How Quantity is Beating Quality in Today's Fashion
Once upon a time consumers rushed to Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Neiman Marcus when shopping for back to school clothes or a new dress to wear for a wedding. People preferred to spend money on bigger brands to guarantee quality. With the change in economy over the past few years today's shoppers aren't willing to spend as much to look good. Replicas of designer pieces were starting to be sold at extremely cheap prices and “Fast Fashion” was birthed.
You can see Kim Kardashian in a neon mini dress with cutouts on Friday, and Sunday morning it's in the new arrivals section on Fashion Nova. Fast fashion has changed the industry as well as added to “the bow wow challenge” culture of this generation. It seems as if the increase in cost of living has caused many of us to pretend like we have it when we don't. The line between the middle class and the lower class is blurred and we are keeping up with the Kardashians instead of the Jones.
Knock off dad shoes, fake bodies and a made up life on the internet seems to be the standard for everyone these days. When the reality is we’re living paycheck to paycheck, running up our credit cards for vacation just for a post and staying in toxic situations longer than we should.
There have been tons of recent attacks on fast fashion and this “fake” lifestyle. People are screaming from the rooftops about the importance of living a sustainable life, body positivity and authenticity. They are giving us all the reasons why we shouldn't do this or that but no one is telling us how to change. We should budget, but we don't have enough money to budget with. We should love ourselves, but how do we do that while society praises perfect bodies and impossible beauty standards. We should buy quality over quantity, but we barely make enough money to buy groceries. We should all be vegans, but again, being a vegan isn't cheap.
There are so many opinions and questions but not enough answers when it comes to these subjects. I think it’s time to be realistic with ourselves. I don’t have the answers, and I'm not sure how to get everyone out of this box of living/pretending above their means but it seems to start with the way we present ourselves to the world.
How do we decide what it is we want to present to the world? How do we stray from simply copying the most popular thing on the internet? Do we need all need to go on a roundabout? Distance ourselves to find ourselves? I’m not sure. I think that each of us need to do a quality check on the quality of our lives. What works for one person might not work for another. I think instead of forcing our way of life onto others, we should allow each other to grow and be without judgment.
