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Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

nytimes.com

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Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#311

Post by joncrane »

jshaqaw wrote: post #128

I’m on the pretty low to nonexistent level of fashion consciousness but fast forward 8 months to a world where maybe there is a vaccine. I can see a rebound cultural shift to going out/dressing up bringing back fashionable clothing for work and play stronger than pre-pandemic. There can easily be a cultural shift away from everyone sitting in their basement playing Animal Crossing in dirty sweatpants on Saturday nigh…

And at that time, being fashionable will have additional cachet because by then many of the fast fashion retailers will be bankrupt or running reduced selection and inventory.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#312

Post by unionpivo »

on_and_off wrote: post #145
mthoms wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are trends in every creative field imaginable, that wasn't the point. The trends in fashion move the quickest and are completely, absolutely arbitrary . Fashion also dictates that still-functional products get discarded on a whim, unlike say, architecture.

according to you .. miner garments invented 150 years ago are a staple of nowadays fashion.

Miner jeans and today's jeans have almost nothing in common.

Hell Levis from 30 years ago and todays Levis jeans are recognizably different.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#313

Post by lsiebert »

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…

I mean I'm not disagreeing with your overall premise but I think you are ignoring other categories: street wear, club wear, and just plain uniforms for service workers.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#314

Post by ceejayoz »

makomk wrote: post #278
ceejayoz wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's unfair. "We don't know when the next pandemic will come, but it will come, and we should be prepared for it" is a perfectly reasonable statement. Any pandemic is likely going to require PPE, PCR testing reagents, BSL labs, etc. Same thing for recessions; predicting the specific timing of one is difficult. Advocating preparations for one - economic, fiscal, social policies etc. to mitigate, for example - is not…

It wasn't at all clear in advance that all of those things were going to be needed. Mass PCR testing is not part of the standard pandemic response. Neither is the amount and kind of PPE used in this pandemic. I know the UK, for example, had trouble with there being no full-body disposable suits in the pandemic stockpile because they're not usually used for one. Whilst all half-competent countries have systems in plac…

"We didn't need it during SARS" is not the right thought process. "What would we need to combat a 1918 style pandemic if it happened today?" is.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#315

Post by eb0la »

torgian wrote: post #217

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.

I remember asian tailors advertised in the Financial Times.

They just rented a room near the City to make measuremens an bought an ad in FT to book appointments.

That way you could get a nice bespoke suit for less than it was sold in London.

I wonder if that market still exists.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#316

Post by driverdan »

b112 wrote: post #141
on_and_off wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there are tons more than 5 styles for guys (workwear, techwear, superfuture, dark, etc) but strongly agree that there are enormous differences in male vs female clothing trends. Male fashion is on something like a 10 years cycle and you can find tons of brands focusing on quality or durability. Female fashion seems to obsess about the latest trend and change dramatically every 3-months to a year. Probably lots of cul…

I've always believed that the pants are almost meaningless, it's the shirts that need to be different daily. So I used to have 8 pairs of pants, 2 colours total. Black and beige. Then, once a year, I'd go buy 2 more pairs of each colour. On a 'bad' year, I'd buy 4 pairs. EG, I'd rotate the worn out, always only having 8 pairs. This persisted until, 20 years later, the company that sold them went bankrupt. As my gut a…

> while you gain your middle-age gut and ass

The problem isn't the pants, its your lack of fitness. You act like becoming overweight in middle-age is an acceptable thing.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#317

Post by driverdan »

purple_ferret wrote: post #180
kurthr wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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? https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/28/jeans-sal... I suspect that it's a long term…

I barely buy jeans now because it's hard to find a pair that isn't 10% spandex

What are you talking about? There are tons of brands that sell 100% cotton denim jeans.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#318

Post by shoes_for_thee »

mumblemumble wrote: post #310
taurath wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(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…

> Women have an expectation to express themselves and their personality. I think that men have the same expectation. What's different is: Men are working with a relatively stable means of expression. They're working with clothes that are naturally more multi-season (both in terms of utility and in terms of aesthetic norms.) And it's more socially acceptable - even required in some contexts - for them to wear basicall…

Also: Men have a narrower range of acceptable expressions

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#319

Post by viridian »

ctvo wrote: post #301
taurath wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(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…

You're so confident about this. > There are 5 genres of men’s clothes - business (pressed shirts, suits), casual, workout, skater, and comfort (hoodie). Only 5 of them and one of them includes "skater"? I mention confidence because you name them off with some authority when it looks like it should be "There are 5 categories of men's clothing for me". You leave off streetwear [1] which is a gigantic category in men's…

Not only is streetwear missing, but so are preppy styles. I really can't think of many women's "genres" which lack a male counterpart.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#320

Post by [deleted] »

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…

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