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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

#41

Post by aries1980 »

foobiekr wrote: post #20
nickff wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment applies equally to all luxury consumer goods. It also ignores the fact that many people derive pleasure from 'dressing up', or 'looking their best'.

Fast fashion, which was the dominant trend, has nothing to do with dressing up or looking one’s best.

High-end fashion is not fast fashion. I wear high-end shoes daily, some that have been resoled twice, having a 10-year lifespan each. I feel I stand out from the crowd when I appear in my don't remember-when-I-bought Hackett blazer and Liberty shirts.

If you are a man, whatever looked good on Steve McQueen in the 70s would still give you the look today.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#42

Post by OpossumMinister »

pembrook wrote: post #35
mthoms wrote: post #8

I'm saddened by the job losses, but the fashion industry (esp. the high end) seems nothing but a toxic drain on society and the environment. New "trends" dictated by celebrities and designers every year do nothing but sow personal insecurities and environmental destruction. Good riddance.

Yes, human “culture” and it’s “trends” are such a waste. Why can’t everybody just spend their entire lives staring at screens while dressed in tshirts, like us software engineers do? Those thousands of years of human history spent on emotionally-driven aesthetic pursuits like art, fashion, music, culinary tradition and architecture...what a waste of time and resources. If only we could be more robot-like and efficien…

Authentic culture isn't created by a microscopically small group of rich people. If you think that criticising an exploitative industry is the the same as turning people into cultureless robots, then you're missing the entire point.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#43

Post by smoe »

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, responsible for implementing parts of the strategy did absolutely nothing.

Few like to prepare for something that might happen, but nobody can tell you when. But as a private citizen or small to medium business, what you can do to prepare for an event of this scale and duration is also fairly limited. It has to happen at broader societal level.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#44

Post by chosenbreed37 »

pembrook wrote: post #35
mthoms wrote: post #8

I'm saddened by the job losses, but the fashion industry (esp. the high end) seems nothing but a toxic drain on society and the environment. New "trends" dictated by celebrities and designers every year do nothing but sow personal insecurities and environmental destruction. Good riddance.

Yes, human “culture” and it’s “trends” are such a waste. Why can’t everybody just spend their entire lives staring at screens while dressed in tshirts, like us software engineers do? Those thousands of years of human history spent on emotionally-driven aesthetic pursuits like art, fashion, music, culinary tradition and architecture...what a waste of time and resources. If only we could be more robot-like and efficien…

Lol...this seems a bit tongue in cheek

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#45

Post by jbillmann »

spaetzleesser wrote: post #34

I am getting pretty tired of sweatpants but regular pants feel uncomfortable while working from home. Does anybody know some pants that are reasonably comfortable but still a little stylish?

I recommend a nice pair of summer hiking pants. Specifically, look at Outdoor Research Ferrosi Pants.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#46

Post by ponker »

okamiueru wrote: post #33
colmvp wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't agree more. High end fashion is woefully overpriced items that predominantly largely priced on their brand rather their functionality and material. While yes, you could make the same argument with technology, I can at least get a lot of value out of premium I've paid for Apple products like my seven year old MacBook Pro or five year old iPhone. And after working briefly in the fashion industry as a developer…

To be fair, and you even bringing it up, apple products is to some degree the fashion equivalent in tech. I recently had to buy a MacOs compatible hardware for the first time in years, and I had really no idea how large the difference has become. Apple products truly are "way of life", more than anything tangible. And when choosing to upgrade components, I really couldn't believe it. It was more than twice the compar…

But there are functional reasons to prefer Apple hardware as well. I use almost exclusively Apple hardware and I own one garment worth more than $30.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#47

Post by mthoms »

nickff wrote: post #12
mthoms wrote: post #8

I'm saddened by the job losses, but the fashion industry (esp. the high end) seems nothing but a toxic drain on society and the environment. New "trends" dictated by celebrities and designers every year do nothing but sow personal insecurities and environmental destruction. Good riddance.

Your comment applies equally to all luxury consumer goods. It also ignores the fact that many people derive pleasure from 'dressing up', or 'looking their best'.

I don't think it applies equally to all consumer luxury goods.

Fashion is designed to be "consumable" in the sense that it has a totally made-up expiration date. An expiration date largely dictated by the very industry that created the product.

>It also ignores the fact that many people derive pleasure from 'dressing up', or 'looking their best'.

No it doesn't. That feeling can still exist in a world where clothing lasts two, three or four times as long. The entire premise of the (luxury) fashion industry is built on making a person feel bad if they aren't "in style". Where "in style" is a completely arbitrary standard made up by a select few extraordinarily rich people.

Besides, I'd argue that people use cooler/sexier/more fashion-forward clothing as a crutch for what might be a more serious issue with their self esteem. But I digress.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#48

Post by grawprog »

aries1980 wrote: post #41
foobiekr wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fast fashion, which was the dominant trend, has nothing to do with dressing up or looking one’s best.

High-end fashion is not fast fashion. I wear high-end shoes daily, some that have been resoled twice, having a 10-year lifespan each. I feel I stand out from the crowd when I appear in my don't remember-when-I-bought Hackett blazer and Liberty shirts. If you are a man, whatever looked good on Steve McQueen in the 70s would still give you the look today.

>I feel I stand out from the crowd when I appear in my don't remember-when-I-bought Hackett blazer and Liberty shirts.

Is that not an effect of marketing though? The only time i've ever felt like i've 'stood out in a crowd' is when I'm walking around in something utterly ridiculous, or filthy work clothes or something.

To be honest, all the high end designer brands blend in to me and I can't be bothered to tell them apart from the lower end brands. When I do recognize one though, my thoughts tend to be something huh, look, someone spent $500 on a shirt/purse/other small singular item of clothing.

Then i'll look at the person next to them wearing less than that over their entire outfit in budget clothes and i'll think, hmm that person doesn't like to waste their money. They have some sense.

Some of the richest, most successful people i've ever met dressed in the same things other regular people do.

I'd rather stand out for my accomplishments and things I do, than some crap made in china I buy at the store at overinflated prices. Because in the end, those designer clothes are pumped out in the same factories alongside Walmart crap.

I'll agree with you about shoes though, a high quality pair of shoes is worth investing in. As long as their actually high quality and not just 'paying for the name' high quality.

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#49

Post by dkn775 »

spaetzleesser wrote: post #34

I am getting pretty tired of sweatpants but regular pants feel uncomfortable while working from home. Does anybody know some pants that are reasonably comfortable but still a little stylish?

Under armor has some windbreaker-material pants that wear close to sweatpants, but have pockets and are stylish. I find them very comfortable

Re: Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

#50

Post by ceejayoz »

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.

Same for South Korea, and folks like Gates and Fauci have been warning about the next pandemic for many years.
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