I like clothes. When flying was a bigger deal people would dress up. With the democratisation of air travel, nobody does any more. Still, in my head it’s an “excuse” to dress up due to the old etiquette. It feels good to me to arrive at a new place and look put together while I’m at it.
Well, ultra fast fashion is ultra fast. It doesn’t rely on a season to season trend cycle, but micro-trends that are constantly changing, making the stuff you just bought obsolete - you need to buy again!! /s. You can be disappointed by 6 months, but I’d wager UFF clothes are worn much less than that.
The market normalised frequent purchase of clothes for us consumers. No one treats buying clothes as seriously as buying say household electronics. No one treats repairs that seriously if replacing is so easy. So no one really ends up knowing what to look for on a garment that makes it high quality, since that’s “not necessary”. One podcast I’m listening to says “clothes should be expensive”.
I wish there was an easy way to appraise clothes before you buy them. I wish people would care if they’re getting ripped off or not. Go ahead and start a five e-mail thread from the store you’re thinking about buying from. You can’t know how much of a good deal a garment is by looking at it. If you take a pair of cotton trousers into your hands you can’t know what’s the staple length of the cotton or what’s the dyeing method used. What % of price went to pay the workers a living wage? What % towards the fabric? How much % extra am I paying for better finishing?
With pants if there’s elastane in the mix it makes the fabric less durable. If you get crotch blowouts look for trousers with a crotch gusset. Consider looking for brands that list the fabric weight, since the fatter the fabric the more friction it can take before it develops a hole. With shoes I don’t really know what to say without going into goodyearwelted shoes that cost 2-3x that.
Some creators related to appraisal:
Messi wasn’t telling the ref what Cucurella said. Covering your mouth while speaking is a red card offense because players would say slurs and didn’t want others to be able to lip-read. Cucurella wasn’t doing that, he briefly tapped his lips to gesture that his teammate got hit in the mouth. Messi raised his hand as if Cucurella covered his mouth to say a slur - to get him sent off the pitch and get an unfair advantage.
I feel like in Italy they still kept that mindset and it shows by how people are dressed in the street. Judging by the comments it’s not so common to think that way any more.