SHEIN clothes now officially have a lifespan of seven and a half hours. Okay, maybe that’s uncharitable… but they do have this wild feature where they disintegrate on your body after a few wears while sneakily taking 200 years to decompose as waste on the earth.
This might sound like an exaggeration, but it highlights a real issue: clothing quality has seriously declined.
I’ve been digging into this topic more over the last few months, and I thought this video did a great job of breaking it down:
There’s obviously a lot to this story, and if you don’t watch the whole thing, let’s sum it up in one word: greed. Shocking.
We’ve confirmed that gradual cost-cutting, outsourcing, and prioritizing profit over quality has led to the poorly made garments of today. High-end brands are also compromising on quality, making it challenging for consumers to find durable, well-made clothes.
Still, we are buying more than ever.
The average American now buys 68 pieces of clothing per year, compared to just 12 in the 1980s. Surprisingly, even though we spent a higher percentage of our income on clothes back then, clothes are actually more “affordable” today—but they’re of much lower quality. Everything is cheaper and yet we feel ripped off.
That’s because clothing doesn’t last nearly as long as it did before, so we’re buying it way more often. It’s a perpetual sale we can't escape, turning us all into borderline shopping addicts.
Okay, so this is getting kind of depressing... Can we lighten the mood a little? With some snappy, lighthearted and easy solutions? How do we shop our way out of this mess? Are there "hacks" to avoid getting ripped off? Who’s making quality clothes now that don’t require a second mortgage?
Sure, yeah. I’m on it...
I wanted to tackle this but first I got sidelined spending hours reading about the horrific conditions garment workers endure, working long hours for meager pay in unsafe environments. Next, I signed a couple of petitions while Zara ads flashed on my screen. Then, I scrutinized zippers, buttonholes, and fabrics, and even tried to learn how to sew.
Finally, I cracked my knuckles, sat down to write to you, and had a mini mental breakdown trying to compose a fun little single sentence about how to inspect seams, feeling more worn out than a $400 t-shirt after just one wash.
Because honestly, this conversation is disheartening. There is no “quick, easy fix!” You can’t just throw money at it or easily find companies that are consistently great and reliable. Often, it's a matter of evaluating each item within each brand individually.
The middle class is shrinking, and mid-priced clothes are becoming a rarity. Labor is exploited. The earth is being destroyed. We’re left choosing between crappily made fast fashion and crappily made high-end luxury.
The clothing advertising landscape thrives on affiliate marketing and commissions. It’s getting harder to find information about clothes from people who aren’t somehow being paid. Big brands that prioritize growth have substantial budgets and offer attractive incentives through platforms like ShopMy and other affiliate portals.
Larger budgets and better margins mean higher affiliate link commissions, even on expensive items. Some of the highest commissions I discovered this week are: Khaite at 16% Dehanche at 16%, Moda Operandi at 15%, FRWD at 11%, Shopbop at 10%, and Net-a-Porter at 8%. This ecosystem crowds out smaller quality brands, making it harder for them to be seen.
It’s not just clothing either - products everywhere are experiencing this insane level of competition and degradation. But clothes are particularly difficult to accept. In your lifetime you will need new clothes. Our bodies change, things wear out. Unless you’re finally ready to run away to the nudist colony with that Burning Man boyfriend — some solutions are in order.
There’s a couple things we can do as consumers. On the one hand, you can spend your soul trying to outwit everything, forever, until you die. You can learn all about clothing quality and buttonholes and seams and sewing. This can be fun but it’s a lot of research to find quality brands, inspect the clothes, and store this information in your mind. The hidden cost of all this labor is that you could likely be doing something better with your life.
The most effective solution to this problem? It’s a real buzzkill and the conversation nobody wants to have: we could stop buying so much. Have enough!
But if we all had enough… what would be left of the American dream? What are we all working so hard for? What would happen to that beautiful, democratic notion that anyone can just make money from their living room by promoting endless products?
We steer clear of enoughness. Maybe because it’s boring as hell? Nobody wants to watch the Hollywood blockbuster about “The Man Who Found Inner Peace and Stopped Shopping.” It's not easily commodified. The message doesn’t need a team of copywriters to craft it. It’s simple: Stop buying. You have enough.
Don’t misunderstand me—this problem isn’t solely on consumers. There needs to be a massive, systemic change at the corporate level for anything to improve. But we often decry corporations for their insatiable greed and perpetual expansion, yet we normalize such behavior in ourselves.
The prevailing sentiment seems to be, "It’s okay for me to keep going until I get mine." I’m not saying I am above it—I’ve struggled with it for years. And I’ve found that the more I focus on my own “growth” and money and material things, the more “enough” becomes a moving target that never really exists, just like it does for corporations.
What’s maddening is that the research shows us over and over what this does to us:
When people strongly endorse money, image, and status as prime concerns, they are less likely to engage in ecologically beneficial activities and the emptier and more insecure they will experience themselves to be. They will have also lower-quality interpersonal relationships. In turn, the more insecure people feel, the more they focus on material things. - Dr. Gabor Maté
It’s hard to metabolize. Should we all quit our jobs and learn how to sew since it no longer makes economic sense to buy a $900 dress even though miles of research tells us it won’t make us happy?
I’d rather practice having enough.
For me, it doesn’t mean repeating HomeGoods mantras all day to feel full of light and love. It means I don't need to indulge the idea that I deserve every little treat I want all the time, despite what society encourages 24/7. This isn’t a test of moral goodness or a punishment: sometimes I need something and get it, and sometimes I’ve gone overboard and bought too much.
I'm human, and this is an experiment in awareness—maybe even an act of kindness. I'm trying to recognize the aggression in constantly signaling to my brain that I always need more.
If I’m honest about my own journey with having enough—at first, it felt empty. It’s often understimulating, and loneliness bubbles up. When there’s space and the constant striving isn't there, I start to confront some really uncomfortable truths about modern American life…
In the wake of the highest ever Prime Day sales, I sense a giant wound that we fill with individual aspiration and stuff. I see that I live in a country where there isn’t a lot of agency for everyone and where the sense of belonging is weak. Right now, we don’t have the sanest society or the healthiest world. People confuse their wants with needs and continually feel threatened and competitive, pitting us against each other.
That’s why it feels weird and irresponsible to throw you a bunch of shopping links and then send you on your way while I struggle with this myself. Plus, you’ve probably had enough of that this week.
Maybe you’ve been trying to embrace the idea of having enough too? Maybe now you will... I know, I’m really making it sound like a TOTAL blast, right? To be honest though, after a while, it actually does feel pretty great! There is peace. I feel like I’m opening up my mind to being capable of seeing that it’s freeing and quite humanizing not to have access to whatever you want, whenever you want it.
I realize for years I haven't always lived in my own mind—I’ve been living in the imaginations of advertisers or corporations who dictate how things should be and how I should feel. Using my own imagination is a good way to feel hopeful. Limitations can encourage the creativity that springs from sitting with myself and seeing all the possibility beyond a well-trained knee jerk reaction of "me want."
Here’s some resources from people who are focused on more responsible ways to approach fashion and consumption:
- put together an excellent list of resources about clothing quality resources here
- is top notch and a constant reminder to me that we need to keep independent journalism alive.
- talks about the great book Worn and mending some of her clothes to make them last.
- is always thoughtful and provides great vintage options.(Clothing quality really started to fall off back in 2005.)
- and talk together about wanting to buy less.
There’s so many amazing resources that I’m not even remembering! Feel free to comment and add more.
And I want to hear from you…
When does it feel like enough?
What do you have in your closet that is quality? (How long have you had it - when and where did you buy it?)
What’s your personal experience finding clothes lately? Is your challenge pricing - or is it quality?
Let me know your challenges because I’ll have more for you on this.
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I’m at the end of month 7 of my no retail year experiment and I can tell you the first 2 months (post holiday sales!) are the most challenging. And then it becomes…freeing. And maybe even a little defiant. And now I actually feel more creative with my closet and somehow lighter. My mantra for this year: I have enough I am enough. And as crazy as it sounds…I actually feel better than I have in years. And while I’ve been reexamining my relationship with retail, so too have I with food, alcohol and friendships. I’m down 5 pounds, maintaining relationship boundaries and celebrating my evolutions! I’m planning a closet purge in December and I’m really considering what I feel like I want to add to my wardrobe persona for next year. 10/10 recommend this experiment!!
The best thing I’ve done is to force myself to in-person shopping only. I did this for three months last year and it really helped curb impulsive/lonely/stress spending! I think it also limits returns, too, because I already know if something fits.