The lies that sell fast fashion

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So I'm not blowing anyone's mind here by saying that fast fashion is bad,

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right?

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I'm pretty sure we've read all those articles and watched all those videos

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before.

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But then at the end of last year,

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I saw the viral TikToks where six influencers were invited to go to Shein.

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Instead of doing,

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I think, what Shein intended,

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it really undermined the credibility of the brand and made

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it look like they had something to hide.

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But if so many of us understood that this was a publicity stunt,

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how do we explain Shein turning a $30 billion annual

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profit?

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Or how Timu was able to afford a Super

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Bowl ad?

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The rise and wild success of these companies can only mean one thing.

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We're still buying from them.

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Why?

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It actually is deeper than you think.

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But we can do better.

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There

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are two prices for the items we buy online.

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The price you pay,

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and then the actual cost.

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The actual cost consists of things like material,

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labor,

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and this.

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Fashion is an industry that generates a stunning amount of waste.

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Recent estimates say that 92 million tons of clothing

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end up in landfills each year.

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The trouble with the actual cost is that it's usually deliberately hidden from

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us.

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A 2023 report from the Fashion Transparency Index found that 45 %

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of major fashion brands haven't disclosed their supplier list.

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And only 1 % of major fashion brands disclose the number

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of workers being paid a living wage.

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Everything we wear was put together by human hands.

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There are no clothes sewing robots.

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You cannot put a bunch of fabric into a machine,

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press a button and a shirt comes out the other end.

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was made by people.

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It was made by humans sitting at a sewing machine and putting it together.

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Labor is supposed to be the most expensive part of making

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something that when you get it and it's $5,

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the question should be,

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well,

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who got shortchanged?

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That lack of transparency is part of a system that's rapidly developed and become

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normalized over the years.

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Fast fashion brands like H &M and Zara initially existed to bring you

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trends from runway to rack at affordable prices fast.

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But with the rise of e -commerce,

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we have turbocharged what we mean by fast and cheap.

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H &M and Zara are still problems.

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They're not good guys here.

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But companies like Shein and now Temu,

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I believe,

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outpace them by orders of magnitude.

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To give you a scale,

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a company like Gap typically produces around 12 ,000 styles annually.

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The OG fast fashion brands like H &M and Zara more than doubled

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that output.

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And where is Shein on this scale?

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Recent estimates put that number closer to 1 .5 million new styles

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each year.

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Styles,

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not items.

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So what can we do about it?

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Fast fashion actively takes advantage of

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us in a few ways.

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Let's talk about the misinformation machine,

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starting with this gear.

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Companies have conditioned and confused us about how much we should have

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in our closets and how long it should stay there.

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The amount of money we spend on clothing has actually dropped

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quite a bit in the last decade.

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And the quality has also dropped.

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So not only are workers being exploited,

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but the items we're buying are not lasting as long.

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This sucks for everybody.

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Now, it's hard to justify spending significantly more when you're used to paying

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less.

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But the truth is,

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those pricier items will last longer.

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One way to go about breaking this gear is to set strict limits on purchases.

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Tell yourself,

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OK, I'm only going to buy two new items over the next three months.

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What do I want them to be?

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Does this sound impossible?

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Let's look at why by analyzing these two other relentless

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gears.

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This one is the consumption problem.

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And that's why Timmy's tagline is shop like a billionaire.

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We're buying more than ever.

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In 2018,

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the average American was buying 68 new items of clothing each year.

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And at that time,

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Shein was only valued at $2 billion.

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Today,

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TikTok is a huge culprit for trying to convince us that we just need more

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all the time.

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I spent $900 on Shein.

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I went on Shein to buy a few things and ended up buying 40 things.

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That is a new phenomenon.

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The notion of the hauler,

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who's a regular everyday person who's been watching influencers and seeing what they buy,

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getting dozens of outfits very cheaply,

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often,

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you know, for just a few dollars with the intent of not wearing them very

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long, with the intent of throwing them out.

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Shein and other companies are paying influencers to normalize buying in

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excess.

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And what we have to remember is that doesn't benefit the individual.

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It only benefits the brand.

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Why would anyone want to make it

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a goal to consume like a billionaire?

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Knowing how it's not possible for someone to be an ethical billionaire,

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why would someone still aspire?

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to want to imitate that behavior.

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The first step in shutting down this gear is blocking the haulers.

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Curate your timeline and algorithm away from these things that only make

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you want to buy.

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The second step is recognizing that companies like Shein don't care what

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you want to wear.

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They make billions because you don't know what to wear.

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You feel that there is something lacking in your wardrobe if you don't have the latest trend.

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The answer to that is to figure out what your style is and then

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shop around your style.

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Then that way you will always have something that you want to wear in your closet.

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Impulse buys are a huge source of regret.

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One study done in the UK found that 60 % of consumers regretted

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a clothing purchase in the past year.

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We need to slow down.

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Changing those two habits isn't easy,

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but you can give yourself some grace and time.

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And when things get really difficult,

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you can think about this final gear,

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which is incredibly strong.

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That total lack of transparency being used to

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manipulate you.

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We don't want to believe the choices we make are unethical.

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But once you pull back that curtain,

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you can stick by the conviction that the true cost is not justifiable

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in any sense.

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I don't fault people for not knowing.

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I do fault people for knowing and then not caring.

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Of course,

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it's not entirely on the consumer.

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Legislatures in the U .S.

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and Europe are trying to crack down on some of these larger environmental issues and

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labor practices.

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In the meantime,

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you can take comfort in knowing that our dollars do have power and

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we ultimately decide where they go.

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You should think about clothing the way people have done for millennia,

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which is something to hold on to,

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something to treasure,

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something to take care of,

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something to make deliberate decisions about.

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That means the next time someone tells you to shop like a billionaire,

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ask yourself,

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do you really want to?

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This shouldn't be a hopeless conversation.

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I want people to have clothing that they enjoy.

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I want people to have a closet full of things they love.

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Wanting people to make better choices isn't about depriving them of

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beauty or things they enjoy.

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It's about wanting people to be more deliberate so that they can be

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surrounded by garments that they feel are the truest expression of who they are.

The lies that sell fast fashion

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