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Comment by woodruffw | Hacker News Reader

I think you maybe read a little too much optimism into my fascination :-)

I think fast fashion is pretty awful, all around. Clothes are cheaper than ever (great!), but we're also buying more, lower-quality, more wasteful clothes than ever.

(One of the things that fascinates me about this trend is how bimodal the apparel market is: a reasonable but naive assumption is that economies of scale would also lower the cost for clothes made from nicer textiles - especially when manufactured in the same locations - but instead anything that's "nicer" than low-weight cotton gets a quality tax.)

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I'm thankful there's been a bit of a Renaissance in accessible well made garments. Mostly cottage. Or maybe I just didn't know where to look before.

A few pairs of darn toughs, ridge merino base layers and well made denim will last you a decade. Also unless you're exercising in them hardly needs any washing. Just doesn't smell. Ymmv

Can't imagine wearing all that polyester and acrylic crap. Doesn't feel good, doesn't look good, doesn't last, and yeah microplastics.

I like all the tuff you do and I also have a Patagonia Synchila it’s the most comfortable thing I own

There were some comments here not so long ago in a related thread about the enshittification of either (cannot recall) furniture (compared to ikea) or household appliances (why a 1950’s fridge may still be working while one from 5 years ago is already dead). The bimodal sentiment/comment was also applied for those markets, as a complaint of why couldn’t there be some midrange stuff for ecologically-conscious but luxury-adverse people.

The “conclusion” was that people looking for the cheapest stuff are going to inevitably buy at the cheapest end, provoking a race to the bottom for manufacturers. People who like brands, quality, or status will go to the high end, independent of price, creating incentives for the companies to just sell things more expensively for a higher margin. There just wasn’t (according to the comments) enough market mass (nor business interest) to cater for that middle spot that ironically so many of us are looking for.

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