Thousands of Dollars for Trash

A few days ago I was mindlessly scrolling through Twitter when I came across a video of a guy asking some teens in Greece how much their clothing was and where they got it from. The teens in the video seemed to be no older than about sixteen years old, so I would think their clothing would be from brands that teens shop like Forever 21, H&M, or the Greece equivalent of that. But no, no, no … I was surely wrong.

London based YouTuber Kofi McColla, better known as “Icykof” who runs a channel named ‘The Unknown Vlogs’, conducts a series called “How Much Is Your Outfit?” In this series, he goes around to different places and simply asks people, “How much is your outfit?” In this episode particularly, I was flabbergasted.

I’m not one to judge or comment about how much someone else spends, but what gets to me is how people equate spending thousands of dollars on clothes to being fashionable. In the video, one girl’s outfit came out to be an estimated $10,800. She spent $220 on Yeezy’s, $1,800 and $4000 on Cartier earrings just to name some of the more expensive items.

People have money, so what’s the problem with them spending it? As our culture is becoming more “clout-centric” people turn their attention to what is popular, who you are wearing rather than what you’re wearing. Especially in the fashion industry, the name is more important than art. Clothes are becoming more basic and tending to a neutral color palette. It seems like more people would rather have more expensive items that are basic, to be considered “stylish” or “fashionable,” rather than spending less money on more colorful or non-traditional styles, and be considered different.

On the other hand, while some people are spending more, some people like me are spending down. Ask anyone 10 years ago if they would go buy a shirt from Goodwill and you would have been looked down on so quickly, but now thrifting is the hype. Thrifting is a great way to get clothing that’s unique, fun and cheap! One of my personal favorite things about thrifting is flipping the clothing and creating something completely new.

Fashion is fun. It’s an easy and great way to express yourself and show off your personal style. One thing I want people to keep in mind is just because you buy something expensive doesn’t automatically make you fashionable.

GIFs sourced from giphy

• expensive
• fashion
• fast fashion
• thrifting