Quality or Quantity: Our Relationship with Clothes

Graphic by Emily Ulfig

Media has had a tight grip on society’s shopping behavior for a long time. It is so easy to be influenced into buying the newest water bottles, crossbodies, work out sets, Louis Vuitton purses, Ray Bans, Mini Uggs, or Sambas when these expensive products are deemed necessary to creating a specific identity. 

Consumers appear to prioritize spending on bags, sunglasses, shoes, water bottles and scarves over the clothing itself. Why is this? Do accessories define an outfit? Does quality define an outfit? Why are we willing to spend $200 on shoes, but only $20 on jeans? 

Media has created an almost impossible circumstance where you have to have the most expensive clothes, while simultaneously having an abundance of clothes. This has fostered expensive trends that everyone is expected to spend money on, as well as the consumption of clothes on a large scale to have the perfect outfit for every occasion.

Many people have a pair of shoes and a bag that is tailored to a specific occasion, each carrying the story of where we have been. On the contrary, consumers will buy a new dress for every event and a new top for every party making it more difficult to celebrate the clothes we already own, the excitement of when we first found them and where they have gone with us. 

So why might we have this relationship with the clothing itself? Oftentimes the first instinct of a shopper is to spend the least amount of money possible on articles of clothing. We see this in shopping haul videos, especially where the emphasis is on a low price of a large quantity of clothing rather than quality pieces. 

It almost seems that there is a quota of quality pieces in an outfit that needs to be met. Once there are enough “high fashion” items on our body we turn to fast fashion. Many are eager to find Amazon dupes for trendy items to align with their fashion identity, yet the materials may eventually fade, stretch and tear. 

Picture your freshman year of college and you are putting together the traditional “going out outfit.” This most likely includes your favorite pair of jeans, airforces, an it girl bag, and any top that cost $5-$15 and will last for a year or two before getting cast aside or ultimately thrown away. 

As per this example, it becomes so common in college to purchase a large variety of going out tops and ripped jeans that serve one function only, but what will happen to these tops after the four years are over. The items that last, our frat shoes and the trusty purse that holds our keys, are the ones that we have given this association to. 

All of us could use a little “de-influencing” to show us that all of those clothes are not the thing standing between us and the person we view on the screen, then we might love our clothes a little harder.