Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

>Since when is 'fast fashion' 'high fashion'? 'Fast Fashion' is not even 'fashion' - it's literally just 'clothing'.

I'm not clear why you would call fast fashion, "not even fashion". That sounds embarrassingly elitist.

To be honest I'm not sure what point you're making that relies on their being a clear distinction between the two? I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that you're trying to say high fashion is not as culpable or "bad" as fast fashion is?

Sure, not directly. The lower volume and having more money for better sourcing probably makes it slightly more sustainable.

But, high fashion sets the dangerous expectation that you have to update your wardrobe regularly in order to fit in. That's the crux of the problem. They also directly profit off of fast fashion churn [0].

[0] https://www.thefashionlaw.com/just-how-successful-is-your-fa...

Isn't this ultimately a good thing? I recall someone here made a post about how much Green House Emissions are created as a result of the Fashion Industry.

Personally I haven't worn sweatpants since I was in mandated gym class in HS and it was too cold outside for those overpriced cheaply made shorts and have instead opted for gym clothes (as it was closed) which are nylon/synthetic wicking and breathable during the winter months and then cargo shorts collection I've had and added to since I was in University in the summer.

Honestly, while I think Women's fashion is mainly a thing they do for themselves, as most guys care more about what is underneath the clothes, its something that should be disrupted if its true it accounts for so much environmental costs. And perhaps we could accelerate the tech needed to '3d print' clothes/outfits, or at least something like a community based automated textile model where you bring a 'print/template' of the outfit adjusted for your measurements, pay a sum to the operators and come back a few days later with the clothes you want and cutting out the middle men.

This could spur on a ton of creative sub-cultures like they have in France, Italy, Japan or England that so many have talked about about in this thread, as they still have a significant demand for tailors to meet the Global demand.

I tip really well when I take my clothes to the local dry cleaner own and operated by a Family of Koreans because not only do they have a dry-cleaning business, they're situated inside the family owned landromat with about 40 machines, but also have a garment altering business, a shoe repair business inside them and are perhaps trail-blazing how clothing could be done in the Future with a modern automated textile model as an adjunct now that retail real estate is undergoing an Apocalypse situation and can be had for cheap.

I wear timeless fashion things for formal wear and its usually made in Italy or S. Korea these days, I wish I could put a few local seamstresses/tailors/shoe artisans back to work and stop relying on needless shipping costs and the harm that goes with it for my clothing. Even if it costs more I'd prefer to stop relying on this model for the few $1000s I spend on clothes a year.

> Yes, but Jeans are part of the collapse now and considered formal for creatives with Levi's down 62% and doing layoffs. I thought "formality" was bizarre as well, but apparently their target demo don't consider the older skinny-jeans, and the new high-waisted mom-jeans to be as comfortable as Lulus... who'd have thunk it?

It's CEO did, I saw his interview in a podcast about how he saw the trend happening from Yogis and Health Centric movements in the early days and how he swept in after the 2008 financial crises when many of the former Bar Hopper scenesters switched to the Gym for their socilizing place of choice due to less expendable income.

He still thinks the one piece lycra smart-clothes movement that measures all kinds of vitals and provides a ton of real-time health information is in the works for the next transition, but that Lulu is the first phase to get to that. If I recall correctly, he came from the outdoor/skate-snowboard Industries and caught that wave before starting Lulu and had a lot of success there. Overall it was interesting and insightful on something I give almost no real focus toward, clothing trends are something I stopped caring about in HS and I've seen so many things 'come back in style' that I see how unoriginal 'fashion' really is.

Any piece that you can dissemble, from the top case and keyboard, to the logic board, to the display and bezel. And on older ones, they even had those amazing removable drives and RAM... and remember, since the drives at least were using a slightly proprietary form factor, you either have to buy a used OEM drive or a more expensive 3rd party replacement like the ones from OWC.

But even an old broken MacBook Air can get $100+ depending on the specific model, not parted out at all.

You can probably change #1 in about a year. Maybe 1 hour a day of work.

thanks for this comment.

this comment section is hard to read. For lots of topics, HN comment section is interesting to follow to see experts in the fields giving insightful info. This is not one of these.

Totally agree on fashion as an art form. The pursuit of beauty also applies to what you wear.