Wednesday, October 8, 2008


There's a fantastic post by Sadie on Jezebel about an exhibit of 19th century Native American clothing at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. "Fast fashion" is a touchy subject for me, and the value and significance of these garments is striking. Clothing doesn't mean as much today. There are small designers who make meaningful, sustainable clothing and people who make their own clothes from recycled materials, but it isn't the norm. At least when the apocalypse comes nobody will have a choice. OK, that's a pretty selfish thing to say, but Forever21 pisses me off. Yes, they have cute clothes, but in two months they'll fall apart and be out of style. And then they go to the landfill. And I won't get into the labor exploitation.

1 comment:

Penelope said...

Fantastic article! And I'm with you all the way about everything you said. I grew up in hand-mades and hand-me-downs, and my wardrobe even now is largely thrifted and re-constructed items. In fact it was kind of funny reading the line 'Take a look at what you're wearing right now. Chances are it's not gonna give many clues to your personal history' from the article; my shirt is a thermal I thrifted about 8 years ago, it's been dyed so many colours it's now nestled into a soft pinkish brown, is ragged around the edges and has been mended about 12 times. I still love it.