Tag: fast

04
September
0

Why ditching fast fashion never goes out of style, and can save money in the long run

By avi maxwel / in , , , , , , , /

Danielle Cosentino used to give bags of unwanted clothes to her cousin every year.

While her cousin loved the free stuff, Cosentino grew tired of buying so much and wearing so little. She had become caught up in acquiring trends through fast fashion retailers only to realize she was locked in a loop of buying cheap clothes, having them degrade quickly, then having to buy more.

“I’ve always been told if you haven’t worn it in two years, then it should go,” says Cosentino, a massage therapist and nutritionist. “And I felt like that would be half my closet.”

A variety of studies and sources go even further than that, estimating that most of us don’t wear 70 to 80 per cent of our clothes.

Averaging out census data over several years, Canadian households spend roughly $300 a month on clothing, according to Statistics Canada. If most of that will be barely worn, our closets are essentially graveyards of disposable income.

Cosentino wanted to change. She hired Jaclyn Patterson, a personal wardrobe stylist and founder of  Shopwise, an online sustainable fashion retailer that focuses on “slow fashion.”

Cosentino began evolving her shopping habits and treating her wardrobe like a long-term

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10
July
0

What is fast fashion, and why is it so controversial?

By avi maxwel / in , , /



CNN
 — 

To keep up with the ever-changing trends propagated by runway shows, influencers and frenetic social media fads, fashion connoisseurs and avid clothing shoppers can be quick to turn to the most convenient — and budget-conscious — options out there.

Often, that’s “fast fashion” offerings, from e-tailers with their endless feeds of wallet-friendly and of-the-moment garments or big box stores offering that knee-length trench coat or oversized flannel at sale prices.

But while cheap chic may seem like the way to go, the fast fashion industry sees clothing pushed out on a scale that is even too large for most consumers to keep up with. Plus, the materials used can last for as few as just seven to 10 wears, according to the non-profit environmental data platform Earth.org.

Fast fashion is a business model that focuses on the production of garments in bulk, and as quickly as possible, in response to current trends, according to Dr. Preeti Arya, an assistant professor of textile development and marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. The term was first popularized in a New York Times article in 1989 to describe retail store Zara’s first opening in the

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