"Around 15 million garments per week flow through Kantamanto, one of the largest secondhand clothing markets in the world...."

"Retailers take out substantial loans to purchase the bundles, hoping to find worthwhile garments in sellable condition. Yet almost half of what is bought is thrown away.... Why is there so much secondhand clothing? Increasingly, it’s built into the way we dress: fast fashion, the trendy, mass-produced clothing that can be made quickly and at low cost.... [T]he average person purchased 60 percent more clothing in 2014 compared to 2000, while each garment was kept for only half as long.... [C]lothing production accounts for 10 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. In response to increasing criticisms, fast fashion brands like Uniqlo, Zara, and Urban Outfitters have launched lines with a sustainable veneer: collections made with recycled materials... referred to... as 'greenwashing.'... [One activist] proposes a solution that would expand upon the traditional Three Rs kids are taught in schools—Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle—by adding Reckoning, Recovery, and Reparations.... In order to make fashion truly sustainable, the world will require Westerners to radically shift our relationship to clothing itself."

From "Greenwashing Fashion/These days, sustainability is on trend. But the trend cycle of fast fashion isn’t sustainable" (The Nation). 

Do you have the "relationship to clothing" described in the article? I don't think I do. I know better than to donate things that aren't saleable. Just throw them out in your own trash. Don't make them take a journey halfway around the world to be thrown out later. And if it doesn't belong in the trash, why not keep wearing it until it does? 

If the answer is It went out of style, then you can stop buying things that have that sort of style of planned future unstylishness. Choose classic, timeless styles and utilitarian clothing. 

If the answer is It doesn't fit anymore, then donate what's resellable. Better yet: maintain a consistent body size. You know that would be good for you. And it would also be good for the environment in 2 ways: 1. You'd be offloading less clothing into the secondhand market, and 2. You would not be overconsuming food and using the additional fossil fuel it takes to move your extra poundage in your motorized vehicle.

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There is no comments section anymore, but you can email me here. Unless you say otherwise, I will presume you'd enjoy an update to this post with a quote from your email.

"[L]ast year, Hsu Hsiu-e, 84 and Chang Wan-ji, 83—a married couple who own a laundromat in Taiwan—became global social media stars thanks to their Instagram account..."

"... @wantshowasyoung. The pair pose in compelling outfits styled from clothes their laundromat customers have left behind. The account is now up to over 654,000 followers and the pair was recently named the ambassadors for Taipei Fashion Week." 

From "Grandpa Style: Why 20-Somethings Are Dressing Like Senior Citizens/Thanks to Instagram accounts like @Gramparents and books like ‘Chinatown Pretty,’ milllenials and Gen-Z are coming to appreciate their gray-haired elders’ fashion sense" (WSJ). 

 I'm amused by the way the WSJ tried so hard to get the double letters in "millennial" right and came up with "milllenials." 

Anyway... @wantshowasyoung isn't about youngish people dressing like really old people. It's old people wanting to "show as young" — look young. I'm blogging this little side issue, because I like the Instagram account. Such a perfect idea. Example:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 萬秀的洗衣店｜WANT SHOW as young (@wantshowasyoung)

As for millennials and Gen Zers dressing like "grandfathers," my favorite example of this is the YouTube icon Review Brah, who explains here — in his mesmerizing style — why he dresses like that: 

 

The Wall Street Journal has written on this subject before. Back in 2013, it had "Grandfather Knows Best — Instead of idolizing Dad, some well-dressed men reach a further generation back for their style cues":

"My grandfather taught me that a man always carries a handkerchief and always needs a clean-cut hairstyle," said Max, a private-equity firm associate who lives in Chicago....While his father is no slouch, Max explained, "he requires comfort in his dress."

Perhaps it's the legacy of the baby boomers who loosened their collars and made every day a Casual Friday, but many men are looking past dear old Dad and finding lessons in their grandfathers' wardrobes....

FROM THE EMAIL: Mr. Wibble writes: 

Over the past year I've fallen down the rabbit hole that is the historical costuming community on Youtube, and one interesting point that gets raised by these (mostly) women time and again is how much "comfort versus style" is a false-dichotomy. The two are not at odds; in fact, dressing well can often be more comfortable.

A well-fitting corset is far superior in support to a bra, natural fibers such as cotton, linen, or light wool breathe far better than modern fabrics, and the clever use of tailoring and padding can help create the fashionable shape and hide any number of sins. 

Personally, I've found that a jacket, tie, and slacks are far more comfortable for everyday wear than jeans and a t-shirt. I have to wonder if the rise of mass manufactured clothing post-WWII has played a role in the sloppiness of modern society. Modern fabrics (read, "plastic and rubber") sewn by Vietnamese workers and designed to fit the most body types without any adjustment will always look sloppy and feel uncomfortable. 

Also, that suit is too big for that young man. He needs it taken in, and needs to sit up straight. 

*rambles like an old man*

I agree that casual clothes can be uncomfortable and dressy clothes can be comfortable. It's a matter of fabric and fit. But it takes some thought and searching and, often, extra money to get yourself into dressy clothes that are comfortable. 

And I don't buy that corsets are more comfortable than bras. "Bra" is not just one thing. There's a whole range, and if you have something of good quality that fits, it might be pretty comfortable. For casualness, you can just toss out that bra, though some women insist that they are less comfortable with no bra at all! Personally, I think that's a problem caused by bra-wearing, which provides external support for what is otherwise be supported from the inside. But are corsets more comfortable than a well-made, properly fitting bra? Maybe they are if they are well-made and properly fitting, but it might depend on the person.

As for modern fabrics, I think the really high quality stuff that you find in athletic wear may be superior to cotton. Runners and hikers are advised not to wear cotton.

As for Review Brah, he wears what he likes, and he like oversized, baggy clothes. He gets people telling him all the time that his clothes should be more fitted, and he adamantly rejects the advice. His position is wear what you want, and he's wearing what he wants.

"Think of all the fat celebrities — predominantly Black women and women of color — who have paved a path in plus-size fashion, allowing so many of us fat folks to explore our personal style."

"The choice [by plus-size luxury retailer 11 Honoré] to collaborate for the first time with rich white Lena Duhnam, who flashes her privilege like it’s a joke... speaks volumes. It’s a reminder that plus-size fashion is still an exclusive club intent on keeping authority and power rotating in the same circles, desperate to do anything but give fat Black women their flowers."

From "The Problem With Lena Dunham’s Plus-Size Collection" by Kendra Austin (at The Cut).  Austin calls Dunham a grifter: "She grifts."

Here's what the page over there looks like (on my computer):

That Marc Jacobs ad is mindbending. Click to enlarge and clarify. Speaking of giving "women their flowers" — look at those big bulgy roses bursting forth from the model's breasts. And what is she so glum and leg-spread-y about — shopping?!

How emotional is shopping for clothes? Apparently, there's big racial turmoil, such that a white woman promoting plus-size clothing is heard to "speak volumes" about white supremacy. If I'm reading Austin correctly, she's observing that black women made clothing for fat women trendy, and Dunham is appropriating their creation. But I read Dunham to say — in so many words — that white women are fat in a different way, a way that is so uncool that they need special help from a white woman who openly admits she's fat like that:

[Dunham] describes the changes she has witnessed as “not the cool kind that make you muscular” but “just the kind that make your face fat.”...

Later, Dunham complains about the language around plus-size fashion, arguing that descriptors like “plus,” “curve,” and “body-positive” are used to describe a community of “curvy bodies that look like Kim Kardashian has been up-sized slightly,” who “want big beautiful butts and big beautiful breasts and no cellulite and faces that look like you could smack them onto thin women.”

ADDED: I think the model in the Marc Jacobs ad is Madonna's daughter Lourdes. I'm just noticing "Madonna's daughter Lourdes announced as the new face of Marc Jacobs" (CNN).

"Gucci sneakers usually retail for well over $500, but this week the luxury fashion giant has started selling a pair for $17.99... digital only."

"The Virtual 25 sneaker is a chunky slime green, bubble-gum pink and sky blue shoe that... can only be 'worn' via augmented and virtual reality," The Guardian reports.

An impressive idea for a product. People spend a lot of money on clothes to impress other people, and if they are doing their efforts to impress in virtual spaces, then why not buy these things? It's the next step. 

It's funny, though, to buy sneakers, shoes built around the concept of comfort and physical performance. These are precisely the factors that don't matter when you are in virtual space. Why not wear wild, weird shoes in virtual space, the kind that would be impractical and painful if you had them on your flesh-and-blood feet? 

I'll just guess that in virtual spaces, you want to look like you could run away. My second guess, though, is that the importance of sneakers — the fascination with luxury branded, high-priced sneakers — is firmly established within the set of people who do augmented and virtual reality, so that's the kind of fake shoes they want. 

I thought of the analogy to virtual sex: Do people want their nonexistent sexual partners to have qualities unrelated to sexual experience but that they'd want in a real-life partner? I mean seem to have — the equivalent of the comfort and practicality of virtual sneakers. I'm thinking of — for a woman — a virtual partner who seems to have an impressive job and a prestigious family. For a man — a virtual woman with a modestly successful artistic job and a family that lives far away. You know? Sexual sneakers! Or would you like someone more challenging, the virtual sex equivalent of highly impractical shoes?

I did not think I would end up there! I'm only writing about Gucci's virtual shoes — the article is from last month — because it popped up after a new article that caught my eye: "‘Short, fat, ugly’: Gucci family lashes out at cast appearance in new film/Ridley Scott biopic tells story of Patrizia Reggiani’s doomed marriage to Maurizio Gucci."

Ha ha. The ugly people are Adam Driver, Lady Gaga, Al Pacino, and — in a baldness cap — Jared Leto. Uglier than the actors — the actual story of the Gucci family: "The film, which is now in production and directed by Sir Ridley Scott, tells the story of Patrizia Reggiani and her doomed marriage to Maurizio Gucci. Reggiani was convicted of his assassination in 1998 after hiring a hitman to kill him.... When a reporter asked Reggiani why she had not shot her ex-husband herself, she said: 'My eyesight is not so good. I didn’t want to miss.'"

(To comment, email me here.)