Reddit reviews Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion

One item that OP doesn't touch on that is very important is a discussion of the changing overall demographic of retail, w.r.t who is selling what kind of product, and what customers are buying.

Specifically, fast-fashion in this context.

Sears, JC Penney, Macy's et al today are the vestigial remnant of last century's 'Great American Department Store'. They derive from an era where they provided middle-class America with well-made, modestly priced mid-range products across the full spectrum of customer need. They occupied the space between bottom of the line and extravagent.

But the value curve and the purchasing decisions it motivates no longer support this kind of product. Fast-fashion has dropped the floor of the market so low that consumers are calculating value by comparison to products that are dirt cheap. Consider, for example, that in the past a decent pair of jeans would cost between $50 and $100, with the higher end being more, and Walmart being less. Then H&M moves in selling jeans at $20, and these seem to be comparable in value. Thereby the consumer becomes trained to use the $20 jean as the value benchmark, and suddenly those Levi's or whatever seem overpriced.

That has happened to a significant number of textile products. The key is that where consumers might once have operated on a 'you get what you pay for' idea and rejected H&M products on the basis of quality, they have now been trained (brainwashed) to expect both a lower quality and a lower price. They don't mind because if those $20 jeans fall apart in 10 washes (or less), they just buy another pair and discard the old.

That is something totally alien to the old Sears model; it's hard to have hand-me-downs if nothing survives that long. And this is a contributing factor to the decline of Sears, outside explicit financial negligence.

On the other extreme, a number of brands and products have patently rejected the Fast-Fashion model. They have elected to use the most premium materials and construction and charge a premium price. Think high-end denim, raw, selvedge (made on old looms in Japan), constructed of Cone Mills or Okayama fabric. It costs nearly $200 (or more), is supposed to be worn to death (literally), with 'sick fadez' being a sign of its value. It patinates, which as William Gibson remarked 'is a sign of the quality wearing in,' and 'distressing is a sign of a lack of quality.'

Those kinds of products are thus a high-value signalling premium product and buying experience.

And the issue is that there is no longer much in the middle between Naked & Famous and H&M. All these failing retailers are in that sense simply people who failed to choose which direction to go. Their intransigence in changing their business model and re-branding meant that they were bypassed by the new fast-fashion giants, or the premium brands either selling d2c or through 'selected' (curated) retailers (like DSM or Nordstrom).

It's also probably possible to tie this to the economic reality of middle-class America, gentrification, and other economic demographic shifts. But that's another topic.

What I wanted to point out is that B&M stores aren't failing as a model. Some B&M stores are doing very well--stores like H&M, Primark, Zara, Forever 21, etc on the low end, and d2c locations of higher-end brands and stores like Urban Outfitters and 'select' boutiques like DSM on the upper end. Amazon fits in to it by providing the specific brands consumers are looking for which don't have d2c locations in their neighbourhood. It covers the full spectrum, which is why it is untouchable.

Finally, the key I think to revitalising these ailing department stores is, to the extent that it may be possible, in counteracting the fast-fashion movement. It means either pushing consumers to reject products made by 'sweat-shop' labour, which is the foundation of dirt cheap prices, and to expect products to be made in a responsible way by workers paid a livable wage. It means educating consumers on what is and is not an acceptable level of quality, and encouraging consumers to buy products made locally, or at least in a first-world country.

It's a tall order; likely impossible. The model right now supports consumers who align with either pole, with those not thinking or caring about it normally aligned with the fast-fashion end. There is an enormous amount of media supporting cheap products, with a bazillion YouTubers showing off all their 'hauls' and glamourising the purchase of unethically produced products. It's what the NYT called 'cheap chic.'

For those who are interested in this subject, I would encourage people to read up on the Slow Fashion movement, as well as books like Overdressed: the Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion which chronicle the changes to the market over the last century.

Ethically made clothing is expensive! I read a super interesting book on the topic called Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion for anyone interested.

Something that really helped me cut back on my fast fashion purchasing was learning more about how exactly those clothes were made. Once I better understood the environmental impact, poor labor conditions, etc it was easier to switch my mindset.

I recommend the book Over-Dressed, but there is also a ton of info available for free online.

No, that’s not the point. It needs to entice the customer to pick it up in the first place. However, a hanger appears two dimensional. So a lot of three dimensional clothes look like crap while on a hanger but fine on, and vice versa.

These style mannequins are also modeled off stylized high-fashion drawings, which again are trying to make a two dimensional drawing appeal to three dimensions. We don’t do that terribly well as a species and will think “oh! That’s how it looks on me!”

It’s all based in art and psychology. I highly recommend [Overdressed: the shockingly high cost of cheap fashion](Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591846544/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_u6G6Ab93RKDW5). Very interesting and informative.

That book is awesome and very relevant to your question! If you have an appetite after for more info Overdressed is also excellent, as is the documentary The True Cost (which is on Netflix now I think).

I'm hoping to change my shopping habits this year.

It's been a slow descent into zero waste so I've been buying my clothes from thrift stores, but I left a little wiggle room for myself. New clothes have got to be ethically made from natural materials. Goodbye Forever21! If you're interested in reading about the detriments of fast fashion, I suggest Overdressed: the Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth Cline.

I haven't read much about runway fashion but over the past year I've become more interested in the business of fashion and how clothes are actually made. I enjoyed reading Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. A lot of the information I kinda knew already just from this sub but it was still a good read.

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster is incredible and important in today's market that focuses on aspirations towards high end purchases.

Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Fast Fashion is another good one.

There's a really interesting book you could read with Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion that goes into this. It's really eye-opening, and gave me a bigger understanding when the media started focusing on factories in India after that horrible collapse. Another one is Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster that ties into the whole modern phenomena of cheap, "affordable" fashion.

Not really a fan of New Balance sneakers.

I hate fast fashion. It's terrible for the environment and workers. Here's a good book in the issue.

I did the same after reading Overdressed

If I google "slow fashion" I got more results than "ethical clothing," especially since the word "ethical" is used pretty loosely.

It was a great book, way more interesting than the movie. I'd highly recommend it.

> But it's $22, which is a pretty fucking capitalistic price.

And the garment industry is a crooked, unsustainable, neoliberal shitshow. There's a lot of unspoken high cost that goes into cheap fashion.