[0:08]Hello my beautiful doves. So I'm a little sick today, which is why if I sound a little bit nasaly, it's because my nose is congested. It's nothing serious, it's a cold. I just have a shitty immune system, so I get sick at like random times of the year, and I guess July is the time of the year that I'm getting sick for 2021, so. So for today's video, we're going to be talking about TikTok once again. I was personally late to the TikTok trend, I didn't make a TikTok until this year. But as I've been spending a lot more time on this hell app of eternal Doom scroll. I've realized TikTok has a problem. Well, there's many problems, but specifically in the fashion sphere of TikTok, there is a huge problem. It's arguably the same problem that's plagued YouTube and Instagram at one point, it's just relocated. TikTok is the new landlord. So, what is the problem you may ask? Capitalism. More specifically, one of those popular trends on TikTok is doing a haul. So, if you've been on YouTube for long enough, you probably understand what a haul is, but for those of you who do not, a haul is basically when you go and buy a bulk of stuff all in one go. and then you share the things that you bought with your audience. Now, I don't hate the idea of buying clothes because that would make me one big hypocrite, and that's not a cute look. But let's be honest, TikTok calls promote over consumption. Even though styling challenges and yes, I've participated a few times, require you to make multiple outfits for one video. And while these challenges in theory are harmless and meant to foster creativity, when people feel the need to jump in on every single challenge going around, that can lead to over consumption. And this is because to do well on the TikTok algorithm, you have to post like essentially every day. Much like Instagram, except with Instagram is just one photo, so one outfit. But with TikTok, most of these people are doing multiple outfits in one video. The sad reality is that a lot of people think that to make it as a TikTok fashion influencer, you have to have a lot of clothes. There's still a stigma associated with outfit repeating, even though it's something we all do offline. And because of the pressure to post every day, people are pressured to buy more clothes to make new content. This leads to two serious problems, one, the cheapest way to buy a lot of new clothes is through buying fast fashion. And two, trend cycles or micro trends are increasingly getting shorter and lasting only about three months now.
[2:39]So in 2020, Shein, the most popular fast fashion brand on social media, um, made about $10 billion in sales, up from $4.5 billion in 2019. And according to a report by Hype Auditor, Sheen was also the most talked about brand on TikTok last year. So, I feel like there's a lot of articles and videos on the internet talking about the crimes of fast fashion. Yes, it's environmentally damaging. Yes, it's very unethical because workers are working in Victorian era factory conditions. And a lot of the time these companies steal ideas and designs. But I also want to add a disclaimer that I am not going to take a dump. I'm not taking a dump on people who shop fast fashion, unless, unless you're rich and doing it. I'm going to get back to this point in a second, but I just want to say that lower income people are not keeping this industry afloat. They're just not. And a lot of people are using that as an excuse to support fast fashion, but that's just simply not true. You need to cut the. You really do. Okay? Just cut the. Okay. Now I've personally managed to stop buying fast fashion for most things with the exception of underwear and socks. But um, I understand that that is a privileged position to be in and I am so thankful every day that you all have been able to give me that financial security. But yes, I understand that it's a privilege and that there's a lot of gatekeeping around sustainable fashion. A lot of sustainable brands don't have inclusive size ranges, and um, there's obviously, like I said, a price barrier. But speaking of price barrier, I think one of the biggest issues with fast fashion is that it leads to the societal devaluation of the labor that goes into making clothes. Of course, if you're used to seeing $15 price tags and consistent 50% off sales, you're going to be blown away when you see a sustainable dress that costs $300. You're going to be like, that's outrageous. That's overpriced. But this is where I'm going to stop you because overpriced implies that the garment is not priced fairly, right? Well, it is priced fairly. Um, lingerie expert Cora Harrington wrote this Twitter thread back in December 2020 that has really stuck with me. Um, in this thread she's talking about a $1,000, yes, $1,000, um, lingerie set that she photographed and is responding to, um, how some people might insist that the set is overpriced. She writes, In truth, the set is constructed of French Chantilly Lace made by Sophie Hallette in the Calais region of France with Leavers Lace machines that are over a century old and take at least 2 people 2 months to thread by hand. Loading the loom with a new pattern takes at least a day. All lace patterns are drawn by hand - down to every thread. Someone walks up and down the machine to monitor it as the lace is made to help prevent major defects. Once the lace is made, any faults or defects are corrected by hand, and any loose threads are trimmed by hand. Any embroidery or embellishment on the lace (as there is on this set), is also done by hand. The people who work with laces of this quality are top level specialists. The lace is then marked up appropriately (because none of these employees are working for free), to be sold to, most typically, fashion houses and designers. As you can, there's already been a ton of labor involved, and we haven't even gotten to the lingerie-making portion yet. So, in this production process for this piece of lingerie, we have the lacemakers who make the lace. Then there's the lingerie designer, who designs the garments, creates sewing patterns for it, and purchases not only the lace, but other fabrics, elastics, casings, fastenings and metal components. The set that Cora was talking about specifically uses 24 karat gold, metal components, and real freshwater pearls. So, they're expensive materials. It then takes several days to sew the actual set, and then it is marked up appropriately to cover the costs of everything, but also because the designer wasn't working for free, so. And then the set is sold to a boutique, and the boutique pays for shipping, insurance, and whatever customs duties taxes apply. At the boutique, they usually hire photographers, models, makeup artists, hair stylists to take e-commerce photos to promote this garment. They also have rent if it's a physical store, overhead costs, employees to pay because they're paid fairly. Um, and any other kind of costs that go with running a store. And this is what the final markup price covers. Of course, not every garment goes to a boutique, some designers have their own stores where they sell directly to customers, but um, as you can see, even in the manufacturing process itself, it's a lot of time and it's a lot of money. It takes weeks, sometimes months to bring a product from production to our doorstep. Compare this with fast fashion. The lightning speed at which these companies operate at to get the $5 version of a Mugler bodysuit into our hands is crazy. According to this one article I read, Shein gets a product from drawing board to production, to live online in as little as three days. How convenient is that? Wow, how convenient is fucking that? Why is this a bad thing? Well, other than stealing a designer's hard work, the turnover rate for fast fashion leads to over consumption. And over consumption leads to a negative environmental impact. To put it into perspective, the average American throws away about 81 pounds of clothes every year. And the majority of fast fashion garments are not constructed to last. They're usually made of cheap synthetic fibers like polyester, which is essentially plastic. Polyester can take up to 200 years to decompose, which is especially bad because the industry produces over 100 billion new garments every year. We're essentially living on one big pile of plastic. And you know what, it really sucks because I really believe fashion is a great creative medium for everyone. That's kind of why I encourage thrifting or buying second-hand rather than buying something completely new. Full transparency, the majority of my closet is second-hand, and I'm not trying to offer second-hand shopping as this like poor person consolation prize. I think for everyone thrifting or second-hand is the most sustainable option. Because the reality is, even though I'm sure there are some sustainable brands that are sourcing fabrics that are organic and that can biodegrade and are paying their employees well. But something needs to be said about the fact that there are tons and tons and tons of clothes that are just sitting in piles. The more of those clothes that we can actually put to use rather than just throwing away into the land fall, the better it is for the environment. But with that said, there are also a lot of amazing designers that deserve to eat as well, so I'm not saying like don't support them, but you know, just be conscious of the situation. Which brings me to my next point.
[10:01]So for much of the 20th and early 21st centuries, a trend cycle would last about 20 to 30 years. But nowadays with the invention of social media and the internet, the trend cycle has gotten a lot shorter. This is when we start seeing the rise of things like micro trends. How are micro trends created? I'm going to read this little excerpt from wrap compliance.org. Before the rise of TikTok and Instagram influencer culture, we looked to models, movies, celebrities, and fashion magazines to set the trends. This group of people was small, and our access to them was neatly curated. This ultimately limited our exposure to potential new trends and kept fashion cycles slower. However, with the rise of social media, celebrities now have a stronger hold on our culture because we have more access to them. And brands absolutely know this, which is why they hustle to get big celebrities like Kylie Jenner to wear their products, because they know that immediately after she posts the clothing item, it's probably going to become a trend. And our culture is still the same as it was. We all race to the store to buy what she's wearing because she's a celebrity, and if we can't afford it, we buy a fake. But nowadays, rather than just showing up to a party wearing the latest trend, impressing our local community, we post a photo or video online. Because in today's world, anyone can become an influencer, and to be an influencer, you have to be ahead. But of course, everyone has the same idea, and everyone online is now posting the same dress. It's no longer cool, let's trash it. So, obviously, if we're experiencing extremely short trend cycles, the buying to trashing, um, pipeline, increases in frequency. And brands absolutely perpetuate this with their influencer marketing strategies. Brands will send out hundreds or thousands of PR packages to macro and micro influencers, all at the same time, so that when they all unbox them at the same time and upload them at the same time, it feels like this trend is extremely oversaturated.
[12:26]So, like I said, the people who are buying fast fashion because it's all they can afford, are not the ones contributing to the dominance of fast fashion. Because generally, these people actually cherish their clothes, and they don't have the disposable income to be buying new clothes every couple days. But the people who buy $900 Shein hauls, So I did it, I got on that Sheen website, S H I E N, I don't know, and I wanted to be like everybody else, so I ordered a bunch of stuff. Who throw out their clothes every two months, who take a dump on people for wearing outdated trends, It's 2020 trends, toss or keep. Scarf tops really had their moment this past year. I say keep, but only for like another year. Animal print pants, toss. Fringe hems, they got to go guys. A little fray here and there is awesome, but that's too much. How do we justify that? And it all becomes a vortex, because people who genuinely love the trendy pieces that they get, because yes, that's possible, you could still love a trend even after it's long since died. And the trend will come back anyway, so don't worry, but you'll probably be shamed or pressured into throwing it away by other TikTokers who are cosplaying as the most popular girls in school. For example, House of Sunny's Hawkney dress was getting some controversy on TikTok a bit of time ago. Because the dress became trendy so fast, it also became old news very fast. I recently bought this House of Sunny dress. I've been saving up, and I love her so much. Um, but as we all know, she was more famous last year because of Kendall Jenner. Now, on TikTok, it's popular to roast this dress into shreds because it's not considered cool anymore, which is so stupid. I think it's a genuine problem where people are just buying whatever trendy pieces or whatever trendy dupe there is out there without really thinking about whether they're going to want to wear this piece months or years down the line. Or sometimes they'll just buy into the trend to make one TikTok video about it so that they can get their 15 seconds of fame and then the dress goes straight to the charity shop after. Or they'll return it to the store and that's honestly not great either because stores do throw out their excess um inventory. Like if you could take away one thing that I say from this entire video, I just really want people to become more thoughtful consumers. Now, no one's a saint, like it's kind of a lot to ask for someone to never buy anything and just to live minimally. Um, I know that's not realistic. But the act of consciously buying massive hauls or trendy pieces just for some social media clout, all while knowing that you're going to throw out everything within the next two months, that shit doesn't sit right with me. Now let's get positive, because that was a lot. I don't want to take an enormous dump on TikTok because I do recognize that there are great communities on TikTok. On the fashion side, there are a bunch of accounts that uh do upcycling tutorials, and upcycling is basically a practice in what you alter your old clothes to make them newer and trendier. TikTok is also a great way to discover aesthetic communities like Cottage Core, Regency Core, Dark Academia, all of which I know, um, grew a lot because of TikTok. And I love aesthetics, I think not only do they create little lovely online communities for people who share the same interests, but they're also a great way to side step micro trends and over consumption. Because if you're really subscribed to one look, you're obviously not going to chase whatever new trend the Kardashians are wearing. And a wonderful thing about aesthetic communities is that while yes, there is like a spending element to it, as there is with most things. But at the end of the day, I feel like aesthetics go beyond fashion. For Cottage Core, the aesthetic extends to gardening, cooking, sewing. Um, for Dark Academia, the aesthetic extends to reading books, learning new languages, brewing tea. These are hobbies that don't necessarily feed into a material desire.
[16:39]Okay, everyone, thank you so much for watching. Oh my God, I'm I just got like super congested as the video moved on. So I really apologize, but I wanted to keep making videos because usually when I'm sick, I can stay congested for literally up to a month because my immune system is shit, so I just didn't want to keep you guys waiting for that long. I know fast fashion is always a sore subject on social media because, you know, no one wants to be reminded of climate anxiety, but it is really important to discuss, so I want to use my channel in this productive way. I also want to reiterate that corporations and the 1% are the ones who are creating like 99% of the problems and we shouldn't lose sight of that. But I also feel like you have to follow some kind of personal moral compass because if you don't, it just ends up reading nihilism, and if we ever want things to really improve, we need to stay passionate and we need to stay bold. So on that note, I'm going to head out. I'm going to get some cough syrup and I'll see you all next time, hopefully with less mucus in my fucking nostrils. I hope you have a lovely rest of your day, and yeah, bye.
