I don't know about you, but I would definitely feel a bit stupid about spending £1000 on Brioni's if couldn't distinguish them from a £14 pair of jeans I got at Primark. On one hand, this is great because looking good has become accessible to everyone. Spending more money on fashion is now dependent on knowing that your garment is branded rather than on the fabrics and cut of the clothing itself. On the other hand, cheaper clothing means we put less thought into the things we buy and more clothes get thrown away. As students, we certainly aren't innocent in this regard; accommodation bins overflow with unwanted clothes at the end of summer term.
However, it's not all doom and gloom because many of us are making clothing more sustainable by using apps like Vinted to access a wider selection and higher quality of albeit preloved clothes. Personally, prices on second hand fashion are so low that fast fashion brands like Primark have become completely redundant for me. I don't know about you, but I get a kick out of getting Edwin jeans in the post which someone else spent £110 on to get brand new instead of using the same amount of money to get a Primark pair.
...today's designer brands expect us to fork up a lot of money just because they have their name on a garment.
It's not just sound advice to buy used, professional costume creators do just that. Many of the standout garments which epitomised the garish noughties dress sense in the black comedy thriller Saltburn were drawn from the depths of Facebook marketplace or likewise. I personally also feel as if a lot of today's designer brands expect us to fork up a lot of money just because they have their name on a garment when that hoodie or t shirt would otherwise be almost worthless. And so, by buying used clothes I am withholding my money from designer brands which think they can patronise our fashion sense by making us pay hand over foot for what is really a dirt cheap hoodie that came out of a sweatshop for less than the cost of a coffee.
The internet is awash with all kinds of innovative garments at knockdown prices which were not appreciated in their time, but perhaps now deserve a second chance at greatness.
In my perhaps misguided and vain desire to be original and not wear what everyone else is wearing, I find that I can't be original with the limited selection of clothes we get on the high street. The internet is awash with all kinds of innovative garments at knockdown prices which were not appreciated in their time, but perhaps now deserve a second chance at greatness. Jeans, for example, started out as the work overalls of miners in the American frontier, and now even royalty is occasionally spotted in a pair of Levi's.
So, when you buy a slightly adventurous clothing item online instead of handing the money to a corporate giant, you are benefiting the environment, getting better value for money and might even be defining the future mode.