I’m a product of very VERY thrifty parents — it’s a skill, no doubt, but also kind of a curse. You start subscribing to the philosophy of “quantity not quality” and buy things you really don’t need just because it’s on sale or really cheap (*cough cough* Forever 21 and H&M aka my whole closet). Fast fashion shops like those allow you to buy into all the trends for as fleeting as the trends are: good for a couple months, and then it rips or disintegrates.
It’s a result of the globalization of our markets and the access to inexpensive labor overseas. ETZs, cheap oil, and growing culture of consumerism all pushed this ideology of buying everything we want cheaply. With the increase in demand comes shortcuts made by companies to make those CrAzY deals. John Oliver entertains with a good synopsis of this:
And it’s not just in fashion where we see “quantity over quality”, it’s also in how we consume food, give gifts, outfit our homes. All this stuff is great…until you have to move. Then you have to sort through everything and figure out what you really need, or pay to move the excesses.
Amelia Enberg 