By Ethan Hofer
It is Black Friday in the early 2000s. Fluorescent lights light up the tightly-packed mall where the hustle and bustle of shoppers try to get you from your destination. Cologne and perfume salesmen try to spray you with their newest scent as the smell of vanilla and exotic fruit fills your nostrils, but this won’t stop you from where your heart yearns you to be. Juicy Couture is right across the mall, and they are having a BOGO sale. You have been practically dying for a Juicy Couture tracksuit, especially since you are sick of your raggedy, old clothes that your mom got you three years ago, but suddenly, those times are gone.
Fast forward to 2024, and the internet has completely taken over. The only sounds you hear while shopping are from your computer’s fan overheating from all of the open Depop, Grailed, and Etsy tabs you have open and the intensive clicking away as you rush to buy your favorite secondhand clothing.
Via Depop Newsroom
Reselling apps (like Depop) have completely changed the way we view fashion. As a result, we have seen an uptick in diverse, creative, and utterly loud clothes in recent years, whether it is Balenciaga’s T-shirt shirt, Rick Owens Matrix Over Wear, or Junya Watanabe’s sleeveless belt coat. Of course, all of these are extreme examples of what fashion looks like today, but fashion has become more attainable than ever before with it now being at our fingertips, and with a press of a button, your Y2K Juicy Couture tracksuit is yours for five times the price you paid for it 20 years ago. The internet has become so influential in the world of fashion that niche microtrends have completely taken over. Terms with the word “core” added after it has popped up numerous times in recent years, such as “bloke core,” “cottage core,” and most confusingly, “gorp-core” because what the f*ck is gorpcore?
Thrifting and a desire for older clothing have also become increasingly popular in recent years. Wide and flared pants have come back in a major way with flared leggings, which seemingly combine the style of bell bottoms and leggings all in one. Baggy denim, once popular in the 90s, has also come back, but it has become extremely hard to group 2020’s fashion into one category because of overconsumption.
Via Medium
While it is nice that consumers are able to express themselves however they please, it is vital that consumers consider their carbon footprint when shopping. A study found that consumers are throwing clothes away at a 36% higher rate than they were 15 years ago. On average, clothes are only worn seven to ten times before being thrown away, according to the U.N Environmental Programme. The demand for niche clothing has gotten so out of control that it has ultimately increased the amount of unethical business practices around the world, with the most popular and one of the most controversial being SHEIN.
SHEIN, among many other fast-fashion brands, have found themselves in trouble with international environmental laws where they managed to rack up a shocking 6.3 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, as they racked up $23 billion in sales in 2022.
The main issue with this mass consumption is that many of these clothes that consumers buy end up in landfills worldwide, mainly because of the low-quality material these clothes are made with, which makes them flimsy and short-lived.
Whatever your style may be, make sure that the clothes you buy are sustainable. 2020s fashion may bring a cool retro vibe along with it, but it should not be summed up by overconsumption and fast fashion, but yet here we are.
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