FAST ISNT FIERCE
Race cars in motion, flying rockets, falcons, light. All things that move fast, so clothing doesn't have to…
Why is it that people constantly buy clothing just to leave it in the back of their drawer to live with the cobwebs and last year's halloween costume? The average human throws away 81.5 pounds of clothing according to Earth.org. That is the weight of a child… in fabric. A common misconception is that since it's not being worn anymore means it's garbage. Trends are the biggest contributor to this. Cheetah print is in, which means sites like Shien are mass producing it. They cater to trends, to what the people want, what will get someone famous on Tiktok for wearing. Yet, the second something like deer print becomes popular, cheetah gets thrown in the burning pile. It begins its rot in the landfill or the back of the closet. Which of course won't matter much to the buyer, who purchased it for cheap, yet means everything to the planet. How silly it sounds to imagine yourself as the cheetah which has its pattern printed to your pants, but you must. You can only run for so long in the wasteland that we have created. I imagine it will be quite hard in a couple years when our waste has caught up to them. The unfamiliar sight of clothing flying past you as you run to catch prey. How odd. Maybe then you wished that you didn't throw it away, but instead opted for Goodwill.
Trend shopping is still trendy. When hearing from a few fashion presenters during the summer, I frequently heard that word. Buy what you want, not what the internet wants you to want. Before you decide on the shirt…think! Will this still be worn in 4 months, and if this applies to you, will it still be trendy in 4 months. Isabel Marants are evergreen, can you say the same about Sambas? Buy based on what you want to wear, what your style is, not what the latest trend is. Trend means mass production from damaging companies which really means poison for the planet.
Preloved still has the opportunity to be loved. You're not off the market after one break up, why should your clothes be in the trash after one year! While the process may seem tedious to sell online, it's all but difficult. Snap a picture, sell it, ship it. The money comes back and the environment is thanking you simultaneously. Depop is a much better alternative than that of the landfill. Someone out there wants what you have, and I can assure you that somebody is not your trashcan. Furthermore, this works as an alternative to buying off of sites that are known to partake in the “art of fast fashion”. Buying Brandy Melville second hand is still buying Brandy Melville, just this time, without the direct support of the brand. It's also an easy alternative to online shopping addictions. They have every single brand imaginable, vintage, reworked, upcycled even. All for the benefit of mother earth.
We buy trendy clothes only to let them gather dust in closets or contribute to environmental waste. Fast fashion cycles, driven by trends almost always lead to excessive buying, quickly making items “unfashionable” and disposable. Instead of following fleeting trends, we need to buy clothes that reflect our personal style and will last longer. Selling or buying secondhand, through platforms like Depop, helps prevent waste, reduces reliance on fast fashion, and ultimately benefits the environment by giving clothes a second chance.
