Good. The fashion industry is toxic and wasteful. I hope it does not survive, but of course I am sorry for the people who's livelihood is impacted.
Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed
321–330 of 369 posts
Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
PPE manufacturing had to be 24/6 the last decade to prepare for an aerosol virus, which COVID happens to be.
We are lucky that we don’t have a U-shaped fatality curve like the spanish flu.
Also, states need testing regimes and plans in place to handle millions of tests per day.
tl;dr: We are learning a lot! Lack of preparedness is not a <5 year story.
Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed
#323This problem seems to be US specific. If you look up YouTube street tours of some European countries or Japan or even Russia, you'll notice that the average person is still generally fashionable, certainly more so than in the US.
Maybe some enterprising young chap could bring mainstream fashion to the Xl - 6XL size ranges? That way the US could get involved.
People don’t realize that culturally that is the ‘fashion’ of the U.S.
Read Anathem by Neal Stephenson, it has a funny take on this :)
Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed
#324Earlier quoted context omitted.
The entirety of my grandparents generation being able to Facetime their grandkids all over the world since 2010 isn’t a Veblen good. My non English fluent and tech illiterate family members can browse the internet and click on all the malware links without worrying about losing personal data or ruining their device. That’s not a Veblen good either. My time doing tech support going down to zero because the solution is…
> The entirety of my grandparents generation being able to Facetime their grandkids all over the world since 2010 isn’t a Veblen good. You are being disingenuous if you believe that Apple Facetime is the only or even dominant voice and/or video call system. WhatsApp alone has between 4 and 5 times the market share of Apple's FaceTime. You need to come up with another explanation. > My non English fluent and tech illi…
In 2012 or so, FaceTime was the only easy to use, reliable video call option. I know because I tried Skype and hangouts and tango and whatever other crap was out there. They all failed where FaceTime succeeded with all the elders. Also, iPads are the only decent tablet available which are nice for older people due to the larger screen. Reality is my explanation.
And I guess I must be imagining the hours I spent removing malware from windows computers before iOS came along. The stage was set a decade ago when the best option was iOS. My grandparents aren’t going to learn a different system nowadays.
Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed
#325Earlier 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.
This simply is not true. You may not know enough about food culture or architecture to see it, but those trends move just as quickly as the rest of human culture. Still-functional products being discarded on a whim is basically the history of architecture. The fact is, all of human culture is “arbitrary” and bad for the environment. Food, architecture, fashion, and civilization itself. Just because you don’t care abo…
You're asserting that architecture changes faster than fashion? I'm not even sure how to rebuff that since it's so patently ridiculous on its face.
As for food trends, they are indeed changing faster than ever but they're more on a 3-5 year cycle at most. Certainly not 6 months.
Let's examine the word arbitrary. The "in" colors, styles and cuts (the entire make-up of clothing) are undeniably arbitrary and change every 6 months. There's nothing remotely comparable in food or architecture.
Based on your other comment, you seem to take great offence at fashion being disparaged here. It's okay to like fashion. It's the industry that's being attacked, not you personally. And yes, other industries are bad, some even more so. But that's irrelevant.
Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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
So very true. My only excuse for failing to even think of that point is that I'm so accustomed - inured, really - to men having a narrower range of acceptable personalities.
Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed
#327Earlier 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…
Just wear a hat in 2020.
The amount of online discussions I have seen for a single item in male fashion makes me think nothing is ever simple.
Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
That's the whole point. The thought process "what would we need to combat a 1918 style pandemic if it happened today" does not in fact lead to stocking up on the things you're suggesting every country should have because they're supposedly required for any pandemic, since in reality those things weren't part of the plan for a 1918 style pandemic. If the political landscape was different it's entirely possible that (for example) mass PCR testing wouldn't be part of the plan for this pandemic. Most Western countries have the ability to use it for surveillance and estimation of disease spread during a pandemic, but trying to test everyone and use that to stop the spread is not a normal part of the plan for a disease like this.
Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
orange man bad
Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed
#330Lounge pants for the win.