Have you ever bragged about what a great deal you got on something? I know I have! “What? These shoes? They were negative $5!!” (true story)
I came across this recent article in The Star Tribune “Is Disposable Fashion Worth The High Price?” The article discusses the book Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth L. Cline. The book reveals what really happens when fashion has such a quick turn-around time for each new season that comes out. When we buy into this “fast fashion”, what are we giving up?
“It’s nearly impossible for mass-produced, poorly made clothes to feel personal, Cline says, so when we look in our closets, we no longer see an expression of our individuality.”
This article got me thinking… why is the price the bragging point? Be it $100 or $3, we should be buying things that make us LOOK and FEEL great. Those are the things we should be bragging about, not the price. I mean, if I spend -$5 on a pair of shoes, but they are just a blah pair of shoes, then it’s -$5 wasted. (Okay, not the best example, but you get what I’m saying.) This goes back to my Thrift Store article, where I mention not buying anything unless you love it. That really goes for anything you buy. I know it can be hard to get too excited about a white t-shirt, but there are good white t-shirts and bad ones. Why waste your money on a bad, or even mediocre, one? $5 is $5… you work hard for it, so don’t waste it on mediocre!
The article mentions an exhibit Marilyn DeLong of The University of Minnesota’s College of Design is part of that focuses on sustainability in the fashion industry.
“One of these best practices, she said, is to heighten human attachment to clothing with great craftsmanship. This doesn’t have to mean buying on a couture budget, but simply choosing wisely.”
When the most accessible stores to us are the ones with very low prices, we start to think of that as the norm. We use that as a gauge of what a fair price is. This causes us to believe that actual reasonable prices, in which the items is ethically made and workers are paid a fair wage, is expensive. When I’m bragging about my cheap shoes, what am I really bragging about? That I paid a little bit of money on a throwaway garment that someone made under conditions I wouldn’t even think about working under? Score!
I don’t mean this to say that we should never buy things that are cheap or on sale, but perhaps we should just take a minute to learn about what’s behind the cheap price, and think about what’s driving the purchasing decision. Is it the price or the fact that it makes us feel like our own personal style icon?
