Fast Fashion

It’s hard not to love runway-inspired clothing at discount prices, but, while the goods may be cheap, they come at a big cost to the environment and the people who manufacture the clothing. Today we’re going to talk about what exactly fast fashion is, how it’s made, why it’s problematic, and what our alternatives are.

Check out Joanne’s latest podcast of “In This Story…with Joanne Greene”. In each episode, Joanne shares a flash nonfiction essay, showcasing tales and observations from her animated life. Find it from wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

Joanne’s book, “By Accident: A Memoir of Letting Go” is now available from your favorite online book seller. Stay tuned to hear if Joanne will be speaking at a bookstore near you. If you’re interested in having her come to your local bookstore, contact her directly at [e-mail] or get updates on her website at joanne-greene.com and make sure to sign up for her newsletter!

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LINKS
Clip from The Devil Wears Prada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL-KQij0I8I
Poshmark: https://poshmark.com/
ThreadUp: https://www.thredup.com/
Ebay Fashion: https://www.ebay.com/b/Fashion/bn_7000259856
https://goodonyou.eco/what-is-fast-fashion/ https://www.earthday.org/campaign/sustainable-fashion/?gclid=CjwKCAjwo7iiBhAEEiwAsIxQEXkMwTK2RaEbEohrmWbTeOIL3l5yYlKqy1jCyQ9tl-ozehB-mOmnEhoCchcQAvD_BwE
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/03/ultra-fast-fashion-is-eating-the-world/617794/ https://www.onenewhumanitycdc.org/blog/fast-fashion-and-ethical-alternatives?gclid=CjwKCAjwo7iiBhAEEiwAsIxQEURoW1n5Gz5dRegb2VmJVl79ykRNTMsl0NwWoPtxMBR4ZxNgHMbK2RoCRcsQAvD_BwE
https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/thrift-shopping-tips/ https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/guides/how-to-get-rid-of-old-clothes/

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Welcome to All the F Words,a podcast where two writer friends nearly thirty
years apart, explore everything we givean F about. I'm Gabby Moscowett and
I'm Joey Green. On each episodeof All the F Words will focus on
a theme starting with the letter F, things like frontal lobes, flooring,
and flogging. We'll share stories fromour lives and our distinct generational perspectives,

(00:27):
and look to experts for insights andideas. Today we're talking about fast fashion,
you know, the on trend,chief off the rack clothing marketing to
pretty much every demographic. It isa monstrously lucrative industry. Well spoiler alert,
the clothes may be cheap, butthe impact of them on the environment
as well as the people who makethem is staggering. And today we're going

(00:49):
to talk about why that is andwhat we can do. Well, I'm
guessing that the why that is isbecause it makes a lot of money for
somebody, ding ding ding ding ding, Yes, definitely. And you know
this is this is a in myum relationship to consumerism. This is something

(01:11):
that is such a bummer for mebecause I don't think of myself as particularly
fashionable, but I do. Youknow, I like shopping sometimes, and
I don't especially like spending a lotof money on clothes, and I like,
um, you know the feeling ofhaving a brand new pair of forty

(01:34):
dollars gens or you know, somethingsomething quick and off the rack that gives
me a little boost. I lovethat. And it's it's really it comes
with at a big cost. Evenif the initial cost to the consumer is
not big, the financial cost isnot big, it comes at a big
cost. And it's such a bumis it to be good citizens, good

(01:57):
global citizens? These days? Wehave to feel guilty of about everything that's
delicious. So guilty, It's true, It's true. And if you're somebody
who you know, I think sometimesabout how not that I want to do
this, but how nice it mustbe to be somebody who doesn't worry about
that kind of stuff, like imagineimagine being imagine not worrying about global warming.

(02:23):
I believe the phrase is ignorance isbliss Yeah, that's found blissful.
Let's talk about what fast fashion is. I wasn't familiar with the term,
though I was all too familiar withthe concept, and I believe the ramifications.
But I've never heard the term fastfashion. All right, well let

(02:43):
me walk you through it. Sobass fashion is defined as cheap, trendy
clothing that samples ideas from the catwalkor celebrity culture and turns them into garments
in high street stores, which islike a British phrase for you know,
trendy popular stores really fast to meetconsumer demand. Because what happens is,

(03:06):
you know, the fashion world,which I don't really pay attention to,
but styles come out. Have youseen devil Wares product I have? Do
I remember? It? Is abetter question. Well, there's a classic
exchange that you probably will remember becauseit's brilliant and Meryl Streep is so brilliant.
And there's a classic exchange when Andy, who's played by Anne Hathaway,

(03:31):
kind of questions Meryl Streep in somethingand Meryl Streep just absolutely tears her down
and says, you know, you'rewearing that sweater and I think it's called
Cerulean blue. And then she explainsto her how the cheap, you know,
mass produced sweater that Andy is wearing, she's wearing that because the maker

(03:55):
of the cheap sweater was influenced byum, some actual high fashion brand that
was popular a few years ago,and she talks about the trickle down effect
of UM high fashion to fast fashion. It's a pretty great explanation, and
um, it's a pretty brilliant momentin that movie. I might go,

(04:16):
it's great. I will will linkit in our show notes. It's it's
a it's a really good moment.UM. So that is what happens.
High fashion stuff UM comes into focus, and you know, a lot of
what we see on the runway isnot it's not stuff that normal people are
going to wear anyway. So companieslike Zara, The Gap, Walmart,

(04:42):
Target, Forever, Forever twenty one. I mean, so there are there
are some brands that it's it's unclearwhether they're fast fashion, things like Banana
Republic and Jay Crewe. I thinka lot of them have changed in quality.
But basically we're talking about mass producedstuff where the styles are changing constantly

(05:04):
and it's not particularly well made.So they take those styles from the runway
and translate them into something much morewearable for the average modern consumer. And
so you know, that idea makessense. But the idea is to get
the newest styles on the market asfast as possible so people can snap them

(05:25):
up when they're at the height oftheir popularity. But what that means is
they're probably egg gonna be discarded soonthereafter because they're not going to be on
trend anymore, and therefore companies don'tinvest in making them expensively because making clothing

(05:45):
well costs money, and because it'snot they don't deem it necessary anyway.
Because it's not going to be ontrend for very long. There are a
lot of cheaply made, briefly temporary, farely fashionable clothes, so then the
cycle continues and people continue buying.And there are a few key problems with

(06:10):
this. One is that because theclothing is not well made and does not
last, it often ends up aswaste. So what do most of us
do when when we're done wearing something, Those of us who think of ourselves
as good people who don't want tobe wasteful and want to help others,
we donate, right we. Imean, everyone I know is driving around

(06:32):
with a garbage bag full of clothesto donate. It's really disgusting when you
think about it, that we alwayshave bag in our closet to throw things
into when, for instance, they'restained and the stain won't come out,
or they don't quite fit as wellas they did before, or we're just

(06:53):
sick of it. It's true,and I think we assuage some of that
guilt by thinking, well, we'regoing to give these to somebody who needs
them, without thinking about the factthat we're giving someone who's already If someone's
in a place where they're needing donatedclothing, they're already in a place where

(07:14):
they're not feeling great, and we'reoffering them something that isn't well taken care
of. So that's its own thing. But here's the bigger problem. I
wanted to cry when I read this. I did not know this until I
started researching. Only sixteen percent ofdonated clothing is actually used for what you
think it's going to be used for, and eighty four percent ends up in
landfills and incinerators. Absolutely did nothave any idea. That is appalling.

(07:42):
Yeah, it's really I My jawdropped to the floor. And so we
feel like we're contributing and helping others, but often that is just not a
case. And yet what is thealternative? So we'll get to that in
the end when we talk a littlebit at the end, I want to
talk about ways we can combat Themain thing that I seem to understand is

(08:09):
you can only do what you cando with what you've already got. But
when it comes to making choices movingforward, choosing carefully, and taking care
of your clothing so that it doeslast, those seem to be major major
players in preventing this kind of thing. So what do you think so far?

(08:37):
Yeah, okay, I'm with you. I mean, I also when
you talk about what's on trend,I don't really care that much. The
other thing that I just want tosay that I've been doing recently is going
through my friends bags of things thatthey're going to get rid of. I
have two new pairs of jeans that'sgreat. Are actually much better made than

(09:00):
any jeans that I purchased because I'mmore in the forty dollars range rather than
the two hundred dollars range. Buttoday I am wearing used two hundred dollars
jeans that my friend was giving away, and oh my gosh, So there
you go. That's another option.Just wanted to throw that in. I
mean, I love a clothing swapthat is always so much fun. And

(09:22):
then you know another too sort ofpiggyback on that. Another great alternative to
that, sort of another way tosort of follow that line of thinking is
Poshmark and eBay. So whenever Iget like last summer, I sort of
got addicted to the idea of jumpsuit. There was a jumpsuit I was

(09:45):
totally influenced by an Instagram ad orsomething, an ever Lane jumpsuit, and
I loved it. I thought itwas so great. And my husband loves
to seek He's much more fashion eythan I am, much more into fashion
and and he loves to stalk particularitems on eBay and Poshmark. Have you

(10:05):
used Poshmark before? I have not. Poshmark is like all the fashion stuff
on eBay, So it's it's umkind of it's it's reselling of clothing often
you know, lightly used, butthere's a there's there. It has to
pass certain standards. So it's agood way to look for discounted things.

(10:26):
And I found last season version ofthe jumpsuit that I was really into,
and it was not only was ita lot cheaper, but I feel when
it comes to fast or fast ishfashion, if I find something that I
think I'm going to keep wearing thatseems timeless enough. I often feel better
about buying it used because I knowthat makes total sense, contributing to giving

(10:52):
it a second life. Yeah,what is it? Recy reuse recycle?
Read? There's another read reduce reducedreuse recycle exactly, that's the one.
See I two out of threes notbath Hey, can I just say for
just one second though about jumpsuits becauseI got one. I haven't worn it
yet. It's really cute. Boughtit at Marshalls. So yeah, I
don't know why I feel the needto share, or maybe it was tea

(11:15):
anyway, Um, it's kind ofcumbersome when you have to go to the
bathroom, okay, Joanne. Iwore the cutest, prettiest jumpsuit to yamkpor
services, and I did not thinkabout the fact that I was going to
have to get completely naked at Templeevery time I had to go to the

(11:37):
bathroom on the holiest day of theyear. I would not have thought of
that either. But I would havealso thought that when fasting, you probably
be less No, well, uh, you be surprised. Okay, we're
into the TMI zone here, sorryeveryone, Yeah, so I feel you.

(11:58):
It is it is truly. It'sso funny because you put on a
put on a jumpsuit and you feelactually, I personally always feel huter than
usual because they are so cute.And then, um, you know,
you really have to have to baseyourself and as you sit completely naked in
the bathroom. So here's my thoughton that. And I'm sure that at

(12:20):
some point some designer will make thiscute like with kid like with infant and
toddler clothes. Why can't we havesnaps? Oh yeah, bottom there,
crotch snaps. Totally totally, it'sso true. Yep, well I bet
so. Also, you're freezing whenyou're in that bathroom and you have to

(12:41):
take off the whole top parts,right, it's very undignified. There you
go. Sorry for that little tributarythere. Well we are, we're talking
about fashions, so it's it's definitelyit makes sense. Um, So the
background fast fashion is pretty straightforward.Before the eighteen hundreds, fashion was slow.

(13:07):
You had to source your own materialsand clothing was made of things like
wool and leather. You had toyou know, people were there were there
were dressmakers, but it was expensiveand a lot of people were making their
own clothes. The Industrial Revolution obviouslyintroduced new technology like sewing machine, so
clothing became easier and quicker and cheaperto make. Many dressmaking shops started to

(13:30):
use teams of garment workers or homeworphersinstead of um, you know, an
individual person who had apprenticed for along time and was an expert. So
the ends, as capitalism tends todo, led to disaster. I'm sure
you're familiar with the first significant garmentfactory disaster when a fire broke out in

(13:52):
New York's Triangle Shirtwaist factory in nineteeneleven. That was the Shirtwaist Factory Fire,
I believe it was called, andit claimed the lives of one hundred
and forty six garment workers, mostof home shocker were young female immigrants.
Yeah, that is a disastrous tale, and in New York there are tours

(14:15):
where you could learn more about that. But it is an ugly little piece
of American history. Absolutely, andunfortunately that sort of disregard for the lives
of the people who make I mean, really the people who make so many
of the things we consume, ourfood, the products that we you know,

(14:37):
plastic goods, things that we buyand clothing, it's still pretty rampant.
So by the sixties and seventies,trend clothing trends were always a thing,
but young people were starting to createnew trends, and that was when
clothing officially really became a form ofpersonal expression. But there was still a

(15:00):
ditinction between high fashion and things thatwere being purchased by more middle income people.
Well, so that's when I wasgrowing up, and I can remember
very vividly a lot of the fashiontrends were coming out of London. Uh
huh. I remember, like thewhite go go boots and the striped dresses

(15:22):
that were shorter, right, minidresses and mini skirts. That was all
coming from London. I wonder ifthat has to do with the more widespread
use of television. You know,possibly people were seeing the Beatles on Johnny
Carson. They were It was likecelebrities were always trend setters, but it

(15:43):
was so much more widely consumed.I think so. I think so.
And also you know magazines, fashionmagazines problem which again had been around since
probably the twenties, but even thatmuch more popular in that in the sixties
and seventies. What do you rememberabout how you would get ideas for trends.

(16:06):
What would it? Was it comingfrom magazines? Were you looking at
what your friends were wearing? Yeah, all of the above. Um,
seventeen magazine was a big one untilyou were seventeen, and then you outgrew
it. Um, then you startedreading Klasmo Um. I started reading Miss
Baby all right, right of course, which was not about fashion, I
will add um. And anyway,what happened was then we became hippies,

(16:30):
and so fashion was Army surplus,like that's one of more big Air Force
jacket. We wore landlubbers, bellbottoms, unisex clothing, you know,
the T shirts were the same.Um, so that that was a fashion
as well. Yeah, right,it was. It was a fashion.

(16:51):
I remember before going off to college, my mom wanted to buy me my
college wardrobe and I took her to, um, the Army Navy surplus store
in Central Square came badge and shewas disgusted. Oh gosh, Yeah,
but that's where we went and Igot, you know, the same T
shirt in five colors. But therewas a there was a higher fashion version

(17:11):
of that, though wasn't always Imean there were always people who were not
hippies, right, who were intofashion, and um, I think you're
right, television probably played a reallybig role. Um, television, magazines,
all of that. Well, soon, once we get into the

(17:34):
nineties and two thousands, low costfashion reaches a peak, so online shopping
becomes a possibility and fast fashion retailerslike h and M Zarah, the Gap
Old Navy becomes very popular. OldNavy had existed before the nineties, but
it m it was an even cheaperversion of the Gap. So they were

(17:56):
kind of taking dials that were popularthe Gap and Banana Republic, which of
course they're all owned by the samecompany, and mass producing them less expensively.
So looks become reproduced quickly and cheaply, and now everyone is able to

(18:18):
shop for on trend clothing whenever theywant, from the comfort of their own
home if they have an Internet connection. So no, it makes sense when
we think about the way that wethat we consume everything, that this would
happen. So when yeah, goahead, I was just gonna say,
it's all in the interests of makingmore money. Yes, Well, so

(18:42):
we talked a little bit about thecost to the humans who who and of
course they're they're paid very little.Often child labor is used. And because
there are different labor laws in manycountries overseas, companies in the US who

(19:04):
uh, you know, would notuse child labor perhaps on US soil,
are able to use it overseas.So why are we talking about where are
our clothes made? Many many places, uh, all over um, all
over Asia, Uh, in Mexico, where I believe they have in some

(19:30):
places stricter um, stricter labor laws, UM and um, sometimes in Eastern
Europe. But but I'll all,when you see, it's it's not necessarily

(19:51):
a bad thing when clothing is producedoverseas. It's you know, it's not
not that. Um. You've gotto look for everything that's made in the
US, and certainly there are probalms with US man fact manufacturing as well.
But when something is very inexpensive andproduced in you know, overseas,
that it's sometimes a flag that there'ssomething untoward going on there. Got it?

(20:14):
So we will pick up and talkmore about this in just a minute
after a word from our sponsor.So we are back and we're talking about
the problems with fast fashion, andwe were just chatting about some of the
issues with the treatment of workers insome of these manufacturing plants. But one

(20:44):
thing that we haven't talked about yet. We began to touch on it when
we were talking about what happens todonation clothing that's donated. But there's a
big issue. In addition to thefact that so much of this clothing goes
out of trend and then gets discardedand then, as we established, doesn't
necessarily get continue its life as donatedclothing, there's another big issue, which

(21:12):
is that so because so much ofthis clothing is made from cheap, low
quality materials like polyester, which causesthe clothing to degrade after just a few
year freewares and then gets thrown away. There's also the issue of microfiber shedding.
Are you familiar with this milk?Okay, so many synthetic fibers shed,

(21:37):
and when you wash them in yourwashing machine, as you would do
with any clothing to clean it,the microfibers shed, and a pollute water
systems. You just can't win,can you. I know, I know,
unless you're making your own clothing fromfabric that you leave yourself. And

(21:57):
now I know, oh, Iknow, it's it's so it's polluting our
planet. The cheap textiles increase thefast fashions impact. Conventional cotton requires enormous
quantities of water and pesticides, andoften and has often produced in developing countries,

(22:22):
and the results of drought risks createsan extreme stress on the water basin.
So if if so much of theirincome is based on their exporting of
fiber. When there's a drought,the water, instead of being used sparingly
to provide for everyone, it justgoes into maintaining the cotton crops, which

(22:48):
is incredibly inequitable and unjust the otherthing dies, how toxic or dies.
I didn't come across anything about dies, probably any toxic if it following the
trend on this, UM, Ineed you to brace yourself for the next
part because it's going to really it'sgonna be upsetting specifically to you. So

(23:11):
okay, all right, all right, So UM content warning everybody, UM
animal over's content warning. So it'sno surprise that um that fur. You
know, real fur is a terribleproblem, but that's not really an issue
when it comes to fast fashion becausereal fur is not often used in fast

(23:34):
fashion because it's expensive. I waspretty horrified by this, but apparently there
are some uh, fast fashion brandsthat because um, producing fake fur,
I guess can be um expensive.There are places that pass off pat and

(24:00):
dog fur as faux fur two unknowingshoppers because it's cheaper than actually manufacturing faux
fur. You know, there areno words, is really what I want
to say to that, m arethey getting this off of dead animals?

(24:22):
Like? Where are they getting this? Something tells me that it's not.
Don't tell me they're killing animals fortheir fur. I you know, I
think it's a little bit. Iwould guess it's probably more Cruella Devil than
the alternative. Pretty pretty upsetting.Well, actually, you know, the

(24:42):
truth is, I'm a little biteven. I am an animal lover.
It is true dogs in particular cats, but I really love children and the
idea of children being forced to worklong hours making clothing or careless Americans bothers
me a lot more. Oh,absolutely, absolutely, Um, it's all

(25:06):
inhumane, but I care more aboutI care a lot about the treatment of
animals, but I care more aboutthe treatment of people. Um, there
are there are places that we shouldn'tshop, that you just flat out shouldn't
shop because they are the big offenders. Yes, let me tell you.
So we've got Zara and H andm oh that there weren't those sponsorships.

(25:30):
I know, I know, sorryguys, um. And we've also got
in Unique Low. I never knowhow to pronounce that. Got I know,
I know I have some great stufffrom there, and it always seems
pretty well made. But apparently it'sa it's a big issue. Um.
A couple of brands from England,Primark and top Shop, which I've seen

(25:55):
top Shop here but I haven't seenPrimark. Um. Okay, But then
we get into the really bad ones. So Shane have you are you familiar
with Shane sh Ei n So isa German. Maybe it's Shine, might
be Shine. I don't know exactlywhere it's from. But so they're extra
problematic and H and m is alsohas been accused of this. Not only

(26:17):
do they make very inexpensive stuff thatthey sell, um, you know,
they sell very cheaply, constantly updatingtheir styles, you know, therefore all
the common problems of fascination, butthey also they are known for stealing designs
from from artists people, you know, small artists post their work on Instagram

(26:40):
or on their websites, and Shineor Shane whatever it is. Um has
been accused many, many, manytimes of of lifting these designs, changing
them slightly and repurposing them. Ohthat doesn't surprise me one bit. So
then we've also got UM Forever twentyone in the US is one of the

(27:03):
worst players. And the gap anold Navy. You know, another thing
to look out for is I usedto love outlet shopping because the idea that
they try to present is that theseare the I mean, even Nordstrom rack
used to kind of be it usedto be old. This is the stuff

(27:25):
that didn't sell in the fancy departmentstore. And sometimes that is the case,
and you know, with like sometimesit's just things they couldn't get off
the shelf. But now, especiallywhen it comes to the gap old Navy,
Banana Republic Jay Crew, a lotof the major mid to low market

(27:47):
merchandisers have specially made, cheaper,mass produced clothing made for their outlets that,
yeah, that doesn't surprise me either. Yeah, And so when it
has and when the tag says outletin it often it's just not as well

(28:07):
made and it's just going to endup in the landfill sooner. So it's
something to look out for. ButI want to. I want to talk
about the the things that we cando, because this is a kind of
thing that makes you feel like,you know, we're just completely helpless here.
But but there are some there's Ido have a list of things that

(28:32):
are recommended by experts as what todo great, and I know that this
is getting more and more play outin the world. I mentioned to someone
yesterday that we were going to beaddressing this topic on All the Effords and
she said, oh, I knowso many people that are really upset about
it, and I could you know, they could have been an expert,

(28:52):
you know, to come on yourshow. So I know that there is
a growing demand right from consumers forperhaps I should say greener fashion. Is
that such a thing? Greener,more ethical? Probably? Ethical? Yeah,
or just more environmentally sensitive? Yeah, sustainable, yeah, exactly,

(29:15):
Yes, definitely. And gen Zin many ways has been part of the
push for that because it's so inspiring. Gen Z really has a sense of
the world that we have presented themwith and will leave them with. And
they have been more vocal than ina lot of ways in any other generation

(29:37):
about the changes that need to happen, probably because in previous generations we didn't
quite realize what exactly we were doing. So it's that's very inspiring. You
know. There is one other thingto look out for is that there is
a lot of greenwashing that happens whereoftentimes some companies will have UM like an

(30:03):
like an in store kind of recyclingscheme. They allow customers to drop off
unwanted items in bins in the brandsstore. But again, as we discussed
with UM, when you donate clothingto charity, often very little of that
clothing is actually used in the waythat it's promised too. So it seems

(30:26):
to me like the biggest, thebest and biggest way there. There's two
there are two sides, two componentsof our clothing consumption and m passing along
to consider when we think about howto do better. So the first one
is and I'm going to kind ofwork backwards because often we get rid of

(30:48):
the things we don't want before wereplace them with something we do want.
So being careful about the way thatyou um that you pass on clothing,
I to think that donating clothing wasthe better choice than reselling it because you
know, I wanted it to Iwanted to give my clothes away and have

(31:10):
them be used or worn by somebodywho was going to need them. But
as we've established so often that's notthe case. So donating or not donating,
but reselling worked either on as Imentioned before, eBay or Poshmark or
there's a company called thread up.We'll link all of these in the show

(31:30):
notes. Which are These are allplaces where you can purchase sort of clothing.
That's all that where there's there areexpectations of how um, how nice
it needs to be in order tobe sold, and buyers uh you know,
can can really look carefully before theypurchase it. That is a better

(31:52):
way to ensure that the clothing isgoing to be used. Another thing I
love is buy nothing groups? Areyou from earlier with this? I don't
know those people. Okay, ifyou, especially if you are a parent
of young kids, join You're BuyingNothing group on Facebook immediately. For some
reason, they all seem to operateon Facebook. But I anyone who has

(32:15):
had little kids knows that not onlyclothing, you go through so much stuff
so fast. You know, Iam buying new shoes for my children every
three months. It feels like toysevery day. Outgrowth stuff and then you've
got all this crap in your house. Buy nothing groups exist on the premise

(32:35):
that consumerism and over consumption is badand it is better to give things away,
and it's sort of there. Itrelies on this idea that as long
as as you're giving and receiving kindof at an equal pace, then it
all comes out in the wash.And the idea is not is to give

(32:59):
away things for free and get thingsfor free and help your people. You
see sometimes posts on next door people. Yeah, it just it makes so
much sense. My daughter in lawdid this and continues to do this with
her kids and all her friend groupwhere they have clothing in the different sizes,
and when they're done with it,it's like, this is all,

(33:21):
you know, one year old clothing, and here it is in a bag
and they, you know, takeout the things that are you know,
really damaged in one way or anotherand continue to recycle through the friend group,
so that sometimes things go and thenthey end up coming back for your
second child, the same same clothingthat you bought for your first child,
but a couple of other people woreit in between. It's also so special

(33:45):
to give your beloved clothes, youknow that belonged to your children away to
someone else. We have good friendsin our neighborhood who have kids who are
just a little bit younger than mine, and it's so so I wonder.
I love to see I remember whenthey're their daughter was born, when Sasha

(34:07):
was maybe like five or six monthsold, and getting to see newborn clothes
that were Anna's and then Sasha's thatI you know, wasn't it was so
sad to stop using them on mykids. To get to kind of re
visit them and see them on someoneelse, I love it so great.

(34:29):
The other thing is, and thisis something that I have tried to start
doing, is to when something istorn or wearing through or damaged in some
other way before I truck it inmy get rid of plastic bag or bin,

(34:52):
I often try, I really tryto consider whether I should just go
get it repaired. And that isthat used to be. It used to
be the standard, right, youknow, you've got darn your socks,
you you sew things. And wekind of stopped doing that because we all
are in this fast fashion mentality.So that's really important. But so there's

(35:13):
there's the way we uh maintain ordiscard our clothing. But then there's also
what we do when we're choosing umnew clothing because that that is often a
part of life. So choosing sustainablebrands um and you know, often doing

(35:34):
doing some research on the website ofan item you're buying, or often I
love buying clothes on Etsy from youknow, a maker, somebody, somebody
who is making I got this littlesalt for my wedding from a custom somebody
who made custom clothing. And ofcourse sometimes that's financially prohibited. But when

(35:59):
you can afford to buy nicer things, and you know, you do the
math of how many times you're goingto use something, which of course I
guess doesn't apply to my wedding shawl. But often times, thinking about the
money you spend in a longer termsort of way, it actually is less

(36:19):
expensive to buy something that's going tolast longer. So it makes you have
inspired me with all this talk aboutfast fashion to revive something that I used
to do with my friends back whenI lived in the other house, and
that was switching bitch. Whew,that sounds good when switching bitch. So
switching bitch was you'd get together withfriends who are similar sizes. In this

(36:42):
case, we had the twos,fours, and sixes, and everyone had
to go through their closet and makepiles. And you had all the pants,
all the shirts, and then youknow, we expanded to include accessories,
you know, pursus belts, differentthings, shoes of course, and
then we'd gather in someone's home andhave like sections of the room be for

(37:07):
that kind of clothing. Order apizza, make a salad, open a
couple of bottles of wine. Sendif there were husbands involved, send them
away to go be somewhere else ordo something else good, bitch about them
and everything else that was annoying inour lives. Our children are jobs,

(37:28):
our parents, whatever, and we'dswitch clothing. And so to this day,
I periodically, from even back then, we'll see a skirt that I
loved and was done with on someoneelse and it's it's just a lovely evening.
And then when you're done, everythingthat no one wanted gets donated to

(37:51):
the landfill. I guess, well, there are you know, another option,
if there are third party resellers,consignment with nicer pieces that you can't
seem to give away but that youknow are good enough that that somebody might
want them. Well, there area couple of options. One is there
are organizations like Dress for Success wherethey're looking for specific kinds of items,

(38:17):
and those are much more likely toactually be used because they're they're looking for
if you have dresses to Dress forSuccess if you don't know, it's for
women trying to get into clothing forwork and interviews, and so it's a
specific kind of clothing. It's it'soffice where for women. So there's always

(38:38):
that option. But then there arepeople you can pay to photograph and upload
your belongings onto places like poshmark ineBay, So that is definitely definitely an
option, and there are you canI guess it's probably also worth looking into.

(38:59):
Sometimes if you donate directly to aconsignment shop, you know, like
a charity consignment shop, you sometimeshave more left than with the big ones
ex. Salvation Army. But Ithink that is such a good idea.
I want to do a Swishing Bitchas well, and I think that we
should bring you back. Thanks somuch for listening to all the Ffords today.

(39:24):
She's Gabby Moscow, It's and I'mJoe Anne Green and we'd love to
hear from you. Send us yourf words, tell us what you do
with your fast fashion, or ifyou've had some success at breaking the habit,
we'd love to hear from that too. You can email us at All
the Ffords Pod at gmail dot com. You can also find us on social
media. We are on Instagram,Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube at All

(39:46):
the Effords Pod. And if youhaven't yet, you should pre order.
Well, actually, I think bythe time this episode comes out, Joanne's
book will already be out in theworld well or very soon thereafter. Joanne's
book By Accident is excellent. Ihave read it. It is wonderful.
You should purchase it. I believeanywhere books are sold you can pre order

(40:07):
or order it. That's right,and I'm gonna be doing a lot of
author appearances. If you're interested toknow about that, just go on to
my website, which is jo Annehyphen Green g R E e NE dot
com and sign up for the newsletter. Thanks for listening, Bye bye,