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What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

theatlantic.com

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Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#141

Post by truffdog »

akeck wrote: post #134
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #115

"The garment industry has a vested interest in ensuring that the rest of us think of clothing as disposable, or at least mutable. This is especially true of fast-fashion companies, but it's also true for luxury brands, even if they market their products with the promise that they'll last a lifetime." Responsible journalism. +1 Currently trying out some "guaranteed for life" hiking socks made in Vermont. No doubt some…

Does anyone know of a Darn Tough Socks equivalent for blue jeans? I only get 6 months - 2 years out of mine.

Have you gone down the fancy selvedge denim route? A lot of that stuff is overbuilt and might make you happy.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#143

Post by eptcyka »

barry-cotter wrote: post #124
eptcyka wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should normalize stains on clothing. Visual cleanliness is overrated, as long as hygiene is sufficient.

All primates groom themselves to have straight, clean looking, glossy hair. Humans are not going to voluntarily wear clothing that shouts “I’m one of poor or autistic.” People who are much, much poorer than the average OECD inhabitant care greatly about their appearance.

Yes, but lots of primate species also conduct a lot of rape and bullying. The best distinction I have between humans and other primates is that humans can change what they have believed to was their nature. Until somewhat recently, on this planet, all primates lived in a jungle.

I'm not saying it'd be easy.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#144

Post by dieselgate »

quadrifoliate wrote: post #90
dieselgate wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s funny seeing so many people promote “use them as rags!”! Sure that’s possible but it’s not an absolute. We can use old electronics as a paper weight (“and more!”) if we want to but people don’t normally promote that. Presumably natural fibers (wool, cotton, hemp etc) can be composted (conveniently ignoring buttons etc) and everything synthetic can just be landfilled (what else can we do with plasitcs). Im a bit…

> We can use old electronics as a paper weight (“and more!”) if we want to but people don’t normally promote that. The reason for this is that people don't usually buy paperweights that are indistinguishable from, say, an old and discarded mobile phone. They do, on the other hand, often buy things like hand towels or dish rags that are indistinguishable from home-made ones that are just old clothes torn up.

For sure, am not saying people shouldn’t reuse their clothing for x, y, z. I prefer to make patches for holes in clothes with other old clothes and just think the message should be more about reduce reuse recycle in general rather than “make rags”.

Edit for clarity

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#145

Post by stevekemp »

michaelgrafl wrote: post #70
Syonyk wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...but the speed with which children change size soundly outstrips the lifetime of the average piece of clothing. So you swap clothing around to other parents who have younger kids, in exchange from clothing from people with older kids? There's a very solid ecosystem of clothing/shoes/etc moving around our church, and it's quite common to see someone wearing clothes that our kids used to wear, or seeing our kids we…

Unfortunately many parents pass on really shrill and tasteless clothes made from cheap synthetic fabric. If you care about esthetics and teaching your children about style and materials, trading clothes becomes much more difficult. Flea markets turned out to be a much better source for fantastic old clothes, but require more time and at least some money. However, with three children who inherit their older siblings c…

Over the past few years I've been raising a child, and we bought literally nothing for the first two-three years.

When he was born the government gave us a box of clothes, and accessories, and later neighbours gave us their children's old clothes too.

But I find it fascinating that you talk about teaching children about style. Our child, like almost all the others I've seen, would just wear what they were given. When they reach three/four years old suddenly they have preferences, and I'd love to know where they came from.

Our childs preferences aren't so fixed, a favorite t-shirt today might become ignored next week, but there are some consistent comments and behaviours. He told us a few months ago "I don't want to wear that jacket, it is yellow".

Peer pressure, and conformity, probably play a part to some extent. But the rest? Where does that come from, and does it alway start that early?

(e.g. He wanted to wear nail varnish from ~3 years old. And was sad "The children at daycare said boys can't wear nail-varnish" so I told him we both could, and we painted each others nails for a few weeks until he lost interest.)

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#146

Post by stevekemp »

thepuppet33r wrote: post #97
Syonyk wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...but the speed with which children change size soundly outstrips the lifetime of the average piece of clothing. So you swap clothing around to other parents who have younger kids, in exchange from clothing from people with older kids? There's a very solid ecosystem of clothing/shoes/etc moving around our church, and it's quite common to see someone wearing clothes that our kids used to wear, or seeing our kids we…

We tried this, and even tried the whole cloth diapers thing, too. My daughter outgrew her cloth diapers in less than a year. We moved to a new place when she was one and we still don't know enough people to be able to do this sort of swap. Our neighbors have girls near her age, but they just moved here, too, and did a big purge back where they came from. It's easy to talk about swapping clothes when you have a large…

I found a bunch of facebook groups for the local area that would often post "box of clothes, free" for various ages.

But also hanging out in children's playparks in the local neighbourhood would introduce children to each other, and other parents to us. That helped find a group of kids the same age, or slightly older, who we would sometimes offload clothes between.

I guess it depends where you are, if those kind of things happen.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#147

Post by dieselgate »

klondike_klive wrote: post #99
quadrifoliate wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We can use old electronics as a paper weight (“and more!”) if we want to but people don’t normally promote that. The reason for this is that people don't usually buy paperweights that are indistinguishable from, say, an old and discarded mobile phone. They do, on the other hand, often buy things like hand towels or dish rags that are indistinguishable from home-made ones that are just old clothes torn up.

My 4-yr old kid calls them "broken-down t-shirts" - very useful to have a bag of them in the kitchen and bathroom for spills and messes. Before I was always torn between wasting a dishcloth or using a load of paper kitchen towel which might disintegrate.

I was torn by whether or not to comment on any wordplay

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#148

Post by fargle »

Boy that's a first-world problem if I've ever heard of one.

Even so, I live in a 1st world nation and both the wife and I buy sturdy functional clothing and, guess what?, it lasts for many years. We use it till it's fit for rags. Then we use the rags.

If/when we outgrow it but it's still serviceable it goes to rummage sale or goodwill. Plenty of folks will definitely buy good shoes, jeans, etc. at goodwill - if serviceable these are not going to pollute 3rd world countries and it really helps people. Hell, we shop for good jeans at goodwill, etc. too.

If you are having the ethical dilemma about where to donate your worn-once, too cheap, dry-clean-only but super-chic outfits when your closet is overflowing, you are definitely doing it wrong in at least 6 ways. Spoiler alert: the problem is not the goodwill company, the media, or the fashion industry.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#149

Post by psychphysic »

trgn wrote: post #37
pwinnski wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% agree on reducing! Still, are you suggesting that clothes should be kept forever? Because whether you're talking about someone who discards entire wardrobes at the end of every season, or someone who rotates the same very-few items until they no longer fit, at some point people still need to do something with old clothes.

> Still, are you suggesting that clothes should be kept forever? Fair point! > Because whether you're talking about someone who discards entire wardrobes at the end of every season I would assume these people buy high-end garments, and you'll find more boutique second hand stores that will take it. I suspect, if somebody is that devoted to fashion, it's more of a hobby or a passion, and I think we're all allowed a fe…

> I think the natural end point for heavily worn clothes would be as a rag?

This is what I do, but I read somewhere that old clothes make bad rags due to losing texture over the years of use and washing and especially fabric conditioner making clothes progressively less water absorbent.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#150

Post by dendrite9 »

ip26 wrote: post #139
dendrite9 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have they gotten better at that? I had a favorite pair of ski pants replaced instead of being repaired several years ago for a relatively minor zipper replacement. The cost of replacing a zipper is ridiculous compared to the cost of the zipper or even the pants. Probably because the pattern is not made with zipper replacement in mind. I was content to pin that pocket or add a flap and button over the zipper.

They have started designing their garments and sleeping bags to be more easily repairable. Especially around the zipper. It isn’t perfect but they seem to take it more seriously than any other company on the planet.

Good to know!

To be clear I don't fault them for making an assembly process where repair is not the highest priority. But it took me a while to appreciate why that little zipper repair was difficult enough to offer a replacement instead.

In many ways I suppose repairs always will be more expensive. The staff who know how to make the item may no longer work there, you cannot set up stations and a process, and every repair will likely be different. And without additional shipping, the employees doing the repair will be paid more than the original workers.

An acquaintance who owns an outdoor apparel company told me he doesn't want to make pants because the warranty and repair expectations are much harder to deal with than upper body items.

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