Overshopping (Written in 2015)
A dress can't cost $16.99 and make a profit unless someone's getting screwed: probably the Bangladeshi child who sewed on the sequins till her fingers bled.
![](//cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0681/9847/files/Forever21s_edited-2_b583178b-651a-4da3-994a-e08de1507fa3_grande.jpg?17409367253591668745)
But who can remember the workers while being flirted with by a rack of fashion crack at Forever21? Hey, you can always offload them on Depop.
No. You can't. The cheap stuff doesn't sell. It's Goodwill fodder (85% of that doesn't sell), or landfill. At our current shopping rate the textiles we discard could reach the sun in 15 months.
![](//cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0681/9847/files/ClothesToTheSun_edited-1_1024x1024.jpg?14142289081250189715)
Mass brands sell greenwash. Eg the H&M buyback program merely enables the buying of more stuff. From H&M*. Here are some old figures, which have got only worse >
Note how the H&M Persson family owns more than the kingdom of Jordan generates in a year. Zara owner Amancio Ortega's $70 Billion is more than Sri Lanka earned in 2015. Why do we keep giving these men all our money for their badly sewn blouses? Does it make us happy?
![](//cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0681/9847/files/Mall_SheepshoppingTucson_1024x1024.jpg?1707414038975729762)
We have flooded resale with bad brands: We have created the end of vintage: Nothing new will last for 25 years.
* It must be said H&M is the best of the mega brands in approaching sustainability. But the concepts "mega brand" and "sustainability" simply cannot coexist.
For more on fashion industry, ethics and stuff
Here is a good concise article