So true. It takes me more time to find something that has 100% natural fibers in it, than finding something i like. Which is telling on how few natural options we have today.
Couldn’t agree more! The advantage is that it makes it a lot easier to spend less. I see a knit: oh that’s nice, I look at the composition: 100% acrylic, okay, don’t want it anymore, bye!
I recently went to a sustainable fashion conference in Stockholm. There was little to no address to real sustainable solutions to this problem (which is customer behaviour towards shopping) but all they were talking about was basically different ways to push products in a way that “sounds” sustainable (greenwashing). And this made realise that change has to come from the bottom up, it won’t come from the top down! Great video by the way, keep up the good work!
love this insight!!! I subscribe to so many newsletters of industry insiders and they've all sort of been saying the same thing, these conferences seem to just be focused on "selling sustainability" rather than promoting change and that's so frustrating!!! I have a podcast coming out sunday that goes into this way more with an industry friend that I think you'll like! ty for watching 🫶
The funny thing to me about polyester is that some brands think they can get away with high price points because of the name and brand but when your mindset is fixated on the fabric, materials and quality - you’re just thinking wow does this brand thing i’m that stupid? Zara comes to mind. What is ironic is that the instagram girlies don’t see Zara as a fast fashion brand…yet. when i see hauls and some of the prices for a bit of polyester on a hanger….it’s like people are asleep to this!
I find that really mind boggling, i see a nice 250€ knit, then I think, at this price point, it must be wool, I check and it turns out to be at least 50% acrylic/polyester
literally this, I recently did a video calling luxury out for this - big luxury brands are sneakily increasing the amount of polyester they use and relying on their culture power as a reason for us to not question their actions!! Zara is also a really good example ua-cam.com/video/J0AKaUgtfAs/v-deo.htmlsi=MqmZ7dOzR_SRbMse
Tbh Zara isn’t even that bad, at least they’re priced decently… Saw this gorgeous gingham skirt on Sofia Richie, went to look it up & my jaw dropped when I realized it was $2500 & 100% polyester 🫠
Zara is pretty bad, I've seen a lot of their clothes in thrift shops lately and am disappointed when I read the care label and most of their clothes are 50%+ plastic
The "Vegan leather" thing is what gets me. It's basically plastics. I have nothing against polyester but I definitely avoid them as much as I could. Now that I sew my own clothes, whenever I buy fabrics, I always prioritise natural fibres vs synthetics. And lemme tell you, natural fibres fabrics is much more expensive compared to synthetics!
"vegan leather" evokes the idea of fancy pineapple or mushroom leather. When it's almost always plastic-based. I'm yet to find these infamous plant-based vegan leathers in store
@@katerrinah5442 I don't think you can find it in person, in store. I bet they're only available online. Anyway, I'm in a big city in Canada and even the big fabric store doesn't carry plant-based leather. What they have is only faux-leather which is PU = Polyutrethane.
Last night I wore 3 layers of polyester (I put together a costume from things that I already owned and had to dug deep into things I had put aside) and got a good reminder of how uncomfortable and sweaty it is. I can't believe I wore polyester on the daily for years without knowing there was a better life 😭
I can't even imagine how good it must have felt to take it off after 😅 I still have poly tops in my wardrobe that I'm trying to wear until I can't anymore but I definitely won't be replacing them when they're finally dead 🥲
I am so sick and tired of sweaters being called “wool” when theyre not even 10% or 5% of the fiber content!!! These brands charge wool prices for polyester and acrylic, even if the knit is lazy (ie it’s only on the front/lop sided)! It’s so crazy that this has become a common practice…
They pull this nonsense with so many other fibres and it makes me go crazy. Calling a dress “linen mix” giving the impression it’s mostly organic but it’s just 90% polyester, acrylic and polyamide and 10% linen 🙄 it makes me so sad and It’s so exhausting.
This is so true. I'm looking for a new black sweater and the amount of times I saw something nice, that is supposedly wool or wool blend, but uses mostly synthetic fibers is wild. Brands shouldn't be allowed to call something wool if it's not at least 90% wool, or wool blend if it's below 50% in the fiber content.
Buying wool fabric in Australia is like this. "wool blend" fabric for $35AUD p/m and they don't actually tell you what's it it beyond a vague "polyester, wool". Which is wild as Australia produces 45% of the wool in the world. It shouldn't be so hard to find wool products here but it is!
@@melisjevisje Exactly! I wouldn't mind it if it was linen mixed with cotton, but the amount of polyester clothing mixed with a small percentage of organic fibers makes shopping for summer clothes such a pain :( You can't even use the price to determine how much you should be paying for it since brands price it the same regardless of material.
We in the Philippines have recently been struck with two really damaging typhoons, with the most recent one hitting the island of Batanes with the highest signal warning possible. Many countries in the global north use our lands as their dumps for garbage, including multiple unsold clothes from deadstock and donation drives. I don't want a future where a typhoon can potentially drown everyone I know and everywhere I go just because of people overconsuming terrible quality clothes for cheap.
I'm sorry to hear that 😭 I've heard almost nothing about these typhoons on social media, VS the way my feed was flooded with pictures of Valencia - the global north will only care once it effects us, and by then it's almost too late hoping you and your family are safe!! 🫶
@@katierobinsonJup, im from Europe and was visiting family in the Philippines, we listened to a local European radio station and they talked about Spain but nothing about the Philippines But vice versa the Philippine tv channel we watched also didn’t mention Spain Most countries seem to focus on the big players and some of their neighbouring counties only, without speaking some other languages it’s hard to get all of the info (friend of mine speaks Russian and has access to totally different news due to this)
Here's something they do in Japan (not for clothes though, unfortunately)--when you go to "recycle" something or to throw it away, you have to pay for it to be recycled. Usually this is for appliances and larger items. But if you bought something knowing you'd have to pay again, possible pay more, to get rid of it, you might think twice and ask yourself if it was really the bargain you thought.
but then again, wouldn't this have a high chance of backfiring? it also depends on how the people in that particular society behaves, like in other countries if they made people pay to recycle, they'd probably just throw everything away instead of recycling (or sell it to goodwill, if its resaleable)
Love the video. I have a system for not washing my clothes as much. If I hang or fold something inside out, it means I’ve worn it before. Really works, as you sometimes don’t want to wear something again for ages after you have worn it. It keeps track of where you are with everything without having to think about it xx
i worked in a couple of charity shops for quite some time and let me tell you, even on that small scale the sheer amount of awful low-quality synthetic clothes that we were unable to sell was INSANE. one of those shops got shut down multiple times for health and safety reasons SPECIFICALLY because we just physically did not have room to store these giant mountains of garbage clothes (there's very strict rules here regarding how we recycle so we had to wait for a recycling collection once every couple weeks ish, and the company who made the collections started refusing to take everything because there was so much). even when we were able to put these clothes out for sale, they ended up having a hugely negative impact on our sales, which when you're working for a charity is just... so depressing. i couldn't put them out for any more than the bare minimum allowed prices most of the time, and they overwhelmed the shop to the point where we ended up with a reputation for accepting and selling "any old rubbish" in the town. every time someone came in with two or three massive binbags full of fast-fashion trash to "donate" i genuinely wanted to cry.
A note on the polyester topic: I got a vampire cape from my mum last week for Halloween , she made it 30 years ago, I washed it and thought it would be dry asap because I assumed it to be polyester, but no, the drying process took 3 days, so 30 years ago, this kind of costumes were made of natural fibres
On the topic of the overflowing recycling bins. It‘s the same here in Germany. I have some garments, that I just can‘t sell, but would feel so bad to throw them away. I redecorated my space and figured, I want some new throw pillows, so I decided instead of buying some, I‘m going to sew cases and then cut up my old clothes (that would end up in the bin) and use them as filling for the pillows. I‘m very pleased with that plan and can‘t wait to execute it 😊 Addition: isn‘t having a „rewear chair“ something super common? I‘ve always had one, as a child and since I moved out 😅 it‘s a chair/stool next to my closet where I put my sweatpants and the stuff I‘m going to wear the next day 😊 I‘m a bit shocked that it didn‘t seem to be a thing everyone does in one or the other way 😅
In my city the Red Cross is operating a clothes facility for people in need. Maybe you could look up if there's something like that in your area? Whenever I go through my drawer and sort out stuff it goes onto a pile, and once or twice a year I give it to said facility.
@@genossewurstbrot yes indeed, we have a Sozialkaufhaus for clothes and furniture run by the red cross. In my area there is another facility called *townsname* Werkstätten which employs people with disabilities which I like even more. However, the clothes I had to get rid off where so worn out, I couldn‘t give them there since they would have had to throw them out then. They‘re good pillowstuffing though 😊
OMG the rewear chair is amazing! I recently got an antibacterial fabric spray so I can rewear things a bit more than washing! Also trying not to use the dryer to enhance the longevity of my clothes!
@@katierobinson same! I've never even owned a dryer. My family has always been quite old school: hand me downs, secondhand 80s-00s cookware from grandparents, repurposing items, hand washing dishes etc. So we've actually always lived quite sustainably 😂🥰🌱
The old school theater/costumers trick to refresh your clothes is to spray with vodka. The alcohol kills odor causing bacteria. Hang stuff to air out and get a good brush for coats and sweaters. I like the idea of just using the tried and true old school method because I hate the idea of creating more marketing opportunities, and therefore new reasons for people to buy more stuff by repackaging an old way of doing something (or not in the case of not washing clothes so often) as though it’s new.
I get why it feels overwhelming sometimes but we're honestly not helpless here. Every time we don't buy the polyester/acrylic/polyamide piece, unlined winter coat and/or impractical trend we're exercising our power. We can reinforce our power by emailing a retailer and telling them exactly why we're not buying the "wool" trousers that are 8% wool and 92% plastic. e.g., I keep noticing that the fully natural fibre pieces at Sezane sell out - sometimes in hours - while their poly dresses/blouses linger all season. Surely that is a signal worth paying attention to? I hope like hell that producing in natural fibres is the direction they and other retailers start to go back to.
I just put mine in a laundry basket (not like a plastic one, it's mostly fabric) in my bedroom. Especially handy if I'm just running to the post office and then immediately come home to wear PJs again lmao
i love that article calling it "trash fashion". i decided a couple months ago not to buy polyester anymore and focus solely on natural fibres. i have a bunch of second hand fabrics which i'm going to use up, but i'm not paying for polyester, either fabric or clothes. i barely buy clothes anymore, but i can't do that knowing the effect polyester has on the environment. not just that -- it feels absolutely disgusting. i live in a hot part of australia and it's horrific to wear polyester in the 6 months of summer we have a year. now i can't believe i would ever wear polyester, but we live and we learn.
Cool. Exactly what we need. Products with terrible quality, toxic materials, and easily break. People will need to buy something else because the first product isn't made properly. It's a different kind of cost. Temu, Amazon, Shien.. garbage.
Another alternative to put your worn-but-not-yet-dirty clothes: I have seen people buy clothes racks to hang the "clothes for the week", I think it looks nice and would prevent the clothes from wrinkling since you're using hangers, maybe it's more work though. I would do that if I had the space, but for now the non-laundry-basket on the floor of my closet will do 😅
Part of the problem with polyester is that a lot of natural textile mills have converted to producing polyester. Abby Cox has a really good video titled something like athleisure: 100 years of destroying fashion that explains the issue further! Editing to add I love the rewear chair! Would also be cool to use it to air dry your clothes. I don’t have a drying rack so I just sort of lay my clothes all over my apartment but it is sort of inconvenient and messy. Would love if I had a functional way of holding them while they dry!
I have a small condo with limited space for drying, so I got an over-the-door drying rack! It folds up when I'm not using it and has plenty of space for a small to medium load of clothes.
ooooh I hadn't heard about this before, will check out her video if I can find it because it sounds super interesting! I actually already have an air dryer for washing & will never go back to having a washer/dryer, it's so much nicer on my clothes and I love the fresh smell more than a dryer smell!! but for the rewear chair especially I love the idea of having something to hold clothes that currently in my wearing rotation!
To be honest, i think there is hardly a difference between Amazon and Temu. At the start, Amazon was like a one stop shop for everything, they had a good selection from many different brands, now it’s full of cheap stuff from never heard of brands and when you look at the seller details, they are often in China. I cancelled my Prime subscription years ago, but recently I wanted to buy some screen protectors for my phone and my kid’s Switch. The first 3 sellers I looked at were all in China. In the end I ordered on another website, twice the price but local shop with local production.
Imagine if we have an Etsy for independent tailors and seamstresses - we can have clothes either repaired or made exactly for us in the material we want which can further make clothes go for longer and reduce the mass produced, cheap fast fashion garbage.
Unfortunately polyester is also used in luxury ( I remember a youtuber checked out a fabric composition of a Dior jacket lining ) . Or you have high end brands like Sandro, Ba&Sh etc that have a 300€ polyester blouse . I do not buy on Temu or Shein. Some of my friends can occasionally buy clothes ( 1-2 items ) on these sites to keep up with seasonal trends and because they cannot afford a pricey item.
I know synthetic fibres mainly from sports clothing. But they don't have to be everywhere, I guess? But the other side is cotton needing a lot of water and chemicals, so that's also not perfect.
@@jochenkraus7016 I agree :when you add more colour to cotton, cashmere, wool ( to create pattern, to make colour more vibrant etc ) you can basically use " worse quality" cotton or cashmere . The same applies to designer " leather" handbags, especially those made of varnished leather .
I’ve seen many videos on clothes made of polyester. Since then I attentively take a look at the fabric. I would compare two items (coats, pants, etc) with the same style but different brands and the more expensive ones tend to have more polyester. That’s crazy
I really appreciate the good news section ☺️. Glad to hear progress is being made. what’s the incentive in doing sustainability the right way, when you could just green wash & get the same marketing result. I want to see brands in healthy competition over who’s legitimately the greenest.
Lovely collection! I bought my first LV when I was 25 and I only used that bag a few times, haha. Also, love your clutch! I have an Eva clutch in the DE print and love the little chain. But I don’t want to spend so much money on it now, I have been MOMCOCO buying the bag I want, it is as good as LV and is one of my favorite things. Durability
17:32 you can use a clothes rack and get the same result. It will look better, you can hang more clothes, and if you buy the ones with wheels you can move it around easily It's also cheaper
a good alternative!! only reason I'd maybe pick the chair is space saving / double usage as an actual chair lol, I have a small bedroom and am in need of a desk chair so feels like it would fit 😅
About the story about Dior, Gucci and Tod's canceled orders - the minimum wage in Romania at the moment is the equivalent of about 5 dollars per hour, but our taxes are more than 40% of our monthly income. Imagine living on that income .... Oh and the minimum was about 4,5 $/hour before the raise in January. All these big, luxury fashion brands do not give a f**k about their workers!
Is all this polyester why there is now so much full body deodorant being marketed all of the sudden in the last couple of years? I wasn’t sure if it was companies manufacturing insecurity out of thin air as much grooming marketing is, or if people are genuinely more stinky from wearing more polyester. Or both? Sweat on polyester does smell more. I don’t often wear synthetics and don’t seem to have a full body funk issue.
Is anyone noticing price surging on asos and Zalando? Every day items I have saved, have new prices. Its weird and no one is talking about this. Am I the only one noticing this? The prices regardless of season and style go up and down every single day.
This is increasingly the norm. I have not seen this yet, but the tech is improving for brick and mortar stores to do this as well with digital price tags. The public radio program Marketplace has covered this a lot over the years. Have a listen though their archives if you would like to learn more.
Lol. The rewear chair, though 😆 I mean, I appreciate them spreading awareness about the issue (washing clothes that don't necessarily need it, is something I'm guilty of myself), but that design is both ugly and unnecessarily complicated. You can get a clothing rod on wheels or just screw one to the wall (like for towels) and use hangers. It's cheaper, you can likely find a suitable one second hand and it takes up way less space. Or heck, use a drying rack. That way is double purpose, because you can use it to dry clothes as well.
ahh I actually really like the look!! there's definitely other options, I have a drying rack but would never use it for this purpose because it's being used too consistently for washing clothes plus doesn't look great 😅 it's definitely a non-essential piece of furniture but I could see myself using it!
3:48 Hello! I found the video extremely intriguing, and I was hoping you might provide the links to the information you displayed. I was particularly intrigued by the one regarding the consumption of polyester. Thank you! ❤❤❤
Even AllSaints (my fave brand) does polyester in their sweaters and jackets. For 300 dollars and you’re still getting something that’s 30-40 percent polyester. Some of it is recycled polyester which sounds a little better. But for that price it’s a little crazy. It seems like brands that targets 20-35 year olds are trying to be more sustainable but it’s pretty questionable. Personally I NEVER shop at hm, SHEIN or temu or anything like that but I’m afraid even premium brands are almost just as bad.
I came across a video talking about how the rich are now preferring to buy knock-off luxury items because no one would suspect that its fake - there are now like tupperwear parties of this where someone sells these knock-offs from China or something which is why luxury sales are going down.
I definitely disagree with fast fashion companies producing synthetic clothing, but at what point do we point the finger instead at the absolute cracked consumers with out of control shopping habits? Maybe it's the person buying 100 articles of clothing a month and throwing them out to start again next month that is really the problem. If we have say a poor college student, and she buys a single acrylic cardigan (not ideal but anyway) and wears it for the next 7 years for example, I think that would be ok (or at least less of a problem) in my book.
Good news: I went to my local charity shop to donate items, I was amazed by how many people were in there buying things. I personally buy my most of my clothes from Vinted. The only solution is to buy less, a lot less (nothing even or just all second hand) when it comes to clothing. Its sounds horrible, but it used to be this way in the past. People who buy very few high quality items the would have for years, mend them or pass them on. But this will never happen, because there is no money in it and many companies would go out of business.
Slowly but surely customers are looking for quality clothes, but I think the price points really kinda force people to buy clothes from fast fashion brands 😢agh it’s a bit of a double edged sword situation.
I hate polyester so so much. Makes me itch, sweat and aggravates my restless leg syndrome. I rarely buy clothes these days and when my shirts etc get too old, they become dusters so I don't need to throw them out. I had to cough out £50 for a 100% cotton duvet, pillows and sheets....what a difference and they will last me so long.
i saw a thin robe from Malina for 2600kr (like 230 dollars?) and it’s 100% polyester.. I SAW a pure silk robe for 1999kr (180 dollars) in a high end store
its fascinating that tiktok's livestream selling is nearly copying xiaohongshu's livestreams. but since XHS does not cater to an international audience, most people wouldn't even see the trap that tiktok is making creators fall into
How does a sustainable company with all of the extra costs compete with unethical companies who can undercut them by significant margins every time? The cost is hidden to the consumer and the unethical companies are never made to pay for the damage theg cause. Bit line goes up and there's so many profits for the already wealthy. System operating as designed.
I watched in another video how Patagonia is not the ethical brand it portrays itself as being. I don’t remember the details but when you said the founder gave up the company to make sure that the profits were going towards the planet, I was thinking ‘no, wasn’t that about putting it into a family trust for inheritance, tax and general opacity purposes’.
I don’t think it’s that responsible to put it all on the shein or the fast fashion industry. Shein won’t change global warming; it’s got to be a whole industry across the board change. Why focus on Shein when billionaires fly private planes Willy-nilly. I get that it’s a perspective, but it needs to be integrated into the bigger picture of consumerism, capitalism, the drive to the bottom at what cost.
this is definitely something to consider! I talked in a video recently about the dangers of focusing on just one or two brands and leaving the rest of the industry to its own devices whilst we sort out the biggest offenders
I'd like to call-out the anti-science practice of not referencing the actual weather-cycle of an area when using it as an analogy or parallel to some other cause. I live in California; we have a 40-year flood cycle. That means every 40 or 45 years we have a major flood, we also have a famous fault in the earth's crust that runs under the city of San Fransisco that has it's own 100 or 150-year cycle. Recently our 40-45 year flood happen and it was used as "evidence" of extreme changes in the environment. All news articles did not sight the flood cycle even existing, or that it was first documented by the indigenous population who first planned their farming and lifestyle around it. Before correlating a weather pattern in the recent past (less than 100 years), please consider first checking the local, historical documents of that region and the indigenous people's recollections. This misinformation use is very indicative of how White people and people of privilege often ignore the lived history of indigenous populations and erase the lived experiences of people of the past. As a point of reference; most areas of the Americas have between 200 and 500 years of records regarding weather patterns, while Europe and Asia typically have records of individual areas going back 1,000 years. The Earth's weather cycles are longer then how we perceive time and it is very dangerous to the environment to always place our understanding of things within the confines of a human lifetime.
you're misunderstanding the terms 50yr flood and 100 year flood. these are terms used in the insurance, civil engineering, and land management field to refer to the % chance in a given year that a flood of a certain severity occurs. It does not refer to a scheduled seasonal flood. a 50yr flood is thought of as having a 2% chance to occur every year, but that doesn't mean you can't have it happen three years in a row and then no flooding for the next 147 years, it's just statistically unlikely.
linked is an example of how floods are prepared for. any 1000 year cycles that may have been observable have been absolutely decimated in the face of anthropogenic climate change
If you want to pay $100 plus for a tshirt, $200 plus for jeans, jackets etc at all brands keep making videos like these. Mass produced fashion will never be sustainable. It never has been and never will be lol. These videos are a waste of time. And if we only used natural fibers in fashion that would also cause environmental issues. It’s a nuanced issue that won’t be fixed by abandoning polyester lol.
I’m so tired of seeing polyester and acrylic in everything. I have to hunt so hard for natural fibers.
it’s become so hard to avoid!
Same. It definitely keeps me from a lot of impulsive purchases though.
Yes everything is full of polyester and acrylic
So true. It takes me more time to find something that has 100% natural fibers in it, than finding something i like. Which is telling on how few natural options we have today.
Couldn’t agree more! The advantage is that it makes it a lot easier to spend less. I see a knit: oh that’s nice, I look at the composition: 100% acrylic, okay, don’t want it anymore, bye!
I recently went to a sustainable fashion conference in Stockholm.
There was little to no address to real sustainable solutions to this problem (which is customer behaviour towards shopping) but all they were talking about was basically different ways to push products in a way that “sounds” sustainable (greenwashing).
And this made realise that change has to come from the bottom up, it won’t come from the top down!
Great video by the way, keep up the good work!
love this insight!!! I subscribe to so many newsletters of industry insiders and they've all sort of been saying the same thing, these conferences seem to just be focused on "selling sustainability" rather than promoting change and that's so frustrating!!!
I have a podcast coming out sunday that goes into this way more with an industry friend that I think you'll like! ty for watching 🫶
@katierobinson I’ll definitely give it a go! Where is the podcast going to be available? UA-cam?
The funny thing to me about polyester is that some brands think they can get away with high price points because of the name and brand but when your mindset is fixated on the fabric, materials and quality - you’re just thinking wow does this brand thing i’m that stupid?
Zara comes to mind. What is ironic is that the instagram girlies don’t see Zara as a fast fashion brand…yet. when i see hauls and some of the prices for a bit of polyester on a hanger….it’s like people are asleep to this!
I find that really mind boggling, i see a nice 250€ knit, then I think, at this price point, it must be wool, I check and it turns out to be at least 50% acrylic/polyester
literally this, I recently did a video calling luxury out for this - big luxury brands are sneakily increasing the amount of polyester they use and relying on their culture power as a reason for us to not question their actions!! Zara is also a really good example
ua-cam.com/video/J0AKaUgtfAs/v-deo.htmlsi=MqmZ7dOzR_SRbMse
right at that point you might as well shop shein. it’s the same damn quality
Tbh Zara isn’t even that bad, at least they’re priced decently… Saw this gorgeous gingham skirt on Sofia Richie, went to look it up & my jaw dropped when I realized it was $2500 & 100% polyester 🫠
Zara is pretty bad, I've seen a lot of their clothes in thrift shops lately and am disappointed when I read the care label and most of their clothes are 50%+ plastic
The "Vegan leather" thing is what gets me. It's basically plastics. I have nothing against polyester but I definitely avoid them as much as I could. Now that I sew my own clothes, whenever I buy fabrics, I always prioritise natural fibres vs synthetics. And lemme tell you, natural fibres fabrics is much more expensive compared to synthetics!
"vegan leather" evokes the idea of fancy pineapple or mushroom leather. When it's almost always plastic-based. I'm yet to find these infamous plant-based vegan leathers in store
I didnt know that!! Thank you! I'll avoid it
@@katerrinah5442 I don't think you can find it in person, in store. I bet they're only available online. Anyway, I'm in a big city in Canada and even the big fabric store doesn't carry plant-based leather. What they have is only faux-leather which is PU = Polyutrethane.
Last night I wore 3 layers of polyester (I put together a costume from things that I already owned and had to dug deep into things I had put aside) and got a good reminder of how uncomfortable and sweaty it is. I can't believe I wore polyester on the daily for years without knowing there was a better life 😭
I can't even imagine how good it must have felt to take it off after 😅 I still have poly tops in my wardrobe that I'm trying to wear until I can't anymore but I definitely won't be replacing them when they're finally dead 🥲
I am so sick and tired of sweaters being called “wool” when theyre not even 10% or 5% of the fiber content!!! These brands charge wool prices for polyester and acrylic, even if the knit is lazy (ie it’s only on the front/lop sided)! It’s so crazy that this has become a common practice…
They pull this nonsense with so many other fibres and it makes me go crazy. Calling a dress “linen mix” giving the impression it’s mostly organic but it’s just 90% polyester, acrylic and polyamide and 10% linen 🙄 it makes me so sad and It’s so exhausting.
trying to pull the wool over our eyes lol (I hate myself)
This is so true. I'm looking for a new black sweater and the amount of times I saw something nice, that is supposedly wool or wool blend, but uses mostly synthetic fibers is wild. Brands shouldn't be allowed to call something wool if it's not at least 90% wool, or wool blend if it's below 50% in the fiber content.
Buying wool fabric in Australia is like this. "wool blend" fabric for $35AUD p/m and they don't actually tell you what's it it beyond a vague "polyester, wool". Which is wild as Australia produces 45% of the wool in the world. It shouldn't be so hard to find wool products here but it is!
@@melisjevisje Exactly! I wouldn't mind it if it was linen mixed with cotton, but the amount of polyester clothing mixed with a small percentage of organic fibers makes shopping for summer clothes such a pain :( You can't even use the price to determine how much you should be paying for it since brands price it the same regardless of material.
We in the Philippines have recently been struck with two really damaging typhoons, with the most recent one hitting the island of Batanes with the highest signal warning possible. Many countries in the global north use our lands as their dumps for garbage, including multiple unsold clothes from deadstock and donation drives. I don't want a future where a typhoon can potentially drown everyone I know and everywhere I go just because of people overconsuming terrible quality clothes for cheap.
I'm sorry to hear that 😭 I've heard almost nothing about these typhoons on social media, VS the way my feed was flooded with pictures of Valencia - the global north will only care once it effects us, and by then it's almost too late
hoping you and your family are safe!! 🫶
@@katierobinsonJup, im from Europe and was visiting family in the Philippines, we listened to a local European radio station and they talked about Spain but nothing about the Philippines
But vice versa the Philippine tv channel we watched also didn’t mention Spain
Most countries seem to focus on the big players and some of their neighbouring counties only, without speaking some other languages it’s hard to get all of the info (friend of mine speaks Russian and has access to totally different news due to this)
Here's something they do in Japan (not for clothes though, unfortunately)--when you go to "recycle" something or to throw it away, you have to pay for it to be recycled. Usually this is for appliances and larger items. But if you bought something knowing you'd have to pay again, possible pay more, to get rid of it, you might think twice and ask yourself if it was really the bargain you thought.
but then again, wouldn't this have a high chance of backfiring? it also depends on how the people in that particular society behaves, like in other countries if they made people pay to recycle, they'd probably just throw everything away instead of recycling (or sell it to goodwill, if its resaleable)
We have the same in norway although it also lead to people throwing it away in nature or just leaving it in the streets
Love the video. I have a system for not washing my clothes as much. If I hang or fold something inside out, it means I’ve worn it before. Really works, as you sometimes don’t want to wear something again for ages after you have worn it. It keeps track of where you are with everything without having to think about it xx
ooh this is a really good idea may give it a go!!
i worked in a couple of charity shops for quite some time and let me tell you, even on that small scale the sheer amount of awful low-quality synthetic clothes that we were unable to sell was INSANE. one of those shops got shut down multiple times for health and safety reasons SPECIFICALLY because we just physically did not have room to store these giant mountains of garbage clothes (there's very strict rules here regarding how we recycle so we had to wait for a recycling collection once every couple weeks ish, and the company who made the collections started refusing to take everything because there was so much). even when we were able to put these clothes out for sale, they ended up having a hugely negative impact on our sales, which when you're working for a charity is just... so depressing. i couldn't put them out for any more than the bare minimum allowed prices most of the time, and they overwhelmed the shop to the point where we ended up with a reputation for accepting and selling "any old rubbish" in the town. every time someone came in with two or three massive binbags full of fast-fashion trash to "donate" i genuinely wanted to cry.
A note on the polyester topic: I got a vampire cape from my mum last week for Halloween , she made it 30 years ago, I washed it and thought it would be dry asap because I assumed it to be polyester, but no, the drying process took 3 days, so 30 years ago, this kind of costumes were made of natural fibres
ooh this is so interesting!
On the topic of the overflowing recycling bins. It‘s the same here in Germany. I have some garments, that I just can‘t sell, but would feel so bad to throw them away.
I redecorated my space and figured, I want some new throw pillows, so I decided instead of buying some, I‘m going to sew cases and then cut up my old clothes (that would end up in the bin) and use them as filling for the pillows. I‘m very pleased with that plan and can‘t wait to execute it 😊
Addition: isn‘t having a „rewear chair“ something super common? I‘ve always had one, as a child and since I moved out 😅 it‘s a chair/stool next to my closet where I put my sweatpants and the stuff I‘m going to wear the next day 😊 I‘m a bit shocked that it didn‘t seem to be a thing everyone does in one or the other way 😅
In my city the Red Cross is operating a clothes facility for people in need. Maybe you could look up if there's something like that in your area? Whenever I go through my drawer and sort out stuff it goes onto a pile, and once or twice a year I give it to said facility.
@@genossewurstbrot yes indeed, we have a Sozialkaufhaus for clothes and furniture run by the red cross. In my area there is another facility called *townsname* Werkstätten which employs people with disabilities which I like even more. However, the clothes I had to get rid off where so worn out, I couldn‘t give them there since they would have had to throw them out then. They‘re good pillowstuffing though 😊
@@ellia_fabiaah, I see :)
OMG the rewear chair is amazing! I recently got an antibacterial fabric spray so I can rewear things a bit more than washing! Also trying not to use the dryer to enhance the longevity of my clothes!
love the spray idea!! i have a clothes airer that i use (we don’t even own a dryer now) and i’d never go back now!
@@katierobinson same! I've never even owned a dryer. My family has always been quite old school: hand me downs, secondhand 80s-00s cookware from grandparents, repurposing items, hand washing dishes etc. So we've actually always lived quite sustainably 😂🥰🌱
The old school theater/costumers trick to refresh your clothes is to spray with vodka. The alcohol kills odor causing bacteria. Hang stuff to air out and get a good brush for coats and sweaters. I like the idea of just using the tried and true old school method because I hate the idea of creating more marketing opportunities, and therefore new reasons for people to buy more stuff by repackaging an old way of doing something (or not in the case of not washing clothes so often) as though it’s new.
@@HunnyBee-w7r love this, gonna be looking into doing it!
I get why it feels overwhelming sometimes but we're honestly not helpless here. Every time we don't buy the polyester/acrylic/polyamide piece, unlined winter coat and/or impractical trend we're exercising our power. We can reinforce our power by emailing a retailer and telling them exactly why we're not buying the "wool" trousers that are 8% wool and 92% plastic. e.g., I keep noticing that the fully natural fibre pieces at Sezane sell out - sometimes in hours - while their poly dresses/blouses linger all season. Surely that is a signal worth paying attention to? I hope like hell that producing in natural fibres is the direction they and other retailers start to go back to.
Shoppers are more informed now, which is why sales are down.
My worst nightmare: linen dress lined with polyester! What? Why? Why? 😂😅
Love the rewear chair idea! But I think thrifting a blanket ladder would be just as stylish and take up less space
I just put mine in a laundry basket (not like a plastic one, it's mostly fabric) in my bedroom. Especially handy if I'm just running to the post office and then immediately come home to wear PJs again lmao
oooh I hadn't thought of that but would be a super cute (and probs more affordable lol) alternative!
I find it ironic we manage to buy cotton baby clothes but then get fed plastic to wear as adults 😂 I definitely find it difficult to resell atm
Try and find socks !!!! Gap is one of the only brands that sell 100% cotton socks.
Greed is the root of all evil. Greedy shops and greedy shoppers.
i love that article calling it "trash fashion". i decided a couple months ago not to buy polyester anymore and focus solely on natural fibres. i have a bunch of second hand fabrics which i'm going to use up, but i'm not paying for polyester, either fabric or clothes. i barely buy clothes anymore, but i can't do that knowing the effect polyester has on the environment. not just that -- it feels absolutely disgusting. i live in a hot part of australia and it's horrific to wear polyester in the 6 months of summer we have a year. now i can't believe i would ever wear polyester, but we live and we learn.
should replace fast fashion with trash fashion when talking about it online and see if it makes any difference 😅
Cool. Exactly what we need. Products with terrible quality, toxic materials, and easily break. People will need to buy something else because the first product isn't made properly. It's a different kind of cost. Temu, Amazon, Shien.. garbage.
lol literally
I've already got a "rewear chair" in my bedroom. It's called a chair.
Another alternative to put your worn-but-not-yet-dirty clothes: I have seen people buy clothes racks to hang the "clothes for the week", I think it looks nice and would prevent the clothes from wrinkling since you're using hangers, maybe it's more work though. I would do that if I had the space, but for now the non-laundry-basket on the floor of my closet will do 😅
ooh this definitely could be good but yeah may be a bit less easy than chucking it on a peg 😅
I have a challenge coat rack that I use as a “re-wear chair”.
love!!!
*cheap coat rack
Part of the problem with polyester is that a lot of natural textile mills have converted to producing polyester. Abby Cox has a really good video titled something like athleisure: 100 years of destroying fashion that explains the issue further!
Editing to add I love the rewear chair! Would also be cool to use it to air dry your clothes. I don’t have a drying rack so I just sort of lay my clothes all over my apartment but it is sort of inconvenient and messy. Would love if I had a functional way of holding them while they dry!
I have a small condo with limited space for drying, so I got an over-the-door drying rack! It folds up when I'm not using it and has plenty of space for a small to medium load of clothes.
ooooh I hadn't heard about this before, will check out her video if I can find it because it sounds super interesting!
I actually already have an air dryer for washing & will never go back to having a washer/dryer, it's so much nicer on my clothes and I love the fresh smell more than a dryer smell!! but for the rewear chair especially I love the idea of having something to hold clothes that currently in my wearing rotation!
To be honest, i think there is hardly a difference between Amazon and Temu. At the start, Amazon was like a one stop shop for everything, they had a good selection from many different brands, now it’s full of cheap stuff from never heard of brands and when you look at the seller details, they are often in China. I cancelled my Prime subscription years ago, but recently I wanted to buy some screen protectors for my phone and my kid’s Switch. The first 3 sellers I looked at were all in China. In the end I ordered on another website, twice the price but local shop with local production.
Imagine if we have an Etsy for independent tailors and seamstresses - we can have clothes either repaired or made exactly for us in the material we want which can further make clothes go for longer and reduce the mass produced, cheap fast fashion garbage.
This is an amazing idea!
Unfortunately polyester is also used in luxury ( I remember a youtuber checked out a fabric composition of a Dior jacket lining ) . Or you have high end brands like Sandro, Ba&Sh etc that have a 300€ polyester blouse . I do not buy on Temu or Shein. Some of my friends can occasionally buy clothes ( 1-2 items ) on these sites to keep up with seasonal trends and because they cannot afford a pricey item.
oh it definitely is, I recently did a video calling luxury out for this & a lot more!!
ua-cam.com/video/J0AKaUgtfAs/v-deo.htmlsi=MqmZ7dOzR_SRbMse
I know synthetic fibres mainly from sports clothing. But they don't have to be everywhere, I guess?
But the other side is cotton needing a lot of water and chemicals, so that's also not perfect.
@@jochenkraus7016 I agree :when you add more colour to cotton, cashmere, wool ( to create pattern, to make colour more vibrant etc ) you can basically use " worse quality" cotton or cashmere . The same applies to designer " leather" handbags, especially those made of varnished leather .
I’ve seen many videos on clothes made of polyester. Since then I attentively take a look at the fabric.
I would compare two items (coats, pants, etc) with the same style but different brands and the more expensive ones tend to have more polyester. That’s crazy
I really appreciate the good news section ☺️. Glad to hear progress is being made. what’s the incentive in doing sustainability the right way, when you could just green wash & get the same marketing result. I want to see brands in healthy competition over who’s legitimately the greenest.
yes would love this kind of competition from brands rather than the opposite we often see 😅
Lovely collection! I bought my first LV when I was 25 and I only used that bag a few times, haha. Also, love your clutch! I have an Eva clutch in the DE print and love the little chain. But I don’t want to spend so much money on it now, I have been MOMCOCO buying the bag I want, it is as good as LV and is one of my favorite things. Durability
17:32 you can use a clothes rack and get the same result. It will look better, you can hang more clothes, and if you buy the ones with wheels you can move it around easily
It's also cheaper
a good alternative!! only reason I'd maybe pick the chair is space saving / double usage as an actual chair lol, I have a small bedroom and am in need of a desk chair so feels like it would fit 😅
About the story about Dior, Gucci and Tod's canceled orders - the minimum wage in Romania at the moment is the equivalent of about 5 dollars per hour, but our taxes are more than 40% of our monthly income. Imagine living on that income .... Oh and the minimum was about 4,5 $/hour before the raise in January. All these big, luxury fashion brands do not give a f**k about their workers!
ty for this added context, really puts in perspective how much brands dgaf and only care about profits 😭
Is all this polyester why there is now so much full body deodorant being marketed all of the sudden in the last couple of years? I wasn’t sure if it was companies manufacturing insecurity out of thin air as much grooming marketing is, or if people are genuinely more stinky from wearing more polyester. Or both? Sweat on polyester does smell more. I don’t often wear synthetics and don’t seem to have a full body funk issue.
that's an interesting theory. I only wear polyester if it's really cold
interesting idea!!! not sure if it could be proven but it definitely seems like a correlation, poly does have a certain smell 🥴
Is anyone noticing price surging on asos and Zalando? Every day items I have saved, have new prices. Its weird and no one is talking about this. Am I the only one noticing this? The prices regardless of season and style go up and down every single day.
@@traumaqueeen i don’t shop on these platforms but that’s super interesting if true?
probably the prices of the materials being unstable this year
That's not new: The websites remembers your IP-address and what you wish to buy.
This is increasingly the norm. I have not seen this yet, but the tech is improving for brick and mortar stores to do this as well with digital price tags. The public radio program Marketplace has covered this a lot over the years. Have a listen though their archives if you would like to learn more.
Yup
The amazon news is terrible. It is really time for us as a society to push back on these "race to the bottom" practices. thanks so much for this video
it's very frustrating seeing more and more platforms do this!
Lol. The rewear chair, though 😆
I mean, I appreciate them spreading awareness about the issue (washing clothes that don't necessarily need it, is something I'm guilty of myself), but that design is both ugly and unnecessarily complicated. You can get a clothing rod on wheels or just screw one to the wall (like for towels) and use hangers. It's cheaper, you can likely find a suitable one second hand and it takes up way less space.
Or heck, use a drying rack. That way is double purpose, because you can use it to dry clothes as well.
ahh I actually really like the look!! there's definitely other options, I have a drying rack but would never use it for this purpose because it's being used too consistently for washing clothes plus doesn't look great 😅 it's definitely a non-essential piece of furniture but I could see myself using it!
3:48 Hello! I found the video extremely intriguing, and I was hoping you might provide the links to the information you displayed. I was particularly intrigued by the one regarding the consumption of polyester. Thank you! ❤❤❤
Even AllSaints (my fave brand) does polyester in their sweaters and jackets. For 300 dollars and you’re still getting something that’s 30-40 percent polyester. Some of it is recycled polyester which sounds a little better. But for that price it’s a little crazy. It seems like brands that targets 20-35 year olds are trying to be more sustainable but it’s pretty questionable. Personally I NEVER shop at hm, SHEIN or temu or anything like that but I’m afraid even premium brands are almost just as bad.
Tiktok live shopping gives me Lularoe vibes. Reminds me of 2015 Facebook.
I came across a video talking about how the rich are now preferring to buy knock-off luxury items because no one would suspect that its fake - there are now like tupperwear parties of this where someone sells these knock-offs from China or something which is why luxury sales are going down.
Tik tok live is like home shopping network for younger generations! Wow
literally but so much easier 💀
I definitely disagree with fast fashion companies producing synthetic clothing, but at what point do we point the finger instead at the absolute cracked consumers with out of control shopping habits? Maybe it's the person buying 100 articles of clothing a month and throwing them out to start again next month that is really the problem. If we have say a poor college student, and she buys a single acrylic cardigan (not ideal but anyway) and wears it for the next 7 years for example, I think that would be ok (or at least less of a problem) in my book.
Good news: I went to my local charity shop to donate items, I was amazed by how many people were in there buying things. I personally buy my most of my clothes from Vinted.
The only solution is to buy less, a lot less (nothing even or just all second hand) when it comes to clothing.
Its sounds horrible, but it used to be this way in the past. People who buy very few high quality items the would have for years, mend them or pass them on. But this will never happen, because there is no money in it and many companies would go out of business.
A Clothes Rack/Garment stand takes up less space than the chair i would say
it probably would! but i personally love the look/ function of the rewear chair over its space saving
Agreed. What's the floor for anyway? :)
I guess it comes down to amount of living space
@@anonymmusik4475 definitely!
Slowly but surely customers are looking for quality clothes, but I think the price points really kinda force people to buy clothes from fast fashion brands 😢agh it’s a bit of a double edged sword situation.
Got a $h31n ad while watching this 😒
Great video, very informative. 💚
Doesn’t everyone have The Chair™️? It’s purely out of convenience for me, the fewer things I have to wash the better.
I hate polyester so so much. Makes me itch, sweat and aggravates my restless leg syndrome. I rarely buy clothes these days and when my shirts etc get too old, they become dusters so I don't need to throw them out. I had to cough out £50 for a 100% cotton duvet, pillows and sheets....what a difference and they will last me so long.
i saw a thin robe from Malina for 2600kr (like 230 dollars?) and it’s 100% polyester.. I SAW a pure silk robe for 1999kr (180 dollars) in a high end store
its fascinating that tiktok's livestream selling is nearly copying xiaohongshu's livestreams. but since XHS does not cater to an international audience, most people wouldn't even see the trap that tiktok is making creators fall into
I like your jumper.
tyyyy 🫶 it's secondhand!!!
I didn't see the shein petition linked
sorry! here;
you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/say-no-to-shein
I believe no girl can say no to MOMCOCO ’s bags.
polyester = avoid unless there's an actual reasonable purpose for it like workwear garments or jacketa
How does a sustainable company with all of the extra costs compete with unethical companies who can undercut them by significant margins every time? The cost is hidden to the consumer and the unethical companies are never made to pay for the damage theg cause. Bit line goes up and there's so many profits for the already wealthy. System operating as designed.
I watched in another video how Patagonia is not the ethical brand it portrays itself as being. I don’t remember the details but when you said the founder gave up the company to make sure that the profits were going towards the planet, I was thinking ‘no, wasn’t that about putting it into a family trust for inheritance, tax and general opacity purposes’.
interesting, would love to see the video!!
I'd never understand people buying synthetic clothes...
May do a mix of negative and positive one after another. That's better because the video still gives off "we're all doomed".
If i'm too lazy? Cheers🌷
I don’t think it’s that responsible to put it all on the shein or the fast fashion industry. Shein won’t change global warming; it’s got to be a whole industry across the board change. Why focus on Shein when billionaires fly private planes Willy-nilly. I get that it’s a perspective, but it needs to be integrated into the bigger picture of consumerism, capitalism, the drive to the bottom at what cost.
this is definitely something to consider! I talked in a video recently about the dangers of focusing on just one or two brands and leaving the rest of the industry to its own devices whilst we sort out the biggest offenders
O brave new world!
I'd like to call-out the anti-science practice of not referencing the actual weather-cycle of an area when using it as an analogy or parallel to some other cause. I live in California; we have a 40-year flood cycle. That means every 40 or 45 years we have a major flood, we also have a famous fault in the earth's crust that runs under the city of San Fransisco that has it's own 100 or 150-year cycle. Recently our 40-45 year flood happen and it was used as "evidence" of extreme changes in the environment. All news articles did not sight the flood cycle even existing, or that it was first documented by the indigenous population who first planned their farming and lifestyle around it.
Before correlating a weather pattern in the recent past (less than 100 years), please consider first checking the local, historical documents of that region and the indigenous people's recollections. This misinformation use is very indicative of how White people and people of privilege often ignore the lived history of indigenous populations and erase the lived experiences of people of the past.
As a point of reference; most areas of the Americas have between 200 and 500 years of records regarding weather patterns, while Europe and Asia typically have records of individual areas going back 1,000 years. The Earth's weather cycles are longer then how we perceive time and it is very dangerous to the environment to always place our understanding of things within the confines of a human lifetime.
you're misunderstanding the terms 50yr flood and 100 year flood. these are terms used in the insurance, civil engineering, and land management field to refer to the % chance in a given year that a flood of a certain severity occurs. It does not refer to a scheduled seasonal flood. a 50yr flood is thought of as having a 2% chance to occur every year, but that doesn't mean you can't have it happen three years in a row and then no flooding for the next 147 years, it's just statistically unlikely.
linked is an example of how floods are prepared for.
any 1000 year cycles that may have been observable have been absolutely decimated in the face of anthropogenic climate change
If you want to pay $100 plus for a tshirt, $200 plus for jeans, jackets etc at all brands keep making videos like these. Mass produced fashion will never be sustainable. It never has been and never will be lol. These videos are a waste of time. And if we only used natural fibers in fashion that would also cause environmental issues. It’s a nuanced issue that won’t be fixed by abandoning polyester lol.
the problem is high price doesn't even equal high quality either these days either. and also i find the styles for "sustainable" brands really ugly...