responsibility

[525252]

Does anyone feel a certain responsibility to respond/react to what is happening in fashion and consumer culture of now in general?
I don't know about everyone's shopping habits, but speaking in terms of mass markets, its become a very damagingly impersonal experience.
There's that concept of "disposable clothing" which escalates micro trends and quick cycling of fashion which in turn increases waste production. The same thing is happening with food, where something essential to living is compromised in quality with cheap synthetic ingredients and creating an entire generation of unhealthy bodies. There's fake food, fake clothing, its all really very insincere

I think I'm being incredibly inarticulate right now cause this issue is so immense, but I'll take a leap and trust that most people here will understand (and assume) most of what I intended to express.

So anyone have a sort of guilt or feeling of responsibility to act against this culture, seeing as most "non-fashion" people aren't even aware of the impact that fashion has in their lives?

(I've probably put this in the wrong sub-forum, and the title was the best I could do.. its crap, I know, sorry!)

[Robert]

i feel like people generally are becoming more self aware and it allows for better personal growth and better choices about....everything?

you seem to have put a lot of thought into this and on the one hand it's resonating with me, but also i think its important to say at first that it's becoming easier for people to realize what is more important to them...

all of these trends and corporate built society maxims are empty and its only a matter of time before people realize the lack of compassion much of our culture allows.

im just trying to keep up with you on the eloquence. but nice writeup. yo.

[Stijn]

This need to be responsible you speak of is something I've questioned myself alot.
There is this thing that everyone wants to have clothing as cheap as possible. I think one of the problems is this ''trend'' system and this idea that you need a totally different wardrobe every season to ''stay in fashion''. I really understand Yohji Yamamoto in this matter. When you buy a piece of clothing for a lifetime , it really becomes your coat or your pair of shoes. It becomes really intimate. I really like the idea of having a small wardrobe full of pieces you love.


I think many people on this forum relate to this minimal consumption thing. And even when people buy much, they also sell much. Something that can't be said about a h&m coat or zara t-shirt, who's going to buy that second hand...

[Faust]

I could've sworn we had this discussion already (a few times) but I don't remember where. Would be good to revive it though.

[cowsareforeating]

There is no money in preventative medicine the same way there is no money in having people buying fewer clothes. Gotta create a money making machine like big pharma and big oil.. etc.

[Wiggles]

i think another issue you're raising (perhaps unknowingly) is how we consume the things that should be more meaningful. i think that, if you spend some serious money on anything, it should be an experience. be that clothes, food, flights, etc, i think you should spend money on things you'll enjoy and remember.

i had a similar conversation with my girlfriend a few weeks ago about why i feel clothes warrant the kind of money i spend on them. to me, the clothes i buy add to my wardrobe and will last for a long time. they're investments, just like a nice meal with good friends would be an investment. that's how i try approach my finances and expenditures - am i going to remember this meal/is this shirt going to become something that i really own and becomes mine? i think a lot of people consume things unconsciously or without a long term plan. if we all thought harder about what we buy and why (and if we even want it in the first place), we'd all cull out a lot of the shallow purchases we make (and slim down our closets a lot).

i think we're all responsible individually for our own actions. god knows i have friend(s) that buy these gorgeous clothes/delicious meals/you name it just because they have the money - and they'll wear the thing one time and never again. i'd never intrude and try to change them, but i think that's an example of irresponsible consuming no one will argue with. on the other end of the spectrum, i know someone else who doesn't buy anything trendy because she doesn't like anything she wears to be identifiable as one season or another. although i think that's a little extreme, i think she has her head in the right place.

[zamb]

I think that human thinking is fundamentally flawed, and no matter how well intentioned we are, no matter of well thought out a system we implement, there is always the possibility of taking things to a ridiculous extreme.

I think that living a balanced ad thoughtful life is always a most important priority, and yes everything should be really thought out in order to make wise decisions..............however, there is nothing wrong with the occasional splurge, just for the sake of it.

I own three pairs of CCP boots............do I really need that many? of course not, but there is a difference between that an owning ten pairs.

I think that all things should be in moderation..............including moderation.

[Faust]

I think that all things should be in moderation..............including moderation.

As long as you are not confusing moderation with moderating here...

[zamb]

As long as you are not confusing moderation with moderating here...

No, i think that moderating SZ should be harsh and extreme..........

[david s]

samurai moderation
float like a butterfly, sting like a bee

to add my two cents.

I think consumption to an extent depends on where you live (IMO), I would say oddly enough living in large metropolises most of my life my spending habits in general tend to focus on local establishment as much as possible. The less small businesses there are ... the more culture a city loses.

Well.... anyway I had the start of a good idea of what to write that had a tangent about preservation of soho and the west village in the 1960s, which was going to seque way into the bit about fashion. But I'm still hungover from last night so I think I will revisit tomorrow with something more coherent. I like the thread.

[david s]

well to wrap up my original thoughts on the this thread.

As far as fashion consumption : I tend not to buy anything that comes from mass production, except maybe my t-shirts. And most things I do buy are produced in limited quality, often they are second hand and I wear them for a long time.

net-net : I think almost anything piece of clothing to a certain is going to be detrimental to the environment. For most of the designers represented on SZ, it is hard to "buy-local", so at the very least there is a carbon footprint for shipping stuff.

my two cents /d

[Patroklus]

There is no money in preventative medicine the same way there is no money in having people buying fewer clothes. Gotta create a money making machine like big pharma and big oil.. etc.

No. There's a market for any product, whether it's more durable clothing or insane fetish gear. You just need to find a business model that can be self-sustaining for that market. Just about every designer popular with this forum's userbase is a great example. The prices of these clothes mostly reflect what the label has to charge to survive with the size of their customer base.

A lot of people were worried about globalization and multi-nationals, but we're going to see a different phenomenon in the coming decades. As second and third world economies become more powerful they will start to produce competing corporations in everything from motorcycles to fast food. It's likely that when you go to buy a car in the year 2100 you'll have a wide variety of choices from your global region - Indian and Chinese if you live in Southeast Asia for example - with smatterings of very popular foreign options. A handful of classic labels, like BMW, or Louis Vuitton, will be able to maintain their status on the world market, but most companies will find themselves at a serious disadvantage competing overseas against local options.

As far as the clothing industry is concerned we're going to see a lot fewer fast fashion companies because they won't be able to procure such cheap labor and because they will be less competitive in a truly global economy that will present thousands of other options. A lot of mid and low end companies will have to raise their prices and become more focused in terms of the customers they're chasing after.

[525252]

^that sounds incredibly optimistic.

Of course the things we consider to be extreme are all relative, just one pair of CCP boots is enough to be considered extreme to the majority of people. Reality is, going by numbers, extremely low priced clothing at terrible quality is what is considered normal and preferable because of some misconception that it is unfashionable to wear an item of clothing too many times in one week.

A Zara opened in Sydney not long ago and people went crazy because its considered a "high-end" option- I mean that price point is the average investment price. So many people will not pay any higher because of everything that is available for lower.

The thing that gets me is that I question whether people would continue this if they knew that a lot of things which are insanely cheap come from insanely unethical sources and result in a crap load of consequences. Or at least, even if they chose to ignore it, would people in positions of power do something to enforce change if it came to their attention? And would it be the responsibility of people who aren't entirely ignorant about these things, to bring it into the attentions of said powerful people?

and then this sort of veers into another direction- that no change can be meaningful or significant anyway because of the immensity of things, particularly those mass produced. ugh its all still a mess in my head. I think I'll just buy 5 identical outfits and wear the same thing everyday and go with an sterile extremist lifestyle.

[Patroklus]

There's always going to be comparatively cheap fashion that distills designer's work and cuts corners on quality or production to keep prices low. But the model used by H&M et al isn't sustainable in the face of rising labor costs around the world. Prices at low and mid market points are going to be forced upwards. High end prices will remain relatively unchanged, but will remain ridiculously elastic.

[Faust]

I don't see how "High end prices will remain relatively unchanged." That is a ridiculous statement. Prices of luxury goods have skyrocketed in the past 6-7 years far outpacing inflation and they will continue to skyrocket. Prices of cashmere and wool in some cases has doubled this year and this will be reflected next year across the board. If anything, it will be the other way around - prices of luxury goods will continue to rise because the rich are priceproof and prices of cheap goods will be held down because of the recession. Man, all your posts have been full of shit.

52x3, books/articles have been written, politicians have been pressured, but nothing will change until shit-hits-the-fan, i.e. we start running out of resources. Oil is an example we should look to - there ARE technologies in place to get rid of oil and do it relatively fast and efficiently, but nothing will happen as long as oil companies continue to make billions of dollars and buy politicians. The entire energy industry is set up in a completely artificial way.