Zero or low waste s/o: interesting article

[Innisfree]

Quote

Ten years ago, fashion writer Derek Guy interviewed a young Parisian student about his wardrobe. Brian’s clothes, spare but sophisticated, fit into the tiny closet common in pre-20th-century housing. Every item mixed and matched elegantly, from the camel-toned overcoat to black jeans.

When Guy interviewed Brian a decade later, many of the same jeans, pants and jackets were still in his closet, he told Guy. Everything remained not only wearable, but fashionable long after most people would have tossed their garments or shoved them to the back of the rack….

With fast fashion moving from design to retail rack in less than 15 days — and often lasting no more than 10 wearings — the idea of using clothes beyond a single season, let alone a decade, can seem archaic. Last year, the average American bought more than one garment per week, paying about $17 for each, according to the American Apparel & Footwear Association, a trade group.

But fast fashion’s sartorial sugar rush fades fast: 11.3 million tons of textiles ended up in landfills in 2018, the last year the Environmental Protection Agency published data. That’s about 76 pounds per person in the United States, adding to the fashion industry’s trail of environmental degradation and labor violations.

Gifted link: https://wapo.st/3QkxCYs  

Food for thought as we think about holiday shopping. I know there were references to long-lasting clothing like the wool& ones in the other thread. This article makes the point that one can do this at any price point, especially with the availability of good quality secondhand clothing.

[Melissa in Australia]

I have posted similar articles. 

 Seems People just want cheap clothes, and constantly new. They chose not to think of the huge piles of fabrics being shipped to poorer countries and dumped not even in landfills. 

[Miss Tick]

Here's a satellite image of fast fashion dumped in the Atacama Desert

 

[KSera]

1 hour ago, Innisfree said:

Last year, the average American bought more than one garment per week

This statistic is so surprising to me. Does this ring true to others? If you have five people in your family, would that be five new garments a week, or one purchase for the whole family each week?

[freesia]

2 minutes ago, KSera said:

This statistic is so surprising to me. Does this ring true to others? If you have five people in your family, would that be five new garments a week, or one purchase for the whole family each week?

That is not true for our family at all. We buy through thrift stores also. But even so, each of the six of us do not buy 52 new or used garments a year. 

[fairfarmhand]

4 minutes ago, KSera said:

This statistic is so surprising to me. Does this ring true to others? If you have five people in your family, would that be five new garments a week, or one purchase for the whole family each week?

Not here. 

Wait. does this consider like a pair of socks as a garment? Or a package of underwear? I wonder if that would even get us up to 52 items a week. The undies I currently have in the drawer are a couple years old and I bought a 10 pack then. 

We also are thrift store shoppers. 

[Arcadia]

5 minutes ago, KSera said:

This statistic is so surprising to me. Does this ring true to others? If you have five people in your family, would that be five new garments a week, or one purchase for the whole family each week?

The statistics is quoted from the pdf download linked from this webpage https://www.aafaglobal.org/AAFA/Media.aspx

”In 2022, the average American spent a record-breaking high $1,143.29 for 68.5 pieces of clothing and $330.62 to buy 8.3 pairs of shoes.”

Even if socks and underwear/ undershirts are counted, we don’t buy 68 pieces of clothing for my family of four. 

[HomeAgain]

20 minutes ago, KSera said:

This statistic is so surprising to me. Does this ring true to others? If you have five people in your family, would that be five new garments a week, or one purchase for the whole family each week?

DS13 grew 6 inches in 10 months.  He grew another 2 inches in the 3 months after.  That's at least 4 entire wardrobes of everything from underwear to coats, even when we tried to buy big.  His arms and legs grew faster than his torso so no help there (except with hockey shorts that have a zipper to extend the length).  He went from a size 5 shoe to a size 9.

So yeah, it's true here because the child more than made up for the lower averages of the rest of us. 😄 I bought myself 2-3 things per season to replace ones that were threadbare.  Dh went up a clothing size and so replaced some of his more used items.  We continuously bought ds new clothes as he stretched overnight.

[Innisfree]

24 minutes ago, KSera said:

This statistic is so surprising to me. Does this ring true to others? If you have five people in your family, would that be five new garments a week, or one purchase for the whole family each week?

That surprised me as well. We don’t come anywhere close to that. I mean… nowhere near.

When we do buy clothes we don’t rely on thrift shops as heavily as we did when the kids were younger, when I pretty much never bought anything new for them, but we still do a lot of shopping there. The kids have gravitated towards the same sort of shopping: I mean, once you realize the quality of clothes you can get there, and the low prices, it just doesn’t make sense to pay more for lower quality new stuff. Underwear is a (probably) obvious exception, but furniture is the same as clothing here, and lots of housewares. The old stuff is both better and cheaper.

[Innisfree]

8 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

yeah, it's true here because the child more than made up for the lower averages of the rest of us.

This is for a season of life, though, right? Those years don’t last very long.

[Wishes]

Is there a list of brands that are proven to be long-lasting? Especially for kids? Outdoor wear especially 

 

[Indigo Blue]

I rarely buy clothes, but when I do, I get one very high quality item and keep it as long as possible. 
 

It’s awful to see all the clothes dumped out in that satellite photo. 

[marbel]

43 minutes ago, KSera said:

This statistic is so surprising to me. Does this ring true to others? If you have five people in your family, would that be five new garments a week, or one purchase for the whole family each week?

Not for me and mine, but I can imagine teen and young adult women shopping at Primark. Clothing is super cheap (and super cheaply made). 

[Pawz4me]

47 minutes ago, KSera said:

This statistic is so surprising to me. Does this ring true to others? If you have five people in your family, would that be five new garments a week, or one purchase for the whole family each week?

No, not at all true for us. Three of the four of us hate shopping with a passion. Other than shoes for my bad feet, we can go years w/o buying anything. We'd rather wear rags than shop! Plus I think we must just be very gentle on our clothing. I have several pairs of inexpensive Walmart yoga pants--probably stuff that would fall under the category of fast fashion--that are over seven years old. They're faded but they're fine for wearing around the house, doing yard work, etc. I'm wearing a pair right now. And DH has some inexpensive t-shirts that are well over ten years old. I am fairly careful with laundry (sorting, stain treatment, usually cool or cold water, not over-drying, etc.), so that may have something to do with it. My really old item is a high quality wool dress coat that's about 35 years old. It still fits, and is still fashionable enough to not look weird.

[4kidlets4me]

1 hour ago, KSera said:

This statistic is so surprising to me. Does this ring true to others? If you have five people in your family, would that be five new garments a week, or one purchase for the whole family each week?

Not for us either. I can count on one hand the number of pieces we've bought this year for the 4 of us living here. 

[KrissiK]

I did a unit on Fast Fashion for my Home Ec class last year. Before I started researching it, I had no idea.

[Innisfree]

1 hour ago, Wishes said:

Is there a list of brands that are proven to be long-lasting? Especially for kids? Outdoor wear especially 

 

When I was buying these things, it was always at the thrift store, and less a matter of brand than of condition.

Certainly I did see items from brands like Osh Kosh B’gosh and Carter, and I remember a lovely coat from London Fog I think, but I’m not sure if they lasted longer than less well-known brands. The kids outgrew most of them before the clothes wore out, and we only had two kids, so they weren’t subjected to that much wear.

Also, when we only paid a dollar or two for each item, as long as things were in good condition I wasn’t worried about how long they would last. Most of them went back to the thrift store in due course.

Others might know more about current brands.

[HomeAgain]

1 hour ago, Wishes said:

Is there a list of brands that are proven to be long-lasting? Especially for kids? Outdoor wear especially 

 

Clothes that my kids have worn to bits and still look great when we pass them on:

Hanna Andersson

L.L. Bean

Lands End

 

We tend to shop at outlets to keep the price down, but ds had a pair of white stormtrooper pajamas from Hanna Andersson he wore nightly for nearly 2 full years.  They were still in perfect condition when we sent them to a new home.  Same with all the jackets and sweatshirts from there.  L.L. Bean is a close second, but we're more discriminating on what we buy there and focus on a few key pieces that we know wear well. Right now all ds's outerwear is LL Bean except for a rain jacket (I wasn't paying Bean prices for something he's going to wear 3 times).  Lands End is hit or miss.  DS had nearly identical fleece lined hoodies from Hanna Andersson and Lands End one year.  The HA one finished the year without staining or shrinking, and the Lands End one was a bit worse for wear.

[bolt.]

I'm also nowhere near "a garment per week per family member" even if underthings and socks count individually. Also, none of my garments average anywhere near $17USD. Nor would this be similar to any of the families that I am familiar with. So I'm uncertain how another significant part of a population is living in order to skew the data like this. Like, is it the very rich, living off one-wear-per item? Is it the very poor, buying cheap replacements and rarely visiting laundromats? Is there a subculture I'm not imagining clearly?

On a side-track... I'm not actually sure what the major environmental impact is of landfill (specifically with modern, regulated landfill techniques and standards). Lots of waste paths are problematic, but I don't get what the specific complaint is regarding landfill. Like, poof: there's a hill that wasn't there before: it's inert, sealed, and not going to sink and doesn't stink. Or we filled in a valley. Or we built some land somewhere we wanted a park. We plant grass. We enjoy they park. Is that a legitimate problem in the scope of problems that we have with other waste paths?

I fail to see how landfill made out of clothes -- with appropriate landfill standards -- is an environmental tragedy.

[MercyA]

 

1 hour ago, Wishes said:

Is there a list of brands that are proven to be long-lasting? Especially for kids? Outdoor wear especially 

Hanna Andersson clothes are very long-lasting, but I don't know much about their outerwear. I did have a sweet fleece coat for DD when she was a toddler and that held up very well. It had a horse on it. ❤️

I've seen Lands' End dresses be worn by several girls over many years and still look good, but honestly the older stuff seemed to be slightly better quality than what they offer now. (In fairness, however, I've noticed the quality issue mostly in women's sizes. I haven't bought little kid stuff there in a long time.)

We have a Lands' End coat that has lasted forever and another that lasted until it was outgrown and still looked new-ish. I once bought a Lands' End coat already used for a couple dollars. My DD wore it and then her friend and I'm guessing her friend's sister will too.

Lands' End bathing suits wear VERY well. 

L.L. Bean would be my third choice, probably.

[Innisfree]

23 minutes ago, bolt. said:

I fail to see how landfill made out of clothes -- with appropriate landfill standards -- is an environmental tragedy.

I take your point. From my own perspective, I’m less concerned about disposal *done appropriately in developed countries* than I am about the manufacture in the first place of so many things which are essentially plastic: nylon, microfiber, polyester, etc. Our world and our bodies are permeated by micro plastics. And then, there are less stringent standards for landfills in much of the world. I don’t have time right now to look for many sources, but this came up in a quick search.

Quote

Emissions from landfills, mainly landfill gas (LFG) and lea- chate, are directly related to the quantity and quality of waste disposed. Almost 65 to 80% of collected municipal solid waste is disposed of into landfills in developing nations. The bulk of the waste materials disposed of (40 to 70%) are organic in nature. As a consequence, landfills are a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as at present 90% of the world’s landfills are dumpsites without proper LFG collection systems. Indeed,
landfills are considered the largest human-caused source of methane in the atmosphere.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0734242X12469169

[Innisfree]

6 minutes ago, MercyA said:

I've seen Lands' End dresses be worn by several girls over many years and still look good, but honestly the older stuff seemed to be slightly better quality than what they offer now. (In fairness, however, I've noticed the quality issue mostly in women's sizes. I haven't bought little kid stuff there in a long time.)

 

Our experience has been identical.

[Corraleno]

I don't buy a lot of clothes, and when I do they're generally very simple, classic items in neutral colors and natural fibers that will last a long time and never go out of style. I still have some clothes and a couple of of coats from Lands End that are 20-30 years old.  Most of DS25's non-workout wardrobe also consists of classic, well-made, nontrendy clothes in neutral colors (to the extent that he gets teased by friends for "dressing like a dad" instead of wearing logo tees & hoodies and whatever jean and sneaker brands are trendy at the moment).

I wish I could say the same about DD21, but unfortunately she probably does fall into the category of people who average a new item per week (although it generally goes in spurts, like buying 5-6 things at a time and then nothing for 6 weeks). She buys a lot of junk because "it's cute and it was on sale" and then wears it a few times and forgets about it. I just hope once she's living on her own and covering all of her own expenses, she'll wise up and see that buying good quality classic clothes, instead of cheap trendy disposable clothes, makes a lot more financial sense.

[Ausmumof3]

2 hours ago, fairfarmhand said:

Not here. 

Wait. does this consider like a pair of socks as a garment? Or a package of underwear? I wonder if that would even get us up to 52 items a week. The undies I currently have in the drawer are a couple years old and I bought a 10 pack then. 

We also are thrift store shoppers. 

My question as well. We don’t buy that many and wear underwear till worn out and lots of hand me downs. But some people replace underwear annually and if you do 10 pairs of socks and undies that’s 30 right there without any outerwear at all. At the rate my teen is burning through socks he might go through 68 socks in a year actually!

[Emba]

Even back in the 90s i knew a girl who was well off, and her grandmother bought her clothes all the time. She rarely wore things more than once. So there are people out there skewing the average, and probably more of them now, since fast fashion has really ramped up. 
 

what i can’t believe is the clothing that only lasts ten wears. Like, if I bought something and absolutely hated it, I would still probably get ten wears out of it before passing it on or making rags out of it. Years ago I had a couple of Walmart tees get little holes after only a few washes. That was basically the end of Walmart clothes for me. I still wore them, I was just annoyed by the little holes.

 But I buy mostly secondhand clothes, and I repair my clothes (and my husband’s, and my kids’). I think if more people had basic sewing skills, they could get more out of their clothes. I had a roommate in college who got really upset when a button popped off of her nice wool pea coat. She was amazed that I could just sew it back on. I was amazed that she couldn’t.  

Edited November 8, 2023 by Emba

[Emba]

5 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

My question as well. We don’t buy that many and wear underwear till worn out and lots of hand me downs. But some people replace underwear annually and if you do 10 pairs of socks and undies that’s 30 right there without any outerwear at all. At the rate my teen is burning through socks he might go through 68 socks in a year actually!

I would love to find socks that my boys wouldn’t just destroy in short order.

[Meriwether]

If each individual sock is counted, I am at almost one item of clothing for myself per week. I bought new socks and underthings recently. But it is the first new socks I've purchased in several years and my typical number of items is much lower. Maybe 5 or 6 items. My favorite pants that I wear all the time are close to a decade old. No one in my family buys clothes often.

[Bootsie]

2 hours ago, Arcadia said:

The statistics is quoted from the pdf download linked from this webpage https://www.aafaglobal.org/AAFA/Media.aspx

”In 2022, the average American spent a record-breaking high $1,143.29 for 68.5 pieces of clothing and $330.62 to buy 8.3 pairs of shoes.”

Even if socks and underwear/ undershirts are counted, we don’t buy 68 pieces of clothing for my family of four. 

I have not been able to locate the source of this quote, but the Bureau of Labor statistics estimates that $518b was spent on clothing, apparel, and related in the US last year, which would be about $1555 per person.  I haven't been able to quickly locate what all falls into that category but I think it will include underwear, socks, long underwear, bras, t-shirts, shorts, pants, slacks, dresses, skirts, prom dresses, wedding dresses, work clothes, gloves, hats, scarves, dress shoes, sandals, jogging shoes, hiking boots, swimsuit, ballet shoes, soccer uniform, rain jacket, yoga pants, windbreaker, ...and a lot more than simply shirts, pants, and skirts

[Arcadia]

1 minute ago, Bootsie said:

I have not been able to locate the source of this quote, but the Bureau of Labor statistics estimates that $518b was spent on clothing, apparel, and related in the US last year, which would be about $1555 per person. 

“ Download the 2023 statistics overview [pdf]. “

[Melissa in Australia]

1 hour ago, bolt. said:

I'm also nowhere near "a garment per week per family member" even if underthings and socks count individually. Also, none of my garments average anywhere near $17USD. Nor would this be similar to any of the families that I am familiar with. So I'm uncertain how another significant part of a population is living in order to skew the data like this. Like, is it the very rich, living off one-wear-per item? Is it the very poor, buying cheap replacements and rarely visiting laundromats? Is there a subculture I'm not imagining clearly?

On a side-track... I'm not actually sure what the major environmental impact is of landfill (specifically with modern, regulated landfill techniques and standards). Lots of waste paths are problematic, but I don't get what the specific complaint is regarding landfill. Like, poof: there's a hill that wasn't there before: it's inert, sealed, and not going to sink and doesn't stink. Or we filled in a valley. Or we built some land somewhere we wanted a park. We plant grass. We enjoy they park. Is that a legitimate problem in the scope of problems that we have with other waste paths?

I fail to see how landfill made out of clothes -- with appropriate landfill standards -- is an environmental tragedy.

A lot if the clothes are shipped by "Church run charities" to poorer countries, where they are dumped in their landfills. Or dumped in open spaces as they don't always have landfills. 

[EmilyGF]

40 minutes ago, Emba said:

Even back in the 90s i knew a girl who was well off, and her grandmother bought her clothes all the time. She rarely wore things more than once. So there are people out there skewing the average, and probably more of them, since fast fashion has really ramped up. 
 

what i can’t believe is the clothing that only lasts ten wears. Like, if I bought something and absolutely hated it, I would still probably get ten wears out of it before passing it on or making rags out of it. Years ago I had a couple of Walmart tees get little holes after only a few washes. That was basically the end of Walmart clothes for me. I still wore them, I was just annoyed by the little holes.

 But I buy mostly secondhand clothes, and I repair my clothes (and my husband’s, and my kids’). I think if more people had basic sewing skills, they could get more out of their clothes. I had a roommate in college who got really upset when a button popped off of her nice wool pea coat. She was amazed that I could just see it back on. I was amazed that she couldn’t.  

This is a big reason I buy used: if it still looks good on the thrift store rack, it'll probably last a long time.

Also, it frees up money to buy things like leather shoes that can get re-soled for DH or a Carhartt hoodie for ds that he can wear for many years.

Emily

[KungFuPanda]

I don’t think I know anyone who wears their clothes for only one season then replaces them. Maybe if you count growing children with no hand-me-down sources? The adults I know keep things for years and years. Who ARE these fast fashion people????

[Innisfree]

4 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

Who ARE these fast fashion people????

I’m picturing young people who are caught up in Instagram, TikTok, etc., culture: people who are very focused on what’s fashionable right.this.minute. But this is just a guess. I have pretty much no exposure to that demographic, so I may be doing them an injustice.

[Murphy101]

4 hours ago, KSera said:

This statistic is so surprising to me. Does this ring true to others? If you have five people in your family, would that be five new garments a week, or one purchase for the whole family each week?

Right? It’s an average though which is such a BS metric to use. What I highly suspect that really means is a very small percentage of Americans are buying a crap ton of clothes they wear only once and the rest of America is wearing holey socks.  Most Americans don’t even have the space to put that amount of clothing. 

[Murphy101]

5 minutes ago, Innisfree said:

I’m picturing young people who are caught up in Instagram, TikTok, etc., culture: people who are very focused on what’s fashionable right.this.minute. But this is just a guess. I have pretty much no exposure to that demographic, so I may be doing them an injustice.

That still begs the question of how? What young people? How do they have so much disposable income?

The only young people I have ever met that spend money like that are young people actually spending their parents money.

[Ginevra]

4 hours ago, KSera said:

This statistic is so surprising to me. Does this ring true to others? If you have five people in your family, would that be five new garments a week, or one purchase for the whole family each week?

Not for me. But my lifelong habit is to buy long-lasting clothing in classic styles. My mother also bought clothing this way, and barely ever bought new clothing. I hate clothing fads that are “in” for one season. I will not buy clothing like this. 
 

I wear things for way more than 10 wearings/washings. I frequently keep clothes for ten years or more. I like simple styles that look good for a long, long time. I rarely buy clothes that are dry clean only. In fact, literally yesterday I almost bought a beautiful red dress that I *could* wear to something like a Christmas party - assuming I am invited to a Christmas party of that type - but as I deliberated, I said, “Here’s the deal: if it is machine washable, I’ll buy it; if it’s dry clean only, I won’t.” It was Dry Clean Only, so I gave it up. 
 

My husband’s clothing needs are much more simple, even next to me. He wears a work logo shirt and work carpenter or cargo pants about 90% of the time. The remaining 10% are mostly tee shirts from events. He buys a piece of clothing for himself about once every ten years. I’m actually serious. I buy his work clothing, the small percentage of other shirts, any dressier clothing for events and anything additional like underwear, belts, swimwear, etc. The last time I am aware of that he purchased a new piece of clothing on his own steam was (literally) something like 18 years ago when he bought a camo tee shirt at Walmart. He still wears it! In fact, he is wearing it in the “getting ready” photos from my dd’s wedding, when he was helping the guys tie their ties! 

[Melissa in Australia]

I have 6 nieces, young adults who absolutly buy new clothes constantly. They openly say how they wouldn't be seen dead wearing the same thing twice out in public

Edited November 8, 2023 by Melissa in Australia

[Faith-manor]

I am so sick of the lack of clothing quality, and how few washes anything lasts before I have to repair it. My sister lives in France and she spends a lot more per individual clothing items but they sure do last a lot longer compared to what I have. I am trying my hand at making some tops, skirts, shorts, and a sundresses from my quilters cotton stash. If the clothing lasted as long as the blankets, tablerunners and table cloths, pillow cases, and pot holders that I make, I would be a lot happier. We will see how it goes. I did make a bunch of adorable baby clothes for my youngest grandbaby, and Dd says they look so great after the many many washings they received.

We aren't a shopping family. The last thing I ever want to do is go shopping. My sons wear their socks until the toes and heels are gone, and their shirts and pants are hardly better than rags. They have some LLBean pants and no wrinkle button down shirts for work. Those things were expensive, but they launder so well, and look like a million bucks. We bought those when they entered college. So we are looking at 6-8 years each, still going strong.

Fast fashion needs to end. I have to wonder how much longer it can continue. My kids' generation can't be spending their own money because they don't have much. The cost of housing, cars, and car insurance have pretty well stripped them of disposable income.

Edited November 8, 2023 by Faith-manor

[Paige]

I have a 22yr old and 6yr old DS. The clothes I kept from my 22yr old, that have been well used, sometimes by several kids, look far better than the new clothes I bought for my 6yr old after about 2 months of light wear. Clothes were bought from the same store. It's disgusting how cheap things are today. Had I known, I would have put back more clothes! The stuff I have is just random Carters/OshKosh/Children's Place that got overlooked instead of being donated long ago- nothing special. 

[ktgrok]

35 minutes ago, Paige said:

I have a 22yr old and 6yr old DS. The clothes I kept from my 22yr old, that have been well used, sometimes by several kids, look far better than the new clothes I bought for my 6yr old after about 2 months of light wear. Clothes were bought from the same store. It's disgusting how cheap things are today. Had I known, I would have put back more clothes! The stuff I have is just random Carters/OshKosh/Children's Place that got overlooked instead of being donated long ago- nothing special. 

Yup!

 

[ktgrok]

I hate to shop, but I also have spatial perception issues and attention issues and spill things and ruin clothing more than the average person. I also tend to have my air dry bras sometimes end up in the regular laundry and that means they have to get replaced more. Sensory issues mean they are really the only bra I tolerate, and they do NOT last the same way as they are a weird material. I also wear leggings daily, and the ones I like that are super soft do eventually wear out in the crotch - if I were thinner maybe that wouldn't be true. So I get a few pairs of those each year to replace worn ones. Jeans last forever, but I also don't wear them much since I prefer leggings. 

Oh, temperature matters too - in the heat here I can wear two outfits a day from being so sweaty. 

[Bootsie]

I found the BLS description of "clothing and apparel" --the category includes things like diapers, furs, jewelry, and watches--so it really can't be interpreted as if the average person in the US is buying $1500 worth of t-shirts, blue jeans, and tennis shoes each year, wearing a new shirt every week.  Some families are spending a lot on diapers.  One person spends big bucks on a Rolex.. While it averages out to about $1500 per person there is probably a vary large standard deviation.  

Interestingly, this category makes up about 3% of the average family's income.  In the early 1900s clothing and apparel made up about 10% of the average family's income--so relatively, people are spending much less on clothing and apparel now than they did a century ago.  

[Melissa in Australia]

Spending less and wasting way more. Textiles are the second biggest polluter on the planet. 

 

[SKL]

I definitely don't buy a garment a week, nor a garment a month.  If you count "been there, done that" t-shirts and uniform items, I do buy several per year per person.

One of my kids is on that "fast fashion" kick, I guess.  She buys her own clothes and doesn't have much income, so that is somewhat self-regulating.  And we never throw clothes away unless they are destroyed.  We donate them still in pretty good shape.  If not usable by another person, they can be rags or "paint shirts" (usable for messy things like hair coloring).

I agree that having a kid who is rapidly growing would skew things.  When my kids were growing, we bought a fair amount of used clothing and always handed down what we outgrew.

[Carrie12345]

I suspect growing kids and socks skew the stats. I just picked up two pairs of fleece joggers for my sensory nephew for about $7/ea., but I haven’t seen an adult torso or legs article of clothing for ~$17 in I don’t know how long, except maybe on clearance?

4 of my 5 kids were/are filthy and rough. They’re woods kids, like 1 or 2 steps down from farm kids. No $40 jeans for them!!! Our internal hand me down system wasn’t robust!m. Plus, our 1-yr gapped girls were substantially different in size and our 3.5yr gapped boys are not, which also messed with the intended system, lol.

We did Just do a giant haul for Dh for work clothes. He’s content with 20+yo non-work clothes, but that doesn’t go over well in the business world. I’d say he shops once every 2 years or so, and he hates it. We probably got around 40 items.  
But it’s also a dirty kind of industry, so 4-figure cost suits are a no-no.  
And you will not find his skinny size in thrift stores. It’s hard enough in regular stores!

There’s no way I get 60-something articles a year unless we count socks, and then only maybe. I hate getting rid of clothes. I hate shopping. I am sucked into fast fashion, I just don’t go as fast as it does.

[Emba]

Another thing that doesn’t help is the popularity of buying jeans with holes already in them. I know I sound old and cranky here, but if you buy your jeans half worn out, of course they don’t last, and create more waste.

[Ananda]

I feel like I can't tell if clothing is quality before I buy it.  It isn't like spending more ensures quality.   It is my intention to buy things that will last.  I have three boys, so that is how long kids clothes should last.   For myself clothes are something to wear and nothing more.  So spending money for fashion isn't a thing for me.   

I think the thing that annoys me the most is zippers.  We have had winter coats that were perfectly fine to pass down to the younger brothers, except the zipper is broken.  My jeans & hoodies too, it's always the zipper that ends their life.  Why make a good hard-wearing pair of jeans, and put a crappy zipper in it?  

[Innisfree]

44 minutes ago, Ananda said:

were perfectly fine to pass down to the younger brothers, except the zipper is broken. 

One thing that occurs to me is that we’ve lost the culture and skills of mending. Zippers can be replaced, more easily and successfully in some clothes than others. I’m not skilled enough at sewing to be comfortable doing that, at least in clothes that I expect to look good afterwards, but my mother could have.

Socks… I’ve got a pile accumulated that all have a hole in the toe. Nothing else is wrong with them. Darning them should not be a big deal, but I haven’t got those skills in any high degree, and it’s so easy to buy another package of socks. I spend time on things like quilting or knitting, because they’re fun and interesting to me, but I haven’t darned a pile of otherwise perfectly good socks. And if I toss them out and just buy more, I’m contributing to the throwaway culture that intellectually I abhor. So the socks are sitting in a pile waiting to be darned. 

This is why the visible mending book that I linked in the original zero waste thread appeals to me. The creativity involved might make the mending more interesting, and give me a kick toward getting it done— though honestly I probably don’t want my socks to have bright darning on each big toe. 😁 Maybe? Anyway, I want to get into darning, and replacing zippers, and such.

[SKL]

I agree on the zipper issue.  I have paid the local dry cleaners to replace some zippers.  But when the cost of replacement ends up approaching the cost of a new garment, ....

Yes I could go buy a zipper and replace it myself.  But is that really the best use of my time?  What about the environmental cost of the fuel required for me to do the shopping or for someone to deliver a zipper to my door?

So I will keep using a garment with a broken zipper until it doesn't make sense any more, and then it's over.  In fact, the zipper hoodie I am currently wearing has long since lost the pull thingy from the zipper.  No, I can't just replace it with a paper clip (I've used that hack), because the piece the paper clip would go through is broken off.  So I will fuss with the broken zipper until that stops working, and then, this garment will make a great set of dust cloths.  It's sad, because my mom bought me this hoodie at least 30 years ago.  But nothing lasts forever.  😛

Edited November 9, 2023 by SKL

[saraha]

13 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

I don’t think I know anyone who wears their clothes for only one season then replaces them. Maybe if you count growing children with no hand-me-down sources? The adults I know keep things for years and years. Who ARE these fast fashion people????

My mother. I wear a lot of her hand me down sweaters. She buys clothes constantly from Walmart. Wears them a few times, then gives them away, either to me or her sisters. She only in the last year started donating things. Before, if no one wanted them, they went in the trash. 

I have one dd that is a clothes hound, but she has to buy all her own clothes so she haunts thrift shops. She’s away at college and the first thing she figured out how to do was utilize the college’s clothing exchange and use the bus to get to the thrift store. She buys used and donates back when she’s over something or trades clothes at the clothing exchange. If you bring something you can take something. She figured out quick she could turn over a lot more clothes buying used and it has become a kind of hobby. She loves to put together outfits, and thrift shopping makes it more of a challenge, which she really enjoys.