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Love it or hate it, fast fashion is here to stay. If you’re tired of hiding your online Shein purchases or donating your hauls every few months, but you can’t quite quit the easily accessible clothing titan, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. While it’s ideal to shop slow fashion, there are ways to buy fast fashion with no (or few) regrets. These are our favorites.
Fill Holes in Your Existing Wardrobe
Fast fashion brands are savvy at luring you in. Their low prices, eye-catching ads, and carefully constructed websites encourage you to buy more and more and more every step of the way.
Break free from that impulse by only shopping for holes in your wardrobe. Turning to fast fashion for a specific item can keep you from overbuying.
Buying fast fashion isn’t inherently evil, it’s just not as ethical as many other avenues. But, one way to be intentional with your fast fashion purchases is to only buy an item you actually need — nothing more, nothing less.
Shop Staples That You’ll Wear a Lot
With ultra-cheap clothes comes a lot of dreaded single-purpose buys. You probably won’t wear the pair of green fur-covered knee-high boots you bought for that sexy Shrek costume at your 9-5. While we can’t stop you from cluttering your closet with clothes you’ll only wear once, we do encourage you to try and shop for staples instead of single-purpose stuff.
Look for those hoodies, sweats, t-shirts, tanks, and so on that you’ll get a ton of use out of. It might not fully balance the scale, but it will be a step in the right direction.
Avoid Micro-Trend Items
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Cottagecore, mob wife aesthetic, coastal grandma, balletcore — the list of microtrends goes on and on and on. Fast fashion companies hop on microtrends like animals on a watering hole in a drought. Yet, the nature of microtrends is that they’re always fleeting. Those princess dresses will fall out of favor and 80s power suits will prevail.
Instead of jumping on the hamster wheel and encouraging this untenable output of new, cheaply-made clothes, avoid buying a new wardrobe every time a microtrend emerges unless it fits with your typical aesthetic. A new piece here and there is perfectly fine. But a slew of new things every two or three months is expensive and impossible to keep track of.
You will donate or gift many of those micro-trend items. It’s not about if, but when.
One way to keep micro trend items from piling up is to challenge yourself with a "1 in, 1 out" rule. For every new item you bring in, you have to sell or donate an item you already own.
Read the Tags or Listings for Fiber Content
Natural fibers are longer-lasting than synthetic fibers on the whole. Check tags when shopping in stores and the materials section if you’re shopping online to find out what fiber content an item has.
The higher the percentage of natural fibers like wool, cotton, bamboo, linen, and so on, the better the fabric will hold up over time.
Fast fashion isn’t known for being particularly long-lasting, but a small measure like checking fiber content can make a big difference in the life of your clothes.
Stay Out of the Sales Rack
Now, getting a good deal is never something to sniff your nose at. However, those giant sales pop-ups and "spin the wheel for (x) amount off" that litter these fast fashion websites take advantage of you. They're another great flashy tactic that will draw you in and distract you from the real reason you visited the site in the first place.
There will be 15 things in your cart before you know it! Keep out of the sales rack and off the sales tab unless you're looking for something that hits our other criteria.
Look for Items That Are Easily Mended
You have to face certain realities when you buy fast fashion, like its fragility. Seams don’t hold up quite like they used to. Mending might be a forgotten craft, but it’s one accessible to most people who have a needle and thread.
When you shop fast fashion, look for simply constructed pieces you can easily repair. Complex patterns, pieces with lining, or unforgiving fabrics can be hard for novices to maintain. But cotton t-shirts that wear out in the armpit are easily sewn back up to be as good as new!
Sometimes Fast Fashion Is Your Only Option & That’s Okay
From low income to accessibility issues, sometimes fast fashion is your only option. While shopping local businesses or thrifting makes the best economic and ecological impact, there is a way to make fast fashion work for you. Shop smarter, not harder with our shame-free fast fashion buying guidelines.