Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed • Hacker News Board

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#211

Post by opan » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:46 AM UTC

taurath wrote: post #18

kazen44 wrote: post #5

The collapse of the fashion industry does not mean the clothing industry will collapse. People still need clothing obviously (cheap and of good quality preferably). Also, what do we consider the fashion industry exactly? Most long term clothing trends seem to be dictated by a couple of factors. Consisting of: - practicality. Jeans are good example of this. It's cheap and practical clothing that lasts a long time. - c…

(All comments on culture US centric) - This thinking is why the men’s section is 1/4 as large as the women’s in most stores. Culturally for men clothing is supposed to be above all practical. There are 5 genres of men’s clothes - business (pressed shirts, suits), casual, workout, skater, and comfort (hoodie). Contrast this with the women’s section. Women have an expectation to express themselves and their personality…

What about Men's work clothes? Heavy-duty stuff. Like a lot of Duluth Trading Co. clothing. I'm not sure these fit into your categories. I also feel your skater/comfort don't seem different enough. At least, I can imagine skaters wearing hoodies commonly.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#212

Post by swang » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:51 AM UTC

smoe wrote: post #43

the8472 wrote: post #3

> Now a global pandemic had hit. He couldn’t foresee that. No one did. Some people did. Taiwan prepared after SARS. Of course nobody forsaw all possible consequences but it would be better to say that not everyone has the capacity to account for all possible tail risks.

I think plenty of people said that a global pandemic is just a matter of time. Countries had made preparations with varying degrees of success. E.g. Switzerland back in like 2014 did a nationwide preparedness test, identified numerous problems (e.g. insufficient stock of PPE) and created a pandemic strategy. We still ended up in 2020 with doctors having to go to home depot to buy protective glasses because the states…

The US was also prepared for a global pandemic, or at least had a plan.. just a certain person in power decided it was unnecessary.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#213

Post by swang » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:54 AM UTC

pwinnski wrote: post #89

I read the article, then was surprised to see that the comments here are focused to much on the clothing part of the story, rather than the investment and financing parts of the story. They way VC is described in the story seems familiar to me from time spent working for Bay-area startups, and I think the critiques in the story apply in tech as well.

I'm guessing because the unique outlier is about the fashion. Lots of other articles on HN about investment/financing

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#214

Post by clusterfish » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:56 AM UTC

dade_ wrote: post #189

0xdeadb00f wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This thinking is why the men’s section is 1/4 as large as the women’s in most stores. This is so true, and it annoys me for reasons I'll mention later. > Contrast this with the women’s section. Women have an expectation to express themselves and their personality. I'm a young man, but I also like to express myself by dressing a certain way, which is why I'm especially disappointed when literally three whole floors…

Yes, but men’s fashion cycles run far longer than women, so we can buy higher quality clothing that lasts much longer. This also means custom clothing is very practical. I deal with a guy, his family has a factory in India. All the grades of fabric, styles, etc, all made custom based on my measurements. A few weeks later, it arrives. Most comfortable clothing available, and looks killer. He travels to me, or I go to…

You get custom made clothing cheaper than store clothing? That doesn't seem to be the norm pricing wise.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#215

Post by whatshisface » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:57 AM UTC

taurath wrote: post #209

whatshisface wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who doesn't want to pour resources into a fruitless arms race, I'm glad that a supergovernmental system has unilaterally enacted arms control. ;)

There is serious value to being perceived as you want to be though! It’s not really fruitless, nor an arms race.

The problem is that the perception is relative, not absolute. As soon as more than a few people on the fringe start chasing it, the average will move up, causing a Red Queen scenario. Victorian court dress is a ready example of what happens when economics and social norms fail to restrain appearance arms races.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#216

Post by dbsmith83 » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:59 AM UTC

kazen44 wrote: post #5

The collapse of the fashion industry does not mean the clothing industry will collapse. People still need clothing obviously (cheap and of good quality preferably). Also, what do we consider the fashion industry exactly? Most long term clothing trends seem to be dictated by a couple of factors. Consisting of: - practicality. Jeans are good example of this. It's cheap and practical clothing that lasts a long time. - c…

> Fast fashion and the fashion industry as a whole seems incredibly wasteful to me. Buying new clothing because of yearly trends is way to damaging to the enviroment for what it's worth.

I don't disagree per se, but I think you could say this about just about any hobby/habit/interest. Is it really necessary? Probably not, but it makes some people happy for whatever reason.

How do you draw the line?

Some people complain that travel is too hard on the environment..but I love travel and will continue to do so (post-covid)

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#217

Post by torgian » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 4:19 AM UTC

Most of my money net goes towards cycling gear. I buy new clothes maybe once a year or once every two years.

I have a custom made suit that I bought from a bespoke tailor in Chengdu for about 1200 usd including custom shoes.

I still want to find a nice trench coat for winter, and I saw one at Dior that I really liked. Didn’t want to pay the 5000 usd price tag though.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#218

Post by Aerroon » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 4:21 AM UTC

IgorPartola wrote: post #94

Ancapistani wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are 5 genres of men’s clothes - business (pressed shirts, suits), casual, workout, skater, and comfort (hoodie). There’s quite a bit of variation within those. Where I live, “casual” these days is usually something like Columbia PFG - the epitome of “dad clothes”, as my wife tells me. I tend to wear that pretty much exclusively. I substitute jeans for the shorts in winter and buy a new leather jacket about ev…

Here are some examples of women’s clothing where I cannot think of the equivalent thing in a men’s clothing department: https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1AawYy29TBuNjy0Fcq6zeiFXaW/Off... https://patternshub.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Tube-top-... http://images.asos-media.com/products/asos-cut-out-sleeve-on... https://cdn.tobi.com/product_images/lg/1/teal-kayla-ombre-ma... (That last one is a bit of a cheat because m…

To me all of these are the same: clothing to show off. I think the make equivalent would be a suit. Or alternatively, an incredibly toned body, but I don't think they sell that.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#219

Post by Der_Einzige » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 4:27 AM UTC

dane-pgp wrote: post #127

sukilot wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternatively, this was Trump's 9/11 -- the threat the President+Cabinet knew was coming and intentionally unprotected the nation from, in order to manufacture an excuse to retaliate against a tangentially connected enemy.

As conspiracy theories go, that one perhaps hits hardest because of the "banality of evil" aspect to it.

I don't see what is arendtian about this...

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#220

Post by prostoalex » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 4:29 AM UTC

kazen44 wrote: post #5

The collapse of the fashion industry does not mean the clothing industry will collapse. People still need clothing obviously (cheap and of good quality preferably). Also, what do we consider the fashion industry exactly? Most long term clothing trends seem to be dictated by a couple of factors. Consisting of: - practicality. Jeans are good example of this. It's cheap and practical clothing that lasts a long time. - c…

From the practicality standpoint it seems that we should all be wearing togas (or robes, at most). They're basically unisex (with opportunities for expression for those who value it), flexible on size (or at least very forgiving if your exact size is unavailable), and can be made pretty cheap (assuming mass production).

Everything more complicated than that is fashion.