutely have to and if I can't fix it, but the decreasing quality of modern garments is certainly making that more difficult. And agree, the availability for slow fashion is huge - I may be able to still afford those $50-$80 jeans now, but I basically lived in O. N. tees and jeans through high-school as it was all we could afford, and there is a huge portion of the population in the US at least who are in a similar boat for whom that sort of investment just isn't an option as that's rent or power or grocery money. It's one thing to say one gets what they pay for, but when the money isn't there to pay for better, they're stuck.
Hey great video. Very interesting. I've been making my own clothes recently and, as someone else mentioned, finding ethical and sustainable fabric is not easy. For example I live in New Zealand and my favorite "quality" fabric store stocks beeeaaauuutiful fabrics but from Turkey or Japan. Those places are pretty far from NZ! Burning up fossil fules aaaallll the way here. By the way it can cost $80NZ ($50USD) just to make a merino jumper or even a sweatshirt and we don't have cheap patterns like you do in the US so we pay $18 - $25 or more ($12 - $16 USD). But I know not everyone has the time or interest in making their own slow fashion. Its great that there are option for all wallets and that in general, I think, people are starting to think more about ethical and sustainable clothing.
Whilst I do not, personally, see the remotest unalloyed good in fashion and the fashion industry (not to be confused with clothing and the clothing industry, which is somewhat necessary) I also cannot help note that the main reason "fast fashion" has been the target for ethical critique first is because it is still seen as a "women's" interest, and thus purely a question of vanity, selfish, and inherently frivolous - unlike the equally harmful industries which are "men's" interest and thus a necessary evil, if not straight-up worthwhile. Is fast fashion hugely harmful on a great many levels? Yes, but is that isn't why it's the current scapegoat.
Yep! What about how fast we throw out our tech? Or cars? The bulk comes direct from companies and not individuals anyway. And buying a cheap garment (when you don't have to) because "I don't care about fashion" then having it fall apart from poor care and buying another right away isn't any less of a problem.
@@NicoleRudolphOh blimey yes, the encouraged turnover on mobile phones is extortionate to the public and straight toxic for the environment and worker welfare! I'm not sure how well this maps to the US, but in the UK when my Dad was growing up at the back-end of the second world war, so many things that we consider "ethical living" now was second nature to everyone. Reusing containers, make-do and mend, smaller more frequent food shops, were all just how things were. When you bought milk, you took your own container to the grocer and you required amount of milk was poured into it for you, you took beer and other glass bottle back to the store and were paid a small amount for each one - from where they were sent to the manufacturer to be washed and refilled. When these things changed it wasn't due to demand from the public, it was business seeing a way to put costs and maximise profit, sadly we didn't know the costs to the environment, and to the livelihoods of those whose jobs were lost, to fight back against it. Then by the time I was born in the early years of Thatcherism, when advertising to children became a free-for all, they had fully won, and customers became "consumers" and we were told if we didn't consume we were failing in our duty the economy and the country. Now they want to pretend it is our fault, so they can keep burning the earth and abusing their workers, because apparently we "demanded" it, as though plenty of folks didn't fight tooth and nail against them. Ooops, that's an essay - sorry! Shall relinquish my soapbox!
Electric cars even, that are supposed to be part of our big solution, are part of this as well. Of course, there are many great advantages to them, but at least in Norway there has been a lot of media attention the last couple of years about how completely new cars with only small damages are being scrapped because insurance refuse to pay for fixing them, because it's so expensive. Hopefully that will change when more and more companies compete and evolve their products, but guarantees on new cars now are ridiculously short for the amount you pay and the emissions that are involved.
@@NicoleRudolph, yes, and often we are forced to replace perfectly good items simply because we are told to (e.g. a functioning scanner for which the drivers for a newer OS simply didn't exist.)
While you are oh so right about the planned obsolescence of tech which is very fast fashion indeed and very bad for the environment, clothing may be worse by sheer volume. The pesticides for conventional cotton, the water use etc. This only goes to show that there are ethical issues with everything we buy.
Great video! Fast fashion vs timelessness in fashion is topic I consider quite a lot. I'm glad that you tied it in with the economy tho. I hadn't made that connection myself, thinking more about consumerism as a personal habit or trend in fashion rather than an economic one. Luv the haircut. Already looking forward to your next project.
I'm honestly thinking more and more about getting clothes made for me by a local seamstress. Since I do a *little bit* of sewing myself I'm familiar with lots of sewing patterns and how to find them so I can easily find a pattern for something I like and take it to the seamstress to have it made.
So many thoughts … Canadian soldiers in WWI suffered hugely because the boots that the govt bought in mass quantities had literally paper soles. Poor folk around the world - who are by far the majority - cannot afford quality clothes and benefit the most from fast fashion. Currently in Europe people wear ther or clothes on average 7 or 8 times before they throw them out. The biggest issue is that we make these clothes out of plastics and then throw them in landfill often even before they have been sold and worn. We are putting more and more micro plastics into the environment because flash fashion usually means polyester. Sigh .. it is not a simple question. My buying fabric to make my own clothes means there is more waste because mass production uses fewer resources per item. I wish there was a cut and dried answer.
I've definitely noticed a difference in my clothing habits once I stopped shopping in person. I almost never get rid of anything I've bought online unless I've outgrown it! The lack of immediate gratification has helped so much.
@@NicoleRudolph if we return stuff we bought online it often just goes straight to landfill. I have problems with sizing as a plus size human so if I get something that doesn’t work I give it away. Making most of my clothes now means I definitely don’t get that immediate buzz from buying and that has helped a lot. I own far fewer things and I always have something I want to wear.
@@susanrobertson984 Yes! Going to a brick and mortar store and buying one item that actually fits is a lot more environmentally friendly than ordering several sizes and styles from an online store, only to return most of them. In slow fashion, returned items can usually be sold to another person, so it's only the unnecessary transport that causes excess pollution, but in fast fashion it's exactly as you say, items are thrown away if you return them.
I must be setting the whole country back. I've been buying 2 styles of pleated blouse & layered tanktop for over 10 years from the same company, & since none of them have fallen apart, I still have them all.
I love the description of Ma making Mary’s best dress for college in the 1880s, with her new sewing machine, in the Laura Ingalls Wilder book. Was it “These Happy Golden Years”? I can’t remember.
I was born in the 80's in Europe and for 20years no one discussed the dangers of fast fashion. The truth is that the environment is suffering and will suffer and people's mental health is also being challenged. If we cannot or want not to keep with the fast fashion trends, you will be questioned and segregated. Also, if you do not fit the fast fashion sizes or your body does not fit the trend, you will be put aside by your piers. I chose to embrace a life of slower, more ecological and thought fashion, choosing what I sew and what I buy and people like Nicole were a key part on my decision. I hope that the people thar surround me will feel inspired and follow one way ore another. Congrats for the amazing content Nicole!
I remember Marshall's clothing store in the 1970's - who stocked nothing but ex-stock clothing from major department stores. It was always busy, and the racks were always full. They did start in the 1950s, but I distinctly remember when their stock changed from "new" clothes to ex-stock.
The many pairs of pyjama pants that I bought several years ago have started to lose their elasticity from the waistband. I went to the shops in the hope of getting new ones, only to realise that they no longer carry pyjamas made from pure cotton and all that’s available is synthetic fabric… I have therefore decided to learn to sew just so that I could make sure I get exactly what I want. It’s lucky that the sewing and craft supply stores still carry a good variety of cotton fabrics, and even luckier that my dad is actually quite good with the sewing machine himself so he could teach me the basics.
I would suggest that fast fashion might still have a place for teens and early twenties for them to find their style. Once they find it they will buy more expensive longer lasting items that will last longer, hopefully a lot longer than the clothes they bought before when they didn’t have the disposable income that will in their later twenties and on wards, changing with styles as they come into slower fashion. I recognised in my mid twenties that I couldn’t spend what I was on clothes, so I did research in the library, (no internet in the late 70s!) where I found my look. It’s developed in the next 50 yrs but it’s still very classic with a nod to more fashionable items, normally footwear or jackets. I like to think I’m trendy but mostly classic where I fit to suit my age. I’m not going to touch on the ethics of fast fashion for that distresses me. The working conditions finally are being taken into account in clothes. We see ‘ethically manufactured’ on labels. We have to accept that is the truth. It’s my belief that if it’s so cheap or affordable, it’s not ethically made. I’d rather buy a single top well made in good fibres rather than cheap fashion made with man made fibres that are not designed to last nor is the construction. I don’t dwell on the sweat shops. That’s more than a single person can change, other than buying better made longer lasting clothes that are made from reputable companies. I’m not saying couture but middle range companies that produce items locally, not overseas. We need to have a shift in our thoughts and buying patterns. Maybe resetting after the pandemic has passed, whenever that happens, we will see a shift in buying patterns by many people that have spent the last two years in their pyjamas! Classics and well made clothing might just return to our wardrobes.!
I am already waiting for the 3D printed clothing. Which could help with the ready to wear sizing problems. But not necessarily with environmental or ethical issues. Not to mention the stress of keeping up. A terrible thought that people only started to see the problems 15 years ago!
There's been some amazing progress on printing clothing over the last decade! The bigger problem I see there is just that it's still limited on what you can print with so it's still plastic based for the most part. I bet someone is working on cellulose based options though!
@@NicoleRudolph Printing cotton clothes, or maybe pattern pieces for a Start, sounds amazing - you don’t have waist you cut off. But how this should work I have no idea. 😅
@@ragnkja Yes, I have literally written a program for that myself. Though I notice people struggling with taking all the measurements and the extra work before they get their pattern. A technology to take the measurements automatically would be so helpful. No job for me though, I would not even know where to start. 😅
@@dressdeveloper I remember watching a BBC sci-fi kids' programme back in the 90s where the main character ended up in the future and her from-the-future friend suggested she needed a whole new outfit to fit in, so 'step on the scanner here' and she was measured by a computer (using a laser, of course) and the new clothes were ready to wear in about a minute. The ultimate in fast fashion...
Thank you, I definitely learned a lot! It was especially nice that you did not concentrate on fast fashion being bad and sth to avoid but explained why it became what it is today and how it’s changing now. Super interesting!
I love the fact that there are so many different styles these days. Everything from people in China, students wearing the old styles of student clothes, to people that are wearing clothing designs anywhere from the 40’s and 50’s to even more decades ago. Makes it easy to have something that no one else has if you can sew.
Excellent point, about the hypocrisy of, on the one hand, denigrating and morally despising the individual who is interested in and keeps up with fashions, while on the other hand rejoicing in the “booming economy” implied by the manufacturers driving those fashions.... And the irony, that an ad for mango’s “sustainable” line popped up in the middle! (What does “100% of our [items] have sustainable properties” even mean?!?)
You are so right I tried so many times to find someone to talk about the problem for the not affordable ethical clothing. Everyone talks a lot about second hand but in some countries that's not an option, because it's difficult for the plus size body to find clothing, and thear aren't enough shops for me to look in my town, in reality it's only one small, and in the top of that it needs time, that I don't have when I work 6 days per week 10-11 hours per day for not enough money. Thenk you ♥️
I'm a 90s kid that fell into the punk goth scene. I can relate to wearing things till it literally fell apart. Granted I didn't put clothes pins in mine lol. I usually wore a black tank under the million hole band shirts.
Thanks for this. I’ve never been a fan of fast fashion. I like clothes that last, because I rarely buy clothes for myself. I like quality, not quantity.
I love your hair, make-up and outfit in this video. This is a very important topic too, I'm trying to be more mindful about what and where I buy fabric and clothing and either repurpose or donate where possible.
I love your channel. I was hoping that you'd get into a lot more detail on two topics: the introduction of synthetic fibers, and the shift in consumer expectations from buying ready-to-wear (but not necessarily well fitting) in stores over to buying items you haven't tried on, expecting to return most of your purchases. My theory is that return culture ends up making clothes boxier so that they "fit" more people and discourage returns. I would love it if you revisited the broader changes in consumer expectations beyond emphasizing that things keep getting cheaper.
I really enjoyed this video, and seeing how the history of fast fashion is really the history of industrial capitalism. I was surprised you didn't mention the Fairtrade clothing movement though (e.g. Traidcraft, People Tree), which has been going since the late 1970s or thereabouts, with major expansion since the 1990s. In some ways it's merging with the much newer slow fashion movement, but in some ways is significantly different. Anyway thanks again for a great video.
I went to a major school and got my degree in fashion design. My final portfolio was all about creating a menswear line that was direct competition with Levi’s and Gap and Old Navy and I wanted to work as a designer in that way. But it felt creatively bankrupt.
So incredibly well researched and well thought out. Here are two thoughts I've had related to current fast/disposable fashion, and older fashions. I've wondered before whether all the lace and ruffles and neck ties, at the neck of historical garments, were done to easily replace or conceal stained fabric. That seems like a very easily stained area (food spilling on to white shirts). So I'm wondering if there's any evidence of that being done on purpose. Planned in a way, because that's what the customer wanted. Or as a way to easily sell to a customer (this shirt features easily replaceable lace, so you can remove stains. Because that would be a big difference compared to current fashion, where almost everyone isn't able to see, and mend their clothes. But maybe that wasn't the point at all, just a side effect of the fashions of the time. My second thought is how the sewing machine has influenced fast fashion. Specifically the 1920s, with all the fashion being straight lines. Which I'm guessing were easier to do on the older styles of sewing machines. And also faster to make - which could make fashion even faster in a decade marked by extreme decadence.
Probably not the bit on older machines & straight lines thing because the old Singer hand crank machines are great for sewing corsets on which often have curvy seams. You just turn the fabric to follow the curve, the machine's needle just goes up and down. There wasn't a huge change in the sewing machines from the 1800s to the 1920s but fashion became straight up & down. That was mainly an aesthetic shift, not one to do with ease of manufacturing.
Yay! Thank you for posting! I would really like to mention that purchasing used clothing is a way out of this on so many levels, be it High End or Inexpensive. Everything Old was once New. Everything New will someday be Old. Just sayin'...Chasing Trends is like a Tiger chasing It's own tail...be yourself, Lovlies.
Thank you so much for this very informative video! I only started sewing clothing in the last three years, and I’ve been staggered by the cheapness and waste in the fast fashion industry. But I so appreciate your wrap-up, that we can’t go back to the way things were in the 18th century, but that we can come up with a new way to create fashion. And I love that the slow fashion movement is coming along!
I always appreciate your thoroughness. I enjoyed this video and would love to see a opposite research video. Like a history of textile making throughout the years. I happen to be a weaver and think weaving history and textile creation is so gd interesting!! I’d love to see your take on the topic.
I have an old architecture textbook that makes the claim that washing machines and driers will not be needed in the future because people will wear plastic clothes that they’ll throw away
Just imagine the sweat. Clearly that writer lived somewhere temperate and dry (or never wore plastic). They thought the same thing about rubber once vulcanization was figured out though!
I don't comment often enough on your videos but I love them! Youre always talking about fashion in a way that people act like are new things. I enjoy your videos so much, they are entertaining and informational
Thank you for another well-researched lesson on fashion history. It is pretty frightening that fast fashion, or any other "fast" industry really, is thriving because the current economic system encourages and rewards that kind of behavior. Therefore, the shift to more ethical and ecological production will inevitably change the whole underlying economy, with its old business models and practices.
I love how you explain the broadness and complexity of this in such a concise way! As a life-long seamstress turned materials/textiles chemist I’ve done some academic projects on the development of fast fashion from the perspective of the rise of synthetic fabrics and the petroleum industry. I’ve stuck mainly to the changes of the fashion consumer behavior of working class folks throughout the 19th and 20th century and in that tend to highlight the contrasts with today’s purchasing behavior of working class folks. I’ve never considered the perspective of fast fashion extending as far back as you described which is really interesting!! You don’t specifically mention economic standing of the people who participated so eagerly in the fast fashion trend cycles of the 19th century, but am I correct in assuming this would have been upper-middle class and upper class individuals rather than working class folks who would be more likely limiting fabric purchases and maximizing use over prioritizing dramatic changes to stay in style?
Another very interesting video - I always look forward to seeing them pop up. I've bought a few things from Primark over the years, although I haven't done for a while now. I have worn the garments for years though, including one which actually fell apart! The others I've repaired as best I can.
The cheaper men's t-shirts at Walmart start to fall apart within weeks or months. I've been buying from used clothing stores for years and tried buying a few new shirts from Walmart that I liked the decals on the front of. I now need to fix the seams on most of them. Even though it was easier and faster to pick out shirts at Walmart and find it in my size, I would have spent less or around the same at the used clothing store, and they would have been better quality (they can't sell anything with tears, stains, etc, and all those shirts have lasted longer than any of the brand new shirts I've bought in the last year or so) I plan on learning to sew t-shirts once I move into my new house and can have the space to set up a sewing machine, so I can use fabric that I like and is comfortable, in order to have more clothes for around the house. Eventually, I want to learn how to make other things like skirts and pants too. I'd like to start buying clothing from slow fashion companies next year that will be both comfortable but appropriate for when I have to go into the office at work or have appointments, and want to feel confident while wearing them and less like I'm wearing baggy clothes and look like a slob
I usually buy "fast fashion" or cheap fashion for economic reasons when I don't have time or skillis to mke my own clothing or a piece of clothing like coats which are hard for me to make.I try to buy garments I know they will hold and my style is very consistent so I don't really take trends into mind or change wardrobe because of it , even the cheapest fashion p.e. cheap socks cheap t-shirts cheap leggings hold at least 5 years to me (and I try to buy non synthetic for my comfort) I also mend and repair them. Then when they fall apart beyond repair I deassemble those and use the pieces for doll clothes or trinkets if they hold well or cleaning rags until their end. So even fast fashion is going very slooooow on me . I believe is in the person yes the marketing tactic is this "buy ne buy more all the time" but at the end how fast or slow your clothes come and go depends on the person as well, there are plenty of people buying expencive high fashion and treat it as fast fashion. I think the problem is our mentality of be trendy all the time so changing wardrobe for no reason instead of having our own self and style in clothing and also learnsome skills to repair and repurpose things , or embelish soomething instead of buying a new if it holds well p.e.
I love your Videos, Nicole! This one was particularely entertaining and informative. Please do more of those. Not just time travelers, but also of the history of the different clothes. With the Research you did on this you could have made several Videos. Like 100 years or the history of the T Shirt, of the sweater, the swim suit, and so on. I recall you asking us for ideas for future projects, so I‘m hoping this helps you. Greetings from Germany.
Yet another great episode of Nicole Explains Things I Want to Know But Don't Care to Research Myself
I need the ability to give more than one like to this
The truest TH-cam comment I’ve ever seen 😂
I’d argue that watching this video counts as researching it
"Things I Want To Know But Always Forget When I Have Any Time At All To Read." fixed that 🤣🤣🤣
hey don't expose me like that
It's also become so hard to find fabric that's actually appropriate for garment sewing, at least in-store. All the big fabric stores in my area have moved to mostly decoration and costume stuff. Completely different from what they were like in the 80s/90s, where not that many people sewed their own clothes but it was still very viable and somewhat commonplace. A lot of crafts stores closed during the recession too. It reduced the options one might have had outside cheap disposable clothing a lot.
Something that could be mentioned in the debates re: accessibility of good quality clothing too is that it isn't just about physical/financial access. Try walking into a luxury shop as a poor person who's saved enough to invest in something durable? Half the time you'll be subtly driven out.
And then there's the Expensive Fast Fashion shops where everything still falls apart in two months but at least you paid a lot for the bragging rights of a style that's aimed at making you look a certain class.....
Back in the 70s there were so many fabric stores and a wide choice of fabrics. Most made in North America. I watched fabric both decline in quality and increase in price over the decades.
The other thing that changed was the sizing of the patterns. I went to buy a new style of pants pattern around 1980. I asked for a size 12, which had been my size for ages. The lady behind the counter told me to buy a 10. She was right.
The new patterns all fitted big. It has become worse over time. If I find an old pattern from the 50s, 60s or 70s that match my measurements it will fit just about perfect. Maybe a few slight adjustments.
Buy a modern pattern that fits my measurements and it will fall off of me. It seems you are suppose to find cheap fabric to make up the pattern first and spend hours adjusting it. Not worth the time.
Amen. All of my fabric stores (there are literally only 2) have gone to quilting and upholstery.
Yes, yes and yes. Several very good points here.
@@michellecornum5856 And don't forget the fleece! Half my local JoAnn's is fleece.
@@aksez2u Uh! YES! And some of it makes me INSTANTLY itchy!
I highly recommend the video "Why No One Wins the Fast Fashion Debate" by Broey Deschanel, where she mainly talks about how people justify to themselves to keep buying fast fashion. People in bad faith will argue that poor people need clothing, which yes, I'm from a poor family so I know, but there's a difference between a poor person buying a pair of pants and wearing them til' they wear out and a middle class/upper class person buying a huge Shein haul.
So the fact that you mention it at the beginning that you are mainly talking about people buying things for the trend sake is very important, since sadly, a lot of young people missunderstand the critics against fast fashion. Because while it's true that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism (copypasta), that doesn't mean that you have to choose the worst option.
You are quite on point with your comment. I´d just like to add, coming from a lower income family that always had to spend money thoughtfully I can say that fast fashion in most cases is not a good way save money. A clothing item twice as expensive as primark will propable hold up 4 times more washings without looking aweful or falling apart. So buying a certain level of quality is actualy frugal. I save a lot of money because I buy things I love thouroughly and wear them for years. I have a pair of fairly made ecofriendly shoes that cost a lot, so what, I wear them almost every day for 3 years now and they still look great. Cheap boots would have long given up on me. I repurchased the same boot recently to have a backup, as the first ones finaly start to chow some wear and tear, because I freakin love these boots.
Another good video is from Justine Leconte, about Shein. Highly recommend watching.
The fast fashion vs paying more for quality issue still affects poor people. Terry Pratchett summarized it perfectly with his Sam Vimes Boot Theory of economics-- if you don't have the money to buy the better pair of boots, you'll spend twice as much on cheap ones over a ten year period and have wet feet the whole time.
@@angryhistoryguy5657 I see your argument though there are many ways to get higher quality clothing on you. Especialy shoes and outerwear are important to be of a certain quality. Second hand rocks
And cheaper clothing isn't ALWAYS low quality. You can look at the fabrics, how the garment was made: is it cotton or polyester, did they stitch the seams shut, are the hems finished or just cut, is it dyed or printed, etc. The same price can get you very different quality items, even in the same store. I've found any line called "basics" is good quality, but super cheap, and a classic style that will last as long as the garment (and that might be a long time). The stuff that's very trendy is often lower quality, even though it costs more. If you're poor and looking to maximize your dollar, absolutely there is cheap clothing - but you have to be careful. Those middle class people buying "trendy" clothes for $10 are getting shafted, whereas someone buying jeans on clearance for $10 (or I got a sweater a the Gap for $10 on sale) are getting a good deal. So I think Nicole has hit the nail on the head here - it's not that we need to buy only custom-made hand-sewn clothing like the 18th century, but we need to look at how the clothing is made. If it's a "fast fashion" brand, look at the quality of the individual piece. I am a huge advocate for second-hand shopping, because this is where the better-made clothing ends up. People turn it in because they changed size, or they like a different style. I donated lots of office clothing because I didn't need them. Maternity clothing is worn for 6-9 months and then tossed: buy used. Etc.
I would like to point out that fast fashion items are not necessarily cheap. Many of the brands while they use poor quality materials and cheap labour, don't sell their items cheaply. On the contrary, they sell them at 10 times its original value (or even more) because they're trendy and it's the brand "you want to wear right now". Many of the brands don't charge you for the item itself but for the item being "what xyz celebrity wears", or "Instagram ready", or simply "trendy this week".
Which is definitely adding insult to injury.
"It's expensive to be poor."
@@rainbow_lorelei True. But in many countries the best option to save money is going to second hand, thrift shops, charity shops or garage sales/giveaways. You get better quality for lower price.
This reminds me of how I bought a few pairs of jeans from a thrift store, one of those jeans was Armani Exchange. Despite being the pricier brand they fell apart the fastest compared to the cheaper jeans I grabbed which I still own today. But yeah, a lot of these companies you pay for the brand name more than anything.
@@brydenvargas9863 I had similar with a pair of "leather" trousers from Zara. In a month they were lousy, and in month and a half I had to throw them away because they were falling apart.
It is crazy to think we have honesty had fast fashion for over a 100 years. It is astounding and a bit terrifying how much wasted fabric and clothes there are now.
The worst part is it isn't natural fibers that will degrade and disappear if left outside- it's mostly plastic based
Plus fashion is a major source of greenhouse gases & overall pollution. Seems wild to me that we're destroying the planet over items we couldn't care less about.
@@sarahwatts7152 it's greed. All about greed. Which is a tale as old as time.
There's also another issue related to accessibility of slow fashion, in addition to price: sizing. As a plus sized person, I've seen SO many slow fashion brands that hit my style and price needs, but NOT my size needs.
For the classic ethical brand aesthetic pretty much everything would be size inclusive if the garments didn’t have sleeves
And if people in that size range were okay with being compared to literal potato sacks
Definitely agree! Ive been looking for wool tshirts for over a year... no one accomodates a large chest even if they have plus sizes.
Same issue I find.
I am also plus size, but I see so many brands that fit my size & style needs, but I am absolutely not willing to pay for until they're on clearance.
@@phoenixfritzinger9185 if I wanted potato sack clothes, I could make them myself 😄 Sometimes I just want something that I'm too lazy to sew for myself.
The paper dresses thing reminded me of a family story lol. My aunt got a paper dress (this would have been in the late 60s) and the first day she wore it happened to be one of the few days of the year that it rains. My grandma had to go to her school and bring her another dress because the paper one kinda...dissolved.
Oh my! I always wondered about that aspect. It feels very "someone in Southern California thought this would be fun"
So they were really truly paper?
I'm now very curious because a couple years ago I saw a "paper" dress in an exhibition about a British brand and that one was more like the stuff non-woven interfacing is made out of. So for the last couple of years I've been low-key under the impression that that was what the 60s paper dresses actually were (I think the exhibition text even said something to that effect). But maybe that was just a British answer to British weather. :D
ETA: Or - I wish I could remember the name of the brand in question now to look into it - they were actually originally conceived as the non-woven stuff and someone looked at that with a fast-fashion lens and went "I could make that out of paper".
@@beth12svist I think it was Mary Quant? An exhibition at the V ana A, I seem to remember xx
@@indiabilly No, this exhibition was held in Prague, and it was a Jewish couple who had fled Prague before WW2 and settled in London. I don't think they necessarily invented it or anything like it, it was just one of the many many things they designed.
I keep forgetting that school uniforms aren't the norm in America and thought of how short sighted the school uniform designer must have been. 🤣🤦♀️
I only hope that manufacturers of appliances can follow the lead of slow fashion and build things that will last more than 10 years. My parents had a freezer that lasted more than 50 years, but my fridge died after 12 years. Same with the washer & dryer (which we repaired three times before having to replace). We replaced our dishwasher twice and our 2nd microwave is on its way out. We're going broke having to replace a major appliance every other year.
I got so mad when the $750 Kenmore computerized sewing machine I purchased in 2000 I started going out five years later and actually died this week, while my granny’s 1907 Singer 27 treadle is still going strong! And the 1961 Rocketeer and 1970s 247 as well. I’ve given up on modern machines. You can’t get parts (thanks, Kenmore) but you can for the old machines!
Wow, we've had our microwave for 15+ years now. I had no idea we were so lucky in it
That is called planned obsolescence. It's a combination of cheap manufacture and marketing. Be sure: it is designed to fail, and to fail in a way that is more expensive to repair than to completely replace. Some manufacturers won't even authorize parts for repairs - so the option to repair is not there. In fact, the end user or consumer of the appliance can't order the parts to DIY the repair! You see it in cars, especially: repair manuals are black market items! It's hard to believe that the "right to repair" is an actual headline in the news.
The marketing aspect of replacing your old appliances almost weaponizes your conscience against you; I keep getting notices from my natural gas utility that my furnace is older than X years, and newer, more efficient models are available, I need to switch, it's so much better for the environment! Never mind that the furnace has worked for X number of years, and replacing it would require the energy-intensive manufacture of all its components, the transport of all those components, and the scrapping of the old components. My gas bills haven't gone up, and the neighbours I've talked to about it pay more than I do with their newer appliances, for heating similar square footage. Let's not even get into the "windows and doors" people who tell me my old windows are no more effective against the elements than a colander. What is the environmental cost of manufacturing a new window, in terms of energy and water used in production of said window? And how long will it take to amortize my personal efficiency gains against the manufacturing costs?
@@SusanYeske701 - Yes, you ARE lucky. Microwaves are practically like tissue boxes.
@@daxxydog5777 I have yet to "upgrade" to a new sewing machine, though I have been asked why I haven't many, many times. My main machine is a 1969 Kenmore that is the best machine I have ever used. I have just gotten a "new" machine, though, my mother-in-law's 1960 Pfaff 360. It sews like a dream.
I work in retail/donated goods management for a large non for profit thrift store and the sheer amount of clothing recieved via donation is mind blowing. Like much of it is unsellable bc it's tok worn but just the sheer amount of clothing being cycled through is alarming at best.
@BB - At least it is being donated and not automatically dumped in a landfill.
@@MossyMozart most of donated clothes/shoes/books etc don’t even make it on the racks
Yeah I worked briefly at a charity shop in England (so slightly different to thrift stores, but similar concept) and whilst most stuff coming in was saleable condition (collection bags tell you what not to include) there were additional rules on what got put on the shelf. If the item had no brand tag then unless it looked unworn or very good condition it got put on the pile to go to be sold as a job lot of fabric to be turned into rags or otherwise recycled. It was partly because they had had people recognise brands & complained about the pricing being too high. When pricing there were categories so if it was something cheap from say ASDA or Tescos (George or F&F brands) the garment would be priced lower than if it came from somewhere like Marks & Spencers where the clothing would cost more new. If you judged the tagless item to be good enough quality to fit the price scale of the higher up brands but it was actually from a cheap place then you could end up pricing it for more than it was new. But so much was just not put on the shelves. If they had too much of one size out they'd not want more. And if the material was something that couldn't be steamed the policy was steam it anyway & stock it if it survives or send it to the recycling pile if not. Which was frustrating as there were some good items which had to be thrown away just because they couldn't be steam cleaned without ruining them.
There were some items without tags which I actually took home with me because I cut tags out of my clothes to make them wearable so didn’t care & was happy to donate some money to do so. They couldn't officially sell them, but I could pop some money in the donation box and it could leave the premises lol. I got a PSP for £25 that way as they couldn't sell electronics but I tested it, it worked, so they let me take it. Probably spent more than I earned whilst working there (I was a volunteer but paid by a different charitable organisation set up to help young adults with various difficulties access work).
@@AlexaFaie your comment was very interesting to read. Do you still have some clothes you got from there?
I didn’t know until college that people still make clothing, even for fast fashion. I honestly thought robots would be doing most if not all of it by now. That really changed the way I look at my clothes
Right? I've had to explain to so many people over the years that sewing machines are not self operating. We just don't see the process any more! (hopefully that's changing, but it's definitely going to be a generational difference)
You’re in good company, Mary. I’m just now realizing just how many people are involved in making every single thing I buy, everything I see, and everything I own.
I had to explain it to my father about ten years ago, when we were touring a locomotive factory and they had this facility for cutting out "pattern pieces" from sheets of metal by laser - which were then assembled by, you guessed it, people. I made the analogy and father was surprised.
It was something of a shock to me because father is the sort of person who tends to know the ins and outs of all sorts of unexpected things. So it was something of a metric for how much the process of making clothes is hidden from the public, at the time.
@Mary Johnson - One summer, while I was in high school, I worked at a factory that made women's sleep & lounge wear. The fabric was laid out on a huge table in 100s of layers. The pattern-cutter (the most important person in the factory) would lay out the pattern pieces (made from Masonite) for the most economical cut. He used an enormous sabre saw to cut through all those layers then tied the pieces in big bundles. The women (no men) on the sewing floor worked on one small step in the process, over and over and over. They sewed like their machines were jet-engine-powered. A lot of them had scars on their hands from accidents with flying needles. They did piece work, meaning they didn't get paid per hour, but got a tiny amount for each bundle they sewed. It was hard, dangerous work for a low income.
I worked as a gopher for the pattern cutter and printed out those little labels you see in the clothing. I had to quit after a month because all the fibers in the air gave me a very bad case of bronchitis. The air wasn't filtered and masks were never provided.
The only sewer I knew that was paid well was a woman who worked at a nearly swimsuit factory who made all their sample models. AND she frequently brought home samples that weren't needed anymore for her granddaughter and me. (We thought that was her most valuable benefit!)
@@NicoleRudolph I think one of the things is that so much of this is massively out of sight, out of mind. I'm not sure many people have a conception of who makes their clothes and how. I went to trade school for sewing/clothing production and one of the things that was stressed to me is how quickly you need to make something in order for it to be profitable because time. is. money. Things like assembly line styles of sewing do make things faster but you need fast machines and skilled machinists (because unpicking anything takes time, and again, time is money.) Previously we used to have outworkers/sweatshops in our own western countries - like in America, how you'd have immigrants including children working in places like Triangle Shirtwaist, or you'd have people taking bundles of garments home and sewing all day - but when labour laws changed in various countries making it more difficult to get away with locking a bunch of immigrant women in a factory and getting them to sew all day where people in western countries could see it, it's mostly been taken off shore to cheaper and cheaper countries with worse and worse labour practices. And it's incredibly difficult to get transparency! Like even when I spoke to people who had ethical fashion brands, even they couldn't guarantee that the fabric itself from the farming to the weaving/knitting/textile manufacture was made ethically/with good labour practices because they just didn't have that information.
Another thing I was taught when making patterns in a commercial style was to label them with colour coding and universally accepted symbols, because as our teachers pointed out, in the fashion industry often your garments will be sewn by people who can't speak English/the same language as you/might have low literacy.
tldr the best we can all do is do our best. Yes, there are some folks out there who can weave the wool directly off the sheep they raise or the small plot of linen they've grown but that isn't feasible and hasn't been feasible for most people for an incredibly long time.
I actually think a more descriptive term for what is happening with fashion today is disposable fashion. It’s not just about the speed at which fashions and garments are produced now, it is the way that clothing items are now so often produced to be almost single use products.
one good quote from the Stitchess on fast/slow fashion is 'the most sustainable garment is the one already in your closet'
(also i love your outfit in this video)
Alyssa Beltempo says that, too - I love her monthly series on shopping your closet to recreate looks, rather than going out to buy all the pieces in the inspiration image. (Look her TH-cam channel up, it's a goldmine of good style and slow fashion.)
My first experience with what I call "disposable fashion" was in the late 1960s when I went to a Paraphernalia store to see Betsey Johnson's designs. There were organdy shirts with a drop shoulder yoke called "squaw shirts". The seam allowances were raw! Fraying!! These were produced to be worn a few times and replaced by the next new concept. Maybe the owner wouldn't need to wash or iron even once during her brief but glorious displays.
The 2005-2007 timeline is telling. That's around the time of the t-shirt layering trend, and shirts from fast fashion brands started getting thinner. I had a t-shirt from Old Navy that was noticably thicker from the early 2000s I wore for at least 10 yrs, maybe closer to 15, until the hems were worn out, because the shirts they were selling were so much thinner.
I hadn't even thought about that! The quality of clothing did drop SIGNIFICANTLY during that era. And it really feels, looking back, that they were seeing just how far they could go with thin fabrics, everything already full of holes and faded when "new", and I remember being so mad at one company that always had cheap knit on the back of nice fronted shirts.
Is that what happened?!? I had noticed that my old t-shirts were nice and then everywhere you looked after some point they were practically see-through but since I was a little kid and not interested in fashion, I always assumed that there was an "improvement" in how the fabric was made industrially
Huh.
Interestingly, now I think the whole cheap low quality fast fashion trend took a tad longer to arrive to Czechia, because I seem to recall that at the point layered tees were a trend, the tees were still fairly good quality - the sort I am now desperately searching for. I seem to recall that the boom of international fast fashion chain shops was only just starting here (there were some predecessors, but a lot of the brands you see now are relatively new arrivals). I haven't really thought of that before!
@kaypgirl - That cheap thinning goes on today. For example, Target has some stylish, cute clothing, but when you look at it up close, the fabrics are thin polyester that are cheaply made.
That's about the time we stopped being able to wear white shirts without putting something under them, now you mention it.
Totally agree with the last remarks. I am guilty of owning more fast fashion than I like to admit but, in my defense, I usually buy pretty basic styles and manage to keep good care of my clothes, so that I can wear them for at least 4, 5 years even if cheap. For shoes, the good ones I have are second hand and I will wear them for many years too. In the end being more conscious in our consumer habits is important. And on top of this, I don't care if I don't own the latest and most fashionable stuff, I agree with someone who said that trends are for the anxious🙂
Yep! The truth is nearly everything is made "fast" today- it's more a question of what speed you wear through it.
I still have clothes from when I was a teenager (10 - 15 years ago now). Its very rare that I get rid of clothing - normally its clothes that are bought FOR me with the assumption that I will like it, but I don't and sadly don't have the space to hold onto it (even for experimenting in sewing which is a hobby I don't do but would like to).
Even still, I tend to hold onto them for years and years and trying to get over the guilt of getting rid of them lmao . Not because I feel bad about getting rid of stuff that's still good - though that's part of it - but the guilt that I'm getting rid of something that was bought with me in mind and I seemingly have not appreciated it "enough" - though this is my problem and how I end up with battling a potential hoard situation
It sounds like it would take a massive mental effort for me to go through letting go of that kind of guilt on such a regular basis that I could never even imagine to partake in fast fashion... Then I would DEFINATELY have a hoarding problem
Yes I definitely still wear a few fast fashion pieces that I bought 10 years ago
A lot of the problem I have found is in "cut" if a garment has enough space to be comfortable in key areas like bust and armscyes is much more likely to stay in my warderobe and get reworn. Too many fast fashion pieces are not designed to move normally in.
Is it truly fast fashion if you still use the pieces bought? From my understanding, fast fashion encompasses not just how the clothing is made, but how long the item is worn. I have many clothing pieces that I've bought from companies that produce fast fashion but I still wear them years later. People like us who buy the clothes, but still keep them until they can no longer be worn, are not the problem but the companies that produce the fast-fashion items and the people who will spend 100s at these stores and throw away the clothes bought by the end of the season are.
This makes a lot of sense. I'm always surprised when you or Abby are dating something and you have SUCH specificity "this has to be 1892, because x" when I'm wearing the same things I wore 20 years ago (literally, some of my shirts are from high school) and while there are certain items that exist for a moment, general fashion changes slowly in modern times.
For many years I collected books on Etiquette. All of the very best books had several chapters on Dress and Grooming. All the chapters talked about having one classic cut coat and dress and using accessories to update to the fashion trends of the times. It was better they said to wear a well cut outfit out of good quality material than the cheap frocks not meant to last the season. The books dates were early1920s & 1930s... since I began collecting as a teen they greatly influenced me ....this "historybounding" in nothing new...with this episode I see where that attitude was developed. Pick a color- a Navy, Grey, or Brown and then all the blouses and scarves hats gloves can be had for less money to add that appearance of trendy.
I’ve listened to a number of podcasts discussing fast fashion and they always refer to it as a strictly recent problem from the 80s/90s. I REALLY enjoyed this deeper dive into the history of how it came to be. I also appreciate that you argue that the solutions will have to be creative and nuanced since we are quite literally forging new ways of doing things without being able to go back to the old. As usual, 🙌🏻!
It's the same way with the discussion about importing and the two go hand in hand! The belief that we made everything down the road, only owned a few expensive items for that reason, and never threw anything out because "fashion" for most was decades behind. The reality is centuries of global imports!
I’m guessing that it’s because the speed at which we consume clothes has really sped up the past few decades. I believe even in the last decade the amount of clothes we buy has increased tremendously. And the amount of time we own those clothes for has reduced. So I suppose people conflate the two things. I’m also really enjoying this deep dive into the history of it.
Mostly because before the 70s only people in the upper classes and upper middle class could do the fast fashion stuff. Nobody else did it.
What happened in the 80s and 90s is that trade barriers went down. Suddenly you had to get your fashion made overseas because otherwise you couldn't compete. Suddenly everyone wanted a cheap outfit every season, everyone. Not just the jetset. I was involved in computerizing of the industry from the early 70s on. Only fabrics were imported then and not all of them either. By the 80s all the software was about importing, everything.
And yes there was a lot of discussion about the labour practices overseas even then at the civil rights and union sides as well as environmental.
When I was a YA in 2000 we had a new top every week (couldn't wear the same thing twice) I had to use my lunch money to keep up and frequently went hungry and lived on 50p Pizza to afford a £10 top I wore only once. Looking back, I was insane.
I guess it's a Mix between misconception and romantization of the past. My mother does that one hell of a Lot. She keeps going on about how "nowadays" all Fabrics are Just plastic crap, Like it's a new phenomenon and i believed it for years. Until i got into Vintage Fashion. And Lo and behold, what is the vast majority of 60s and 70s garments made of? Polyester! In Part probably because Polyester has surived the Test of time better than wool and cotton. But also because the 70s were really into futuristic Styles and it was a new-ish fabric. But If you ask my mum, then the 60/70s were still that magical time when plastic didnt exist.
It is extremely telling that it is mostly women's fashion that fast fashion. Because women, especially young women, need to market themselves as with it and exciting in order to obtain status and "win" a upwardly mobile man. This concept continues even in modern work life where women are not in the marriage market. A woman can not wear the same outfit twice or even too frequently or she loses status. However even then what you wear is important, if you are in management you can't be too trendy or look like the clerical staff or again you lose status. Men on the other hand can go through their entire career while owning 3 suits and a closet full of shirts. Those suits can even be identical. Oh and those shirts? They cost significantly less then a woman's blouse.
So in order to reduce fast fashion you have to change society.
When I began my career in the 1980s, most clothing was still well-made of natural fibers, with breathable rayon linings. Now, I find it impossible to find a blazer made of wool with even a rayon lining. I hate the dominance of polyester, I just can’t tolerate fabrics like that.
I remember my sister had a paper Mini-dress that the phone company gave away that was printed with the yellow pages. ( The yellow pages was the advertising portion of the printed phone book, which were literally yellow with black lettering). This video is really striking a cord with me.
What a nice thing you did by describing what the Yellow Pages were. Age inclusivity is so lacking, and I just wanted to let you know I see you. Thanks.
@Theresa Ann Diaz - If your sister still has that dress, it is probably very collectible. Some collectors specialize in paper goods. Have her try eBay.
I love this topic! I started making clothes again because I can't buy sustainable clothing mare for a short-waisted fluffy lady. The stuff available that fits me is badly made and literally falls apart. Making my own clothing has problems, too. I have to order garment fabric -- everything sold in stores around me is geared toward quilting or other crafts. That means I have swatches delivered, then proceed to have the fabric delivered. Which burns fossil fuels and has a real carbon footprint. At least the clothing I make wears really well and holds up in the wash.
@Jennifer Andrew - Don't beat yourself up about the carbon footprint. Clothing and fabric you would purchase in stores are also delivered by fossil-fuel-burning airlines, cargo vessels, and trucks. In addition, the stores are brightly lit with way more glaring electrical lighting than you ever use at home and they also have a much larger space to heat and cool than you have at home. We have one fabric shop where I live - a Joanne's. It, too, carries quilting / craft / costume / decorating goods. No fine clothing fabrics.
Consider thrifting Ikea Bedsheets or wall hangings for your project. If you like tie dye you can make a dress out of one light coloured bedsheet and dye it afterwards.
Part of this is that it’s definitely a vicious cycle perpetuated by wealth inequality and low wages in recent years. The vast majority of people have way less buying power than we did before the 2009 recession, and clothing along with most other goods becomes a terry pratchett boots situation.
When you can only afford the cheap stuff you end up buying way more of it over time, and when your stuff falls apart, why not get something trendy? Whereas if you had the cash to buy a well made item you’d end up not buying more things but just using what you have since it’s still in good condition. I mend and patch and darn incessantly but my clothes still fall apart so fast just because of poor fabric quality!!
Just realized this applies to housing too. Goddamnit
Oh, absolutely. New construction is truly horrifying yo watch.
I saw a documentary about how ridiculous amounts of clothes end up being sold in big packs in African second hand markets. A lot of the clothes are worthless and end up in the environment making a whole lot of trouble. I really resent paying some of the prices that are asked when I know their workers are pitifully paid. I'd rather spend a little more on a better quality piece where people are paid fairly. (I'm no longer a buy clothes every week type. Style over fashion for me)
I find it interesting that you view the style/fashion dynamic like that, because back in the early aughts my big brother explained to me that "stylish" was the current fad, but "fashionable" transcended expectation. Possibly he was just trying to be nice about my non-stream fashion-sense for once in my life.
OMG! THAT situation is appalling. I too have seen those videos !!
(Just as a foreword, this is just some general THOUGHTS I have about the fast fashion discourse and the aesthetics of slow fashion retailers like Everlane and is not aimed at any thing in particular that Nicole says in this video. Nicole is one of the best and most informative creators on TH-cam and I love her content.)
A more sustainable and ethical approach to clothing is absolutely necessary but I don’t think we should allow ourselves to get into an austerity mindset. Interesting and creative clothes should not be the domain of the couture wearing few. Quality issues aside, where is it written that an embroidered, cropped, blue velvet, peak shouldered, jacket can only be worn for six months? Why are tasteful beige sweaters and nondescript white sneakers the default classic and ‘timeless’? These are cultural constructs, not absolute truths. Don’t get me wrong, low key and not flashy have a time and place but can easily slip into boring and uninspired. More importantly, ‘classic’ and ‘timeless’ have a long history of of racism and classism. And yes, there are far more pressing concerns in the world than the aesthetics of our clothing (i.e. approaching climate doom and exploitative labor practices) but that doesn’t make it unimportant and in the long run austerity is the enemy of climate activism.
Also, we really need to stop putting to responsibility of stopping Climate Doom on the shoulders of individual consumers. This mess was and is largely caused by profit hungry corporations and laissez-faire gov’t and the onus for cleaning it up should be placed squarely on their shoulders.
Agreed. The minimalist aesthetic (beige, grey, white, square, etc.) is a trend. At some point, it's likely to change again and the now 'classic and timeless' will become dated. Yes, some people dedicated to the minimalist mindset and concept rather than the aesthetic will persevere in wearing that style, but it's pretty unlikely that fashion will somehow stay stagnant.
I really appreciate the people I've seen doing a minimalist challenge/capsule wardrobe with clothes they truly love and that express their style and personality. There is absolutely no reason that buying less has to mean looking 'austere.' Wear that fancy velvet jacket. For that matter, don't be a 'minimalist' if it doesn't work for you. Purging your belongings because you're 'supposed to' only means you'll have to buy more when you realize you need something you got rid of, and that doesn't help the environment or your wallet.
oh man I agree that the aesthetics of the tasteful beige jumpers etc and what's "classic" are....I mean, irritating at best, a whole weird classist thing at worst. Like, I don't like plain blue jeans. I don't like wearing black, or white. For me, a "classic" garment that I wear for years might be like, a multicoloured print skirt, or something in forest green that coordinates with a whole bunch of other clothing that I have. It's like the clothing equivalent of how spices used to be very expensive and luxurious (think medieval cooking) but when colonialism made them cheaper and more wildly available in western countries, suddenly it wasn't considered sophisticated to spice your food with lots of different things, it was foreign and weird and made you ill (think more what you'd think of as 1850s-1950s English cooking.)
Elastane mixed with synthetics has been a great enabler for more recent fast fashions. I have classic clothing that is 30 years old, redyeing clothing and choosing good cut is key. I am lucky because I can make and adjust clothing. We are unlikely to change the issue easily. Thank you Nicole for showing us that this is nothing new.
Birdy
No matter wether I'm rich or poor, I almost ALWAYS buy my clothing this way.... I go to the thrift stores in the "rich areas". Last year I got myself pair after pair of designer Jeans, half new with tags. And same for my daughter. She absolutely loves that I get her nicer clothes AND for cheaper!
Excellent overview, though I wish you had mentioned the option of purchasing secondhand clothing. There's a big problem there too with thrift stores filling up with fast fashion cast-offs, but is a more sustainable option for those who can't afford to shop for all the expensive sustainable brands.
While thrifting can be a useful alternative, I think that fast fashion has kind of ruined it. As you correctly pointed out, most of the donations to thrift stores today are fast fashion. These items are poor quality, so by the time they end up in a thrift store, they are already close to falling apart. Also, the prices that thrift stores charge for used fast fashion are almost as much (if not more) than what that fast fashion costs new. The days of finding nice clothing for cheap in a thrift store are coming to a close.
I thrift most of my clothing for quality fabric, then alter or remake it. I can still find good quality, classic clothes in thrift stores, but I spend a lot of time thrifting for sport. If you only thrift occasionally, your chances of scoring well-made clothes are definitely lower than they used to be.
@@kirstenpaff8946 Agreed. Low quality fast fashion, near the end of its life, is found in abundance in thrift stores. A person might as well buy it new directly from the fast fashion retailers for a little more money and better quality. High quality second-hand clothing ends up in "consignment" shops, where they end up being sold for a lot more more money than most people struggling to afford basic goods are willing to pay.
I agree for the most part, but at least where I live if you go to local charity shops you can still find good clothing because they get a lot of donations from estates and long time supporters of the charity. Not the same at a place like Goodwill, but for example there's a local animal shelter charity store, a veterans charity, and one that supports work for formerly incarcerated people. All those thrift stores receive donations from long time philanthropists in the area and sometimes have excellent finds for reasonable prices. They will usually only acceptand put out decent quality stuff.
Good presentation! Some observations:
1. When I was 10 in 1967, I received a gift of a paper minidress with matching knickers. It was uncomfortable and crackly so it went in the dustbin immediately.
2. We consumers need to focus on the life cycle cost of things we purchase. Whether it’s a car, a kitchen appliance or a garment, we need to factor in not only the initial financial outlay but the maintenance, leaning, repair, duration of use and disposal. Buying a $10 item that is worn twice and thrown in the landfill is extremely costly for the planet. Better to choose a quality item made ethically, spend $100, and have a garment that can be worn for years and donated to the thrift shop for someone else to enjoy. I have items in my wardrobe that are over 50 years old that I still love to wear.
3. Vintage closing can be stylish. Consider Billie Eilish’s outfit for the Met Gala last week. She bought most of it at a thrift store and was one of the few celebrities to nail the theme of the Gilded Age.
For me, I am trying to avoid fast fashion for fashion's sake (though my mother might claim I avoid fashion entirely :P ) but I must admit, disposable clothing does have its place in my wardrobe. My work destroys (or at least pokes holes in and gets paint and sealants all over) my work clothes, so though I just re-wear my cargo pants with paint all over them until they rip, then patch them until they become structurally unsound so, those are actually worth getting something that will last, but my t-shirts? Nope, I get the 2 for $10 cheapest ones I can find because they'll be trashed quite rapidly (I do use them as rags until they're more hole than cloth). I do have trouble figuring out if I am paying extra for good quality or if I'm just paying for a name and it's going to disintegrate as fast as the stuff I could have gotten for half the price. And some things, it just doesn't matter. My 6 for $12 underpants last as long as my $6 underpants, but I've started cutting the remaining panels into rags when they're no longer wearable.
Also for winter snow shovelling (also part of my work), I've tried all kinds of gloves and a lot of time the $20 pair of gloves doesn't last any longer than the $6 pair of gloves. I have one pair of $12 gloves I got when I was a teen in the 90s that are still wearable (although I want to replace the palms if I can find an appropriate fabric), and they're still in better condition than the $20 gloves I bought this season that are already popping seasons.
I had similar issues with fieldwork clothes: salt and mud and hours of walking wrecks clothes. And also the cheap to mid-price stuff from the early nineties kept up way longer than more recent things. Except for the expensive outdoor gear. That's worth it's price.
Women’s work gloves. US made. A bit more expensive but totally wears well. The only company gloves that fit my small woman’s hand size.
@@yoshiew05 Thankfully, Home Depot sells some women's work gloves that fit me OK (long narrow palm and short fingers makes it exciting to find gloves that fit well), and as seasonallyd isposable gloves, I get $4 insulated rubber-dipped gloves from Dollarama that work well for cold gardening or not too cold snow shovelling (bonus, they come in purple!). But for winter gloves that keep my fingers from freezing when I'm shovelling snow at -20C (below 0F), I need actual winter gloves and those are so hit and miss in quality it's really frustrating...
@@annaapple7452 LOL if only my cheap stuff from the 90s still fit! :) I'm still working my way through a dozen or so pairs of cargo pants I got in the early 00s but the company that made them doesn't exist anymore. I'm so lucky I can wear men's trousers off the rack, women's pants rarely fit me well and generally lack pockets and fall apart...
Keep in mind inflation over the years and the quality would not be the same as back then when people could produce quality for less ,hence now the 12$ gloves won't last
Going from the Chaos of Abby's video to the chill educational format of your video is a trip! Love them both.
@Animekitty - And drunk vs sober - sober wins!
Yesterday I cut out squares for the potholders I am making. I got enough fabric squares to produce 13 pairs from an American made flannel nightgown that I bought used for $3 at a thrift store in 1998, and had worn ever since. Lol.
Brilliant! It’s truly amazing what you can find in history!
Personally when my kids were little (1990’s) I realized it was much easier to make it myself than fix the shoty work on the cheap stuff. Add in the fact that my daughter has a longer body than clothes allowed for I had to learn pattern alterations. These days I live close to many thrift stores so most of my clothes are bought there. As well as patterns, fabric, notions and books! I’m ok with waiting for items I would like. I also don’t really care what is in or out of fashion. There doesn’t seem to be a clear sense of that anymore. If I like it I wear it regardless and will wear it till it’s rags!
7:10 is such an amazing point about the speed of fashion changes during the 19th century. I had always known that there were several silhouettes at play, but I had never seen the mere 10-30 year gaps between radically different garment types put side by side before. Looking at the 20th century, the overall garments stayed mostly the same, with the biggest jump during the 60s and teenagers gaining purchasing power. Since then it's mostly just been relatively small changes in ideal proportion. (see a woman's business suit from the 80s vs today). The automatic looms really did change the game.
And re the environment, this is why I personally shop on Poshmark, haha. There are some amazing conversations elsewhere about the viability of this for people in different situations - like the low availability of larger size clothes that make the wearer feel good, or the time that you need to devote to thrifting the perfect item while something is available now close by. But I hope that acknowledging the fashion cycle and re-use of older garments is in our future. The clothing is already made, and millions of pieces are unwanted. Might as well use them.
I’d love a similar dive into the history and rise of secondhand and reuse market since I remember buying secondhand a lot in the 90s but it was still sort of socially awkward and now there’s a real resurgence but I think there was probably a resurgence in the 70s with the punk scene etc
My grandma would take me shopping every year for my birthday--usually for a couple books and an outfit, and when I was about sixteen, I had recently become friends with someone who thrifted all their clothes (due to being the oldest of eight kids--her family didn't have the money for brand-new things), and I was taken with the idea. I asked my grandma to take me to Goodwill and she practically hissed that she wasn't buying me secondhand clothes. She either made her own clothes or bought them at department stores and her outfits were always very elegant and stylish. Then I went off to university and started thrifting most of my clothing because I couldn't afford to buy new most of the time.
I remember when I was a kid and watched the Matrix for the first time, the clothes they wore in the dystopian reality struck me as so unrealistic, how they were full of holes and basically falling apart. Now I have a shirt from H&M that looks like that lol.
(I tried to mend it at the beginning but now there are so many holes that I can only wear it as a sleeping shirt before it completely turns into a rag :P)
Something serious that you completely missed is that the Fast Fashion of 300yrs ago was made from natural fibres & was therefore biodegradable, but today it's produced in more than 90% polyester - polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or PLASTIC just like drink bottles. Despite polyester being developed for durability, these clothes pill, stretch, come apart at the seams & the fabric is so thin that holes appear all over them, not from excessive wear, but just from short-term laundering. My family volunteered in local charity shops & what's most sad is that most clothing donations are now of such poor quality by the time people 'donate' (even after just a few wears) that charity shops can't resell them & they have to pay waste collectors to bring a truck & take quite literally TONNES of Fast Fashion clothing to landfill every single week. That's tonnes of polyester - plastic that will still be here another 300yrs from now.
I remember being fascinated by ads for paper dresses when I was little. My young brain got them a bit mixed up with ads for the new adhesive sanitary pads ("No Belts! No Hooks!") I wasn't sure what was going on. They were the ultimate fast, disposable fashion. Fastest if you wear them in the rain!
I wish I didn't have to rely on fast fashion.
As our friend Terry has said:
“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
I keep all my clothes pretty much for years for example my oldest item i think is a cardigan from primark from 10 years ago or more (I’m 22), so idk what is going on with people buying new stuff all the time and throwing stuff away unless it doesn’t fit anymore, idk how people can be bothered following all these trends
Great video. As an (much) older viewer the term fast fashion went over my head. I wore peddle pushers as a child(50's), miniskirts(60's 70's)demin bellbottoms and embroidered jeans...power suits with padded shoulders and pencil skirts(80's&90's)wonderd through the frilly blouses and wore lots of khaki pants. Suffered through ever tight skinny pant leg and saw the end of pantyhose. Now retired I wear plain pull on comfortable jeans made from fabrics I hope will outlast me. Tops that will last years etc. I'm on the slow fashion trend for sure. Living through the last half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st I believe your comments are "right on"! Ps I missed the paper trend..too much being a hippie college student.😁😁😉
I remember my mother getting one of those paper dresses in the 1960’s. Don’t think she ever wore it; it was more of a lark or curiosity.
They seem to pop up in vintage shops on the regular so I guess the novelty was the point for most, rather than actual use!
I had a paper dress...and I wore it..
@@johannayaffe2647 how was it? What kind of paper are we talking here? Like how money (at least in the US) is made of a sort of fabric like paper, or something more printer papery than that? I'm honestly fascinated by the concept of paper clothing.
I have the same question as@@glitterberserker1029 . I've always heard about the paper suit my uncle once owned, but I wonder what it was actually like, how the texture was and how long it lasted. 🤔
@@glitterberserker1029 I dont really remember, it was a special type of paper, but could only be worn a few times, and certainly couldn't be washed.
Think of The Kinks song -Dedicated Follower of Fashion - that expresses fast fashion completely eg.."1 week he's in polka dots, the next week he's in stripes.."
Honestly I've been trying to sew the bulk of my own clothes for the past year and it's working out okay thus far. I do a lot more historical costuming, but also some special event clothing/repurposing clothes into new clothes. I love the 18th century way of making and wearing clothes; i recently taught myself how to darn holes, even.
Just adding one thing: It wasn't just luxury brands that lost customers. Enough of those brands could adapt. Small businesses could not.
I personally mostly refer to fast fashion "starting" in the 90s because that's when it really went global and exploded. I know that because it was the time that my parents lost almost all of the customers of their clothing shop to cheaper options.
Sure, fast fashion existed before, but as you said just not on that scale.
My Dad founded the shop in 1986 in Berlin and it was going amazingly! Yes, it was probably middle-class customers or even upper-class. But later, when I was little in the early 2000s, we had barely any customers left. Mostly older women who were used to buying from small local designers, didn't care about fashion hypes anymore and just wanted to be dressed well. They were still willing to pay for the, if they wanted, tailored to them clothes.
The problem obviously isn't people who can't afford to buy expensive quality items. It is people who can be more responsible but won't for the sake of keeping up with trends.
But these things can't be changed from the consumer upwards. Yes, we should try and make the best choice that is available to us. But that's not from where real pressure can be put on these industries.
I think, there have to be some form of stricter regulations. Only from a legislative point can all of this take a different direction.
I always appreciate how you take difficult topics and break down the complexities. These are not quick fixes, but it is looking at the foundations of what is going on now to allow us to consider how we want to move forward. Thank you.
Thank you for the explanation of how this culture developed.
I try to sew at least some of my own clothes as time permits and have received positive reactions when I've worn them in my daily life. I struggle to find clothes that are comfortable and attractive do to my body shape, so when I do find things that work, I generally try to get them to last as long as possible.
Wow, I still can wear my clothes from 15 years ago. That 7 year gap is more dramatic in fashion that the 2005-2020 gap
Only 15? I can still wear some of my clothing from the 1980s, and it looks as stylish as anything else in my wardrobe!
Admittedly, I'm not a high style person. But in the 19th and most of the 20th centuries, it would have been **impossible** for any woman of means to continue to wear styles from 40 years earlier.
@@lizcademy4809
I dearly wish, I still had some of my clothes from when I was in my twenties (I'm 41 now). I have one dress, which I still love and wear, but that's about it.
And lots of them I gave away, because I didn't have much storage, gained and lost (and gained and lost) weight, because fashions changed.
If I had kept everything that was still in wearable condition, I would for sure gone back to many pieces after a while.
@@raraavis7782 I also gained weight since the 1980s (pregnancy will do that), but I also lost most of that weight. I didn't store most of my clothing, but I keep one large "memory box" and surprised myself last time I went through it.
That's what I love about fashion right now, everything goes! I combine new or thrifted items with stuff I wore as a teenager, my mothers clothes from the 80's, and my grandmothers handmade pieces from way back when.
@@emmamemma4162
I swoon every time, I leaf through old family photo books. My mother was quite stylish in her youth. In one picture from the 70s, when she had just started dating my dad, she's wearing a tight, canary yellow jumpsuit with wide legs 🔥.
Now, I'm quite a bit taller then my mother, so I couldn't wear it, even if it still existed...but recreating it is definitely on my bucket list!
My Mother taught me a long time ago, (I’m 71 now) to have a seamstress who makes my clothing with my input. It is not a lot more expensive than purchasing from a quality store. I still have pieces that I had made in the 70s, and they hold up both materially and style.🖤🇨🇦
Thank you for a great overview of the history of fast fashion. As sustainable and slow fashion become trendy, I worry that these terms are just going to be co-opted by fast fashion marketing departments, making it even more difficult for consumers to figure out what is and is not as good choice. In general, consumers are very reliant on the information provided by companies and any company can post pictures of smiling textile workers on their webpage, whether or not that actually reflects reality.
I struggle with finding sustainable clothing options. While I am distinctly not someone who constantly buys the latest trend (plenty of items in my wardrobe are 10 years old), I do find it difficult to figure out which items will actually last me multiple years, whether they are ethically produced, and if the price is actually reasonable. I feel like half of the time you can get essentially the same item from a fast fashion brand and regular department store brand with the only real difference being the price. Yes, there are online companies that market themselves as more sustainable, but I always question if the massive price mark up of these brands actually reflects a real difference in sustainability.
Justine Leconte has some good videos about greenwashing and things, and how to spot when companies are doing it, such as this video th-cam.com/video/fUzEbAkT-UQ/w-d-xo.html
And speaking of speed - if youre old enough to remember - advanced dressmakers were at the ready during Princess Dianas wedding, and by the time the wedding was over - a dress copy (scaled down of course) was already made and up in the shop front for sale. I saw a documentary on it - it was akind of "challenge" - would it be possible for a dressmaker to copy it in minutes and have it sewn up asap. As it turns out - her dress was a very basic pattern with just load sof volume and loads of frills. It was available for orders that same day!
This is so interesting, thank you for making this video! I heard a point made in another video about how in modern society the most value is put on finished products first, then manufactures, and the actual raw materials are worth an infinitesimal amount. I'd never even consider the actual fabric that goes into clothes and where that's made, and how changes in fabric preferences has a massive effect on entire towns. The middle school and High school I went to were the last ones in my state to still teach agroscience (farm science, basically) and I wish it was taught in more places! I think a respect for raw materials (and where they come from) is so important for a sustainable future, especially if married with a healthy respect for labor and worker's rights. It sucks that so much of that was suppressed in the interest of making some big wigs in skyscrapers bigger numbers on a screen and bigger houses to live in.
And BBC just posted the story on the fast fashion desert in Chili what great timing Nichole! Thank you for researching this important topic and not reducing it entirely to personal vanity.
I think there is definitely that “teen girls are foolish” tact that many old folk in suits type like to pull on the fast fashion and just the preoccupation with fashion. For people firmly in their adult years the issue of fast fashion in home furnishings and electronics or the latest miracle cure in food or shampoo or craft supply. The ideas of the newest shiniest completely infect our lifestyles.
This was so well done. I am grateful that the shift back towards a slower way of life is starting to become a reality.
This is a great video, very well researched and objective. I think that social media like this is doing real work to teach others about the ways of the world and what they can be doing. I also like that many creatives are having youtube videos on how to make and mend, to tailor clothes etc, as a lot of clothing that is thrown away, whether due to sizing, disintegration or damage, could be repaired, tailored, used for something else such as rags, fillers for cushions, rugs, equipment, accessories like bags etc. Just because something is "cheap" or "fast" does not mean that we should lose respect for it and throw it away if it can still be of use. In that way we can save money, not consume as much and start treating products, people and the environment with the dignity and honour they deserve. It just takes the know how and so I really find youtube an accessible, educational tool that can be life changing.
I would have guessed that fast fashion did not hit us until early 2000's. Those 19th and early 20th century consumers are, via this channel, constantly surprising me. I purchase most of my clothing from online (hopefully eventually in-person stores) thrift/recycle shops. Jeans (a fast fashion brand) and shoes (pricey as I have high-maintenance feet) are my two main detours off the path of more environmentally and humanely produced attire. BTW although I am not on camera, my 2 cats also like to have the last "word" in any discussion of which they are not the main topic.
I had no idea the concept went back that far. I’ve never understood the fascination with name brand or designer clothing that just goes out of style in 3 months. It seemed like a waste. I’ve always been happy with well made, and often hand made things in “classic” styles…I know, I’m weird. Vintage style, but definitely modern values.
Just started watching. When one can find comments in really old books about something being last season or a decade old.
My grandma's mother was a seamstress and would remake all of the college clothes every summer when she came home. My grandma was a bit of a flapper.
I am so glad you have pointed this out. When with someone who is not an historical costumer - we look at something and i can say "Oh - wow - thats out of date by about 2 years..." and they laugh saying thats impossible to say, how could I claim that...etc etc". SO i explain, that there were so many changes every couple of years in the 1860's, 70's and 80's - and even Edwardian has sudden shifts in sleeve fullness OVERNIGHT... Yet i can wear the same denim jeans and styled knitted top today as i did 20 years ago and no one would know!
Fascinating topic this week. And agree, the need for availability for slow fashion is huge - there is a substantial portion of the population in the US at least for whom the sort of investment that comes with slow fashion just isn't an option as that's rent or power or grocery money.
I got a bit rambly, important part is above, my rambling is below.
Being both tall and not straight sized (18L-20L basically), fast fashion hasn't hit quite as quickly I think, but whoa boy is it here now. 20yrs ago there weren't many options and they tended to be either very cheap or pretty expensive for garments (specifically tops, sweaters/overpieces, jeans/trousers); I knew that if I payed $50-$80 for a pair of jeans, outside of possibly one wear area (that can and have been patched), I could keep those for years (I still have a few from 2003-2004 time frame that have thinned but are still thicker than modern stretchy jeans). Same with work trousers, might need to fix a dropped hem occasionally, but they held up despite being worn every week to two weeks. In the last decade or so (2012 in particular is when I started noticing because I had to pick up clothes for an install during the install), the denim started to become more stretch than denim, tops started to show less quality between pattern matching, missed/loose threads in assembly, and general material. Some of this I think is particular to financial problems the particular chain I use went through for a while, but when one is an unusual size (or tall, never mind both), knowing where it is possible to get business dress or replacement for install damaged clothes same day while 1000+ miles from home tends to be important. Now all that said, I'm guilty of wearing things probably longer than I should professionally (pilling/fading on overpieces primarily), and wearing them out completely around the house, because I am cheap and dislike shopping and will not replace something unless I absolutely have to and if I can't fix it, but the decreasing quality of modern garments is certainly making that more difficult. And agree, the availability for slow fashion is huge - I may be able to still afford those $50-$80 jeans now, but I basically lived in O. N. tees and jeans through high-school as it was all we could afford, and there is a huge portion of the population in the US at least who are in a similar boat for whom that sort of investment just isn't an option as that's rent or power or grocery money. It's one thing to say one gets what they pay for, but when the money isn't there to pay for better, they're stuck.
Hey great video. Very interesting. I've been making my own clothes recently and, as someone else mentioned, finding ethical and sustainable fabric is not easy. For example I live in New Zealand and my favorite "quality" fabric store stocks beeeaaauuutiful fabrics but from Turkey or Japan. Those places are pretty far from NZ! Burning up fossil fules aaaallll the way here. By the way it can cost $80NZ ($50USD) just to make a merino jumper or even a sweatshirt and we don't have cheap patterns like you do in the US so we pay $18 - $25 or more ($12 - $16 USD). But I know not everyone has the time or interest in making their own slow fashion. Its great that there are option for all wallets and that in general, I think, people are starting to think more about ethical and sustainable clothing.
Whilst I do not, personally, see the remotest unalloyed good in fashion and the fashion industry (not to be confused with clothing and the clothing industry, which is somewhat necessary) I also cannot help note that the main reason "fast fashion" has been the target for ethical critique first is because it is still seen as a "women's" interest, and thus purely a question of vanity, selfish, and inherently frivolous - unlike the equally harmful industries which are "men's" interest and thus a necessary evil, if not straight-up worthwhile. Is fast fashion hugely harmful on a great many levels? Yes, but is that isn't why it's the current scapegoat.
Yep! What about how fast we throw out our tech? Or cars? The bulk comes direct from companies and not individuals anyway. And buying a cheap garment (when you don't have to) because "I don't care about fashion" then having it fall apart from poor care and buying another right away isn't any less of a problem.
@@NicoleRudolphOh blimey yes, the encouraged turnover on mobile phones is extortionate to the public and straight toxic for the environment and worker welfare! I'm not sure how well this maps to the US, but in the UK when my Dad was growing up at the back-end of the second world war, so many things that we consider "ethical living" now was second nature to everyone. Reusing containers, make-do and mend, smaller more frequent food shops, were all just how things were. When you bought milk, you took your own container to the grocer and you required amount of milk was poured into it for you, you took beer and other glass bottle back to the store and were paid a small amount for each one - from where they were sent to the manufacturer to be washed and refilled. When these things changed it wasn't due to demand from the public, it was business seeing a way to put costs and maximise profit, sadly we didn't know the costs to the environment, and to the livelihoods of those whose jobs were lost, to fight back against it. Then by the time I was born in the early years of Thatcherism, when advertising to children became a free-for all, they had fully won, and customers became "consumers" and we were told if we didn't consume we were failing in our duty the economy and the country. Now they want to pretend it is our fault, so they can keep burning the earth and abusing their workers, because apparently we "demanded" it, as though plenty of folks didn't fight tooth and nail against them. Ooops, that's an essay - sorry! Shall relinquish my soapbox!
Electric cars even, that are supposed to be part of our big solution, are part of this as well. Of course, there are many great advantages to them, but at least in Norway there has been a lot of media attention the last couple of years about how completely new cars with only small damages are being scrapped because insurance refuse to pay for fixing them, because it's so expensive. Hopefully that will change when more and more companies compete and evolve their products, but guarantees on new cars now are ridiculously short for the amount you pay and the emissions that are involved.
@@NicoleRudolph, yes, and often we are forced to replace perfectly good items simply because we are told to (e.g. a functioning scanner for which the drivers for a newer OS simply didn't exist.)
While you are oh so right about the planned obsolescence of tech which is very fast fashion indeed and very bad for the environment, clothing may be worse by sheer volume. The pesticides for conventional cotton, the water use etc. This only goes to show that there are ethical issues with everything we buy.
Great video! Fast fashion vs timelessness in fashion is topic I consider quite a lot. I'm glad that you tied it in with the economy tho. I hadn't made that connection myself, thinking more about consumerism as a personal habit or trend in fashion rather than an economic one. Luv the haircut. Already looking forward to your next project.
Very good educational video. One of the reasons why I decided to sew my own clothes is to be more environmentaly friendly
I'm honestly thinking more and more about getting clothes made for me by a local seamstress. Since I do a *little bit* of sewing myself I'm familiar with lots of sewing patterns and how to find them so I can easily find a pattern for something I like and take it to the seamstress to have it made.
So many thoughts … Canadian soldiers in WWI suffered hugely because the boots that the govt bought in mass quantities had literally paper soles. Poor folk around the world - who are by far the majority - cannot afford quality clothes and benefit the most from fast fashion. Currently in Europe people wear ther or clothes on average 7 or 8 times before they throw them out. The biggest issue is that we make these clothes out of plastics and then throw them in landfill often even before they have been sold and worn. We are putting more and more micro plastics into the environment because flash fashion usually means polyester. Sigh .. it is not a simple question. My buying fabric to make my own clothes means there is more waste because mass production uses fewer resources per item. I wish there was a cut and dried answer.
I've definitely noticed a difference in my clothing habits once I stopped shopping in person. I almost never get rid of anything I've bought online unless I've outgrown it! The lack of immediate gratification has helped so much.
@@NicoleRudolph if we return stuff we bought online it often just goes straight to landfill. I have problems with sizing as a plus size human so if I get something that doesn’t work I give it away. Making most of my clothes now means I definitely don’t get that immediate buzz from buying and that has helped a lot. I own far fewer things and I always have something I want to wear.
@@susanrobertson984 Yes! Going to a brick and mortar store and buying one item that actually fits is a lot more environmentally friendly than ordering several sizes and styles from an online store, only to return most of them. In slow fashion, returned items can usually be sold to another person, so it's only the unnecessary transport that causes excess pollution, but in fast fashion it's exactly as you say, items are thrown away if you return them.
I must be setting the whole country back. I've been buying 2 styles of pleated blouse & layered tanktop for over 10 years from the same company, & since none of them have fallen apart, I still have them all.
The slowest & most affordable version of slow fashion is to just be poor & not be able to afford new clothes at all lol 🙃
I love the description of Ma making Mary’s best dress for college in the 1880s, with her new sewing machine, in the Laura Ingalls Wilder book. Was it “These Happy Golden Years”? I can’t remember.
I was born in the 80's in Europe and for 20years no one discussed the dangers of fast fashion. The truth is that the environment is suffering and will suffer and people's mental health is also being challenged. If we cannot or want not to keep with the fast fashion trends, you will be questioned and segregated. Also, if you do not fit the fast fashion sizes or your body does not fit the trend, you will be put aside by your piers. I chose to embrace a life of slower, more ecological and thought fashion, choosing what I sew and what I buy and people like Nicole were a key part on my decision. I hope that the people thar surround me will feel inspired and follow one way ore another. Congrats for the amazing content Nicole!
I remember Marshall's clothing store in the 1970's - who stocked nothing but ex-stock clothing from major department stores. It was always busy, and the racks were always full. They did start in the 1950s, but I distinctly remember when their stock changed from "new" clothes to ex-stock.
The many pairs of pyjama pants that I bought several years ago have started to lose their elasticity from the waistband. I went to the shops in the hope of getting new ones, only to realise that they no longer carry pyjamas made from pure cotton and all that’s available is synthetic fabric… I have therefore decided to learn to sew just so that I could make sure I get exactly what I want. It’s lucky that the sewing and craft supply stores still carry a good variety of cotton fabrics, and even luckier that my dad is actually quite good with the sewing machine himself so he could teach me the basics.
I would suggest that fast fashion might still have a place for teens and early twenties for them to find their style. Once they find it they will buy more expensive longer lasting items that will last longer, hopefully a lot longer than the clothes they bought before when they didn’t have the disposable income that will in their later twenties and on wards, changing with styles as they come into slower fashion. I recognised in my mid twenties that I couldn’t spend what I was on clothes, so I did research in the library, (no internet in the late 70s!) where I found my look. It’s developed in the next 50 yrs but it’s still very classic with a nod to more fashionable items, normally footwear or jackets. I like to think I’m trendy but mostly classic where I fit to suit my age.
I’m not going to touch on the ethics of fast fashion for that distresses me. The working conditions finally are being taken into account in clothes. We see ‘ethically manufactured’ on labels. We have to accept that is the truth.
It’s my belief that if it’s so cheap or affordable, it’s not ethically made. I’d rather buy a single top well made in good fibres rather than cheap fashion made with man made fibres that are not designed to last nor is the construction. I don’t dwell on the sweat shops. That’s more than a single person can change, other than buying better made longer lasting clothes that are made from reputable companies. I’m not saying couture but middle range companies that produce items locally, not overseas.
We need to have a shift in our thoughts and buying patterns. Maybe resetting after the pandemic has passed, whenever that happens, we will see a shift in buying patterns by many people that have spent the last two years in their pyjamas! Classics and well made clothing might just return to our wardrobes.!
I am already waiting for the 3D printed clothing. Which could help with the ready to wear sizing problems. But not necessarily with environmental or ethical issues. Not to mention the stress of keeping up.
A terrible thought that people only started to see the problems 15 years ago!
There's been some amazing progress on printing clothing over the last decade! The bigger problem I see there is just that it's still limited on what you can print with so it's still plastic based for the most part. I bet someone is working on cellulose based options though!
@@NicoleRudolph Printing cotton clothes, or maybe pattern pieces for a Start, sounds amazing - you don’t have waist you cut off. But how this should work I have no idea. 😅
Parametric sewing patterns based on detailed measurements of the person who will wear the garment, is becoming more and more available.
@@ragnkja Yes, I have literally written a program for that myself. Though I notice people struggling with taking all the measurements and the extra work before they get their pattern. A technology to take the measurements automatically would be so helpful. No job for me though, I would not even know where to start. 😅
@@dressdeveloper I remember watching a BBC sci-fi kids' programme back in the 90s where the main character ended up in the future and her from-the-future friend suggested she needed a whole new outfit to fit in, so 'step on the scanner here' and she was measured by a computer (using a laser, of course) and the new clothes were ready to wear in about a minute. The ultimate in fast fashion...
Thank you, I definitely learned a lot! It was especially nice that you did not concentrate on fast fashion being bad and sth to avoid but explained why it became what it is today and how it’s changing now. Super interesting!
I love the fact that there are so many different styles these days. Everything from people in China, students wearing the old styles of student clothes, to people that are wearing clothing designs anywhere from the 40’s and 50’s to even more decades ago. Makes it easy to have something that no one else has if you can sew.
Excellent point, about the hypocrisy of, on the one hand, denigrating and morally despising the individual who is interested in and keeps up with fashions, while on the other hand rejoicing in the “booming economy” implied by the manufacturers driving those fashions.... And the irony, that an ad for mango’s “sustainable” line popped up in the middle! (What does “100% of our [items] have sustainable properties” even mean?!?)
You are so right I tried so many times to find someone to talk about the problem for the not affordable ethical clothing. Everyone talks a lot about second hand but in some countries that's not an option, because it's difficult for the plus size body to find clothing, and thear aren't enough shops for me to look in my town, in reality it's only one small, and in the top of that it needs time, that I don't have when I work 6 days per week 10-11 hours per day for not enough money. Thenk you ♥️
I'm a 90s kid that fell into the punk goth scene. I can relate to wearing things till it literally fell apart. Granted I didn't put clothes pins in mine lol. I usually wore a black tank under the million hole band shirts.
Thanks for this. I’ve never been a fan of fast fashion. I like clothes that last, because I rarely buy clothes for myself. I like quality, not quantity.
I love your hair, make-up and outfit in this video.
This is a very important topic too, I'm trying to be more mindful about what and where I buy fabric and clothing and either repurpose or donate where possible.
I love your channel. I was hoping that you'd get into a lot more detail on two topics: the introduction of synthetic fibers, and the shift in consumer expectations from buying ready-to-wear (but not necessarily well fitting) in stores over to buying items you haven't tried on, expecting to return most of your purchases. My theory is that return culture ends up making clothes boxier so that they "fit" more people and discourage returns. I would love it if you revisited the broader changes in consumer expectations beyond emphasizing that things keep getting cheaper.
I really enjoyed this video, and seeing how the history of fast fashion is really the history of industrial capitalism.
I was surprised you didn't mention the Fairtrade clothing movement though (e.g. Traidcraft, People Tree), which has been going since the late 1970s or thereabouts, with major expansion since the 1990s. In some ways it's merging with the much newer slow fashion movement, but in some ways is significantly different.
Anyway thanks again for a great video.
I went to a major school and got my degree in fashion design. My final portfolio was all about creating a menswear line that was direct competition with Levi’s and Gap and Old Navy and I wanted to work as a designer in that way. But it felt creatively bankrupt.
So incredibly well researched and well thought out.
Here are two thoughts I've had related to current fast/disposable fashion, and older fashions. I've wondered before whether all the lace and ruffles and neck ties, at the neck of historical garments, were done to easily replace or conceal stained fabric. That seems like a very easily stained area (food spilling on to white shirts). So I'm wondering if there's any evidence of that being done on purpose. Planned in a way, because that's what the customer wanted. Or as a way to easily sell to a customer (this shirt features easily replaceable lace, so you can remove stains. Because that would be a big difference compared to current fashion, where almost everyone isn't able to see, and mend their clothes. But maybe that wasn't the point at all, just a side effect of the fashions of the time.
My second thought is how the sewing machine has influenced fast fashion. Specifically the 1920s, with all the fashion being straight lines. Which I'm guessing were easier to do on the older styles of sewing machines. And also faster to make - which could make fashion even faster in a decade marked by extreme decadence.
Probably not the bit on older machines & straight lines thing because the old Singer hand crank machines are great for sewing corsets on which often have curvy seams. You just turn the fabric to follow the curve, the machine's needle just goes up and down. There wasn't a huge change in the sewing machines from the 1800s to the 1920s but fashion became straight up & down. That was mainly an aesthetic shift, not one to do with ease of manufacturing.
Best way of bringing history to life, telling stories and focusing on something small but which ends having huge consequences. Thanks
I love that you end on a hopeful conclusion that puts power in our hands…if we’re willing to take it.
Yay! Thank you for posting! I would really like to mention that purchasing used clothing is a way out of this on so many levels, be it High End or Inexpensive. Everything Old was once New. Everything New will someday be Old. Just sayin'...Chasing Trends is like a Tiger chasing It's own tail...be yourself, Lovlies.
15:37 Wasn't there an attempt in the 1960s for actual paper clothing? I could have swore I saw something about it at a museum.
Thank you so much for this very informative video! I only started sewing clothing in the last three years, and I’ve been staggered by the cheapness and waste in the fast fashion industry. But I so appreciate your wrap-up, that we can’t go back to the way things were in the 18th century, but that we can come up with a new way to create fashion. And I love that the slow fashion movement is coming along!
I always appreciate your thoroughness. I enjoyed this video and would love to see a opposite research video.
Like a history of textile making throughout the years.
I happen to be a weaver and think weaving history and textile creation is so gd interesting!! I’d love to see your take on the topic.
I have an old architecture textbook that makes the claim that washing machines and driers will not be needed in the future because people will wear plastic clothes that they’ll throw away
Just imagine the sweat. Clearly that writer lived somewhere temperate and dry (or never wore plastic). They thought the same thing about rubber once vulcanization was figured out though!
Sounds like somebody trying to cover their butt because they forgot to put a laundry room in the blueprints
@@SusanYeske701 - No, that would never happen. Many of the most well-known architects are into "futurism".
@@SusanYeske701 😂😂
I don't comment often enough on your videos but I love them! Youre always talking about fashion in a way that people act like are new things. I enjoy your videos so much, they are entertaining and informational
Fashion and Indian textiles jump started the Industrial revolution. Anybody who says fashion isn’t important needs to learn history.
I can watch your content all day! Just so much knowledge and history. When the pupper sat beside you that made my day!!!!
Thank you for another well-researched lesson on fashion history. It is pretty frightening that fast fashion, or any other "fast" industry really, is thriving because the current economic system encourages and rewards that kind of behavior. Therefore, the shift to more ethical and ecological production will inevitably change the whole underlying economy, with its old business models and practices.
I love how you explain the broadness and complexity of this in such a concise way! As a life-long seamstress turned materials/textiles chemist I’ve done some academic projects on the development of fast fashion from the perspective of the rise of synthetic fabrics and the petroleum industry. I’ve stuck mainly to the changes of the fashion consumer behavior of working class folks throughout the 19th and 20th century and in that tend to highlight the contrasts with today’s purchasing behavior of working class folks. I’ve never considered the perspective of fast fashion extending as far back as you described which is really interesting!! You don’t specifically mention economic standing of the people who participated so eagerly in the fast fashion trend cycles of the 19th century, but am I correct in assuming this would have been upper-middle class and upper class individuals rather than working class folks who would be more likely limiting fabric purchases and maximizing use over prioritizing dramatic changes to stay in style?
Another very interesting video - I always look forward to seeing them pop up.
I've bought a few things from Primark over the years, although I haven't done for a while now.
I have worn the garments for years though, including one which actually fell apart! The others I've repaired as best I can.
The cheaper men's t-shirts at Walmart start to fall apart within weeks or months. I've been buying from used clothing stores for years and tried buying a few new shirts from Walmart that I liked the decals on the front of. I now need to fix the seams on most of them. Even though it was easier and faster to pick out shirts at Walmart and find it in my size, I would have spent less or around the same at the used clothing store, and they would have been better quality (they can't sell anything with tears, stains, etc, and all those shirts have lasted longer than any of the brand new shirts I've bought in the last year or so)
I plan on learning to sew t-shirts once I move into my new house and can have the space to set up a sewing machine, so I can use fabric that I like and is comfortable, in order to have more clothes for around the house. Eventually, I want to learn how to make other things like skirts and pants too. I'd like to start buying clothing from slow fashion companies next year that will be both comfortable but appropriate for when I have to go into the office at work or have appointments, and want to feel confident while wearing them and less like I'm wearing baggy clothes and look like a slob
I usually buy "fast fashion" or cheap fashion for economic reasons when I don't have time or skillis to mke my own clothing or a piece of clothing like coats which are hard for me to make.I try to buy garments I know they will hold and my style is very consistent so I don't really take trends into mind or change wardrobe because of it , even the cheapest fashion p.e. cheap socks cheap t-shirts cheap leggings hold at least 5 years to me (and I try to buy non synthetic for my comfort) I also mend and repair them. Then when they fall apart beyond repair I deassemble those and use the pieces for doll clothes or trinkets if they hold well or cleaning rags until their end. So even fast fashion is going very slooooow on me . I believe is in the person yes the marketing tactic is this "buy ne buy more all the time" but at the end how fast or slow your clothes come and go depends on the person as well, there are plenty of people buying expencive high fashion and treat it as fast fashion. I think the problem is our mentality of be trendy all the time so changing wardrobe for no reason instead of having our own self and style in clothing and also learnsome skills to repair and repurpose things , or embelish soomething instead of buying a new if it holds well p.e.
I love your Videos, Nicole! This one was particularely entertaining and informative. Please do more of those. Not just time travelers, but also of the history of the different clothes. With the Research you did on this you could have made several Videos. Like 100 years or the history of the T Shirt, of the sweater, the swim suit, and so on. I recall you asking us for ideas for future projects, so I‘m hoping this helps you. Greetings from Germany.