we need to talk about fashion (no, not fast fashion) 

93% brands not paying garment workers a living wage is insane, companies being greedy is sadly a timeless classic

I believe there is a German saying along the lines of "we are too poor to buy clothes this cheap", with the idea that a more expensive item may stand the test of time, where an item that costs less may fall apart or fail sooner. Unfortunately it seems that cost and quality don't always correlate in this modern world.

I’m a bit older and I find it funny that when we talk about buying less, about pulling back from over consumption, people see the next step as “soulless minimalist neutral capsule wardrobes lacking in self expression.”😂😂😂 If you look at the stats involving fast fashion and clothing consumption over time you can see how rapidly it’s increased in just the last 20 years. But even 80 years ago fashion was still fashion. There were seasons and collections and innovations. There was self expression and trends and shopping dates. There was color. It was just LESS. Less often, less items each time, slower trends/ change. I know it’s human instinct to over correct. I know it’s seems to have gone too far (not seems, it has, it’s gone off the rails) and so the only solution is a dead stop. Dead stop and reverse. But if you try that you will fail. Fail to convince everyone. Fail to convince the majority. A good example is people trying to eat healthier or exercise more. We all know the biggest mistake is to overcommit, try to do too much too soon, try to be suddenly perfect and fail. In the same sense we need to start pulling back in steps. Buying less. Keeping longer. Even if we just reverse to how it was 20 years ago it would be a huge win. We wouldn’t be finished but we would be heading in the right direction. And I say this as a minimalist. A thrifter. Who also makes my own clothes or fixes up old thrifted items falling apart. Who barely shops and has 6 pairs of shoes I wear till they fall apart. I’m not saying this because I have a hard time stopping personally, but instead I’ve spent a lifetime fighting to convince others. The ones that aren’t so idealistic. The ones who just hear us telling them they have to enjoy life even less. I can remember when the average teenage girl only shopped 4 times a year. Once a season. And each time she would get a couple new items to add to/ replace the ones she already had. Right now, compared to what I am seeing, this would be such an improvement. Just my very unoriginal two cents 😂🤷‍♀️❤️

Fun anecdote, my sister does the thing of « community wardrobe » with here friends and she’s just 12, so if she came can come up with that idea and execute it means that there is probably a possible future in it.

Hand-me-downs are a sort of example of 'Library Economy' fashion. For a long time my mom was giving my clothes that I grew out of to her friends who had younger kids which they would fit.

Ive been a professional seamstress for a decade now, and its so frustrating to me to hear people say, "make your own clothes!" This solves nothing. It creates the same waste that was quoted earlier in the video because you still need to buy all the materials. Unless you're lucky enough to source vintage fabric, whih is very difficult to do. Yes, its very fun. But its still just as wasteful as buying new clothes and costs more. Thrifting and altering clothes is all I can come to.

I think another important shift that needs to happen is that people need to start learning how to mend clothing they already have and take proactive care of garments. So even if folks have the time, money or resources to make their own clothes, they can avoid throwing out clothes prematurely. Of course, so much modern fashion is not made with the same quality as vintage pieces but taking care of them will at least extend the life.

I really appreciate the exploration of the library economy in this! Thanks for the shout.

I advise everyone to do a no-buy year for clothes! Or at least a few months I'm doing this in 2023, and cannot believe it's already been 4 months. I started because, while I was only buying thrifted or fair fashion clothes (roughly 5 pieces per season), I felt trapped in consumerism - browsed vinted as procrastination, consumed a lot of fashion content etc. Now, I have to get creative with my old clothes or sew something if I desire something new. And it has totally changed the way I view style and especially trends. It's such a good and freeing experience. I kinda feel like I have an excuse to not care about trends for a whole year if that makes sense. And in the morning, it's more a 'that'll do' than careful curation - unless I really want to. But I don't feel pressured just because I'm a woman anymore.

I don’t understand why thrift shops have significantly raised their prices despite there being way more than enough clothes being donated

I have a capsule wardrobe but it's pastels and colors!! So it doesn't have to be boring- people are just very uncreative😅 Try a minimalist wardrobe just use colors and styles you love only and not just like!

The most sustainable clothes are the ones who are already in your wardrobe . Just stop buying, and try to create new looks with the clothes you already own. I use a lot of my mother's old clothes (old, like, from the 80s) from when she was my age,or my aunt's and I love them. I feel better knowing that she used so many times that clothes, but that I will be able to use them again as many times. The quality it's so good, that I know that new clothes can compare to this old ones.

I get this gross feeling about the whole thrifting community. Due to resellers and influencers, thrift shops have increased their prices significantly and the low income people who need to shop there have a much harder time now. Not to mention all the good stuff is taken and marked up 300% or more to sell on depop.

I live in Nigeria and there's this stuff called "orkrika" or "bend down select" and it's basically buying second hand or even third hand clothes that have been shipped from abroad cus people no longer wear them or things in thrift shops that didn't sell or things like that. In Ghana it has a term called "the dead white mans clothes". It's something that most people actually do that it's not really looked down upon unless you're in a higher class but it wasn't really looked as yunno.... aspirational. But some people often find themselves buying and claiming they bought it from a store. Now that tiktok and Western culture is more accessible to us on a deeper level, it's been repackaged and called thrifting and now people are opening online thritf stores and it's cool lol.

You can have a capsule wardrobe that isn't basic. Especially when we're talking about things like aesthetics. If you typically dress in a specific aesthetic whether that be one that's already mainstream or one that's kind of a mixture of everything that makes up you that's your capsule. A capsule wardrobe is just a limited number of pieces of clothing that you can mix and match Andre wear if your dressing in a specific aesthetic then everything you own should be able to mix-and-match fairly well. Of course we have things like costumes or fancy outfits that we wear on occasion. These can be shared items or things that we went but it doesn't hurt to have one or two special items that you own if you're wearing them more than once a year

I’ve heard an actual fashion designer mention that fashion can be one of the most waste producing industries out there.

I’m put off by so much of the stuff that’s supposed to be ethical/eco-friendly. It’s often so bland and itchy looking. It feels goopy, I can’t help but to associate it with new-age woo woo. It has been a struggle to keep my own style/identity while trying to minimize my impact. I probably need to break and finally start making my own clothing…sigh.

My problem with sewing your old clothes as opposed to thrifting is that the most polluting part of producing clothing is making the fabrics. So while making your own clothing is less exploitative it can be almost as polluting as buying it new. Of course if you wear it for a longer amount of time that's still a step forward but I don't believe that handmade clothes are automatically sustainable.

My college sort of has this! It's called the swap shop and all clothing items have an assigned point value, pants are 5 points tank tops are 2. You can bring in clothes you no longer like and then get new clothes. I go sometimes with my friends and its really fun and easy.

i love the clothes library concept!! i think these already exist on very small scales. for example, my mom, three sisters, and i are all similar sizes in clothes, and whenever i need something particular to wear that i don’t have, the first place i go to is their closets. all of us frequently borrow from each other and have very communal closets and it really reminds me of the library idea! it’s absolutely possible if we reframe our mindset towards goods and services to create a strong community rather than individual.

As someone who has always had to thrift for money reasons, it’s extremely annoying to have all the high quality clothing just gone now because it became cool. I remember getting made fun of for being poor as a kid then in college getting tons of compliments for my thrifted clothes. I’m not trying to gatekeep thrifting obviously but I do wish people were more thoughtful about their “thrift hauls” and also what they donate to thrift stores (recycling is a great alternative)

I don't disagree with anything said in the video but my issue is that I live in an environmentalist echo chamber online. While I encounter people who willing to explore these concepts online, rarely do I encounter them in my physical social environment. It may just be because I live in a largely rural section of northern New York but when I bring these subjects up in public, I almost never receive a positive reception. At best, I encounter people who agree with me, but have no real intention or perhaps no ability to take meaningful steps to reorienting our societies. Our communities are so fractured geographically that just leaves me feeling even more depressed about opportunities. Its proving to be so difficult to get society to take even baby steps in the right direction. What we do is no longer an obstacle in my mind, but rather how we achieve it. I do not want to come across as a doomer though so have keep fighting and have a peaceful day dudes.

The fabric that we used to make our clothes is made by underpaid workers too, it makes me feel very defeated when I learned that as someone who sews most of their wardrobe. It's bad for the environment too. I mean it's still better than buying fast fashion but we need to talk about that more, those workers need justice too

I can sew quite well - from a family of sewers. In the past I have made my own clothes. CONS: It takes many hours over several days to make a quality garment (something not made for show, as on Project Runway but made to last). 2) Sewing is quite expensive. The fabrics and notions can mean that a single simple item could cost upwards of $30 in materials. The more interesting or clean (fancy prints and finishes, pure organic cotton for example the fabric is extremely expensive). Fancy notions such as the hidden zippers that are standard on skirts and dresses are much more expensive than the kind of simple zippers that are on most jackets and pants. 3) Less variety. Fashion brands, even fast fashion brands, contract with textile mills to create fabrics each season. This means a richness of color, texture and prints that you will not find at most fabric stores, even online. A good example of what I mean regarding what is available to manufacturers but not the home sewer would be J. Crew. You can pretty much find any color you want for any item on their site and loads of refreshing patterns. 4) I dont know how much environmentally better this method is. The fabrics are still being produced using mega liters of water, creating loads of pollution in poor nations like China, India and Pakistan and are still shipped thousands of miles to the fabric store. And all of this without many of the benefits of economies of scale that may be occurring with garment manufacturer. Right now the system for home sewers and knitters is a luxury add on organized for hobbyists and for specialty sewing as for wedding dresses and special occasion clothes. As such, it is likely wasteful (and is certainly more costly) in ways that even the garment industry is not. At every turn, we deal with not what's best for us as individuals or the Earth but with what capitalism dictates 5) the clothes one makes at home or even has a seamster make tend to be quite customized. This means that their reuse value is limited. Manufactured garments come in standard sizes that (if they have your size) make them easier to fit and with standard features that also make them easier to wear. I can sew s favorite dress, made to fit my body perfectly that therefore no one else can wear once I'm done with it. 6) Most of us are used to and benefit from knit garments (by this I mean jersey and other stretchy fabrics found in t-shirts, leggings, yoga pants, etc). The changeover to knit garments from the wovens that were ever present in much of the 20th century have allowed for faster and simpler garment manufacture and also easily accomodate lots of different body shapes given that they stretch to fit. Those garments are harder to sew well with common machines, threads and needles. The variety of knit fabrics is also limited in fabric stores. 7) It is not always easy to figure out the fibers and finishes used on fabric you buy off the bolt. Those markings are often missing from the bolts - whereas with manufactured garments you need only read the tag. So, if it matters to you what you are actually putting on your skin or how that fiber is produced (a lot of the fiber production I'd pretty toxic) then there is no ready info. MENDING AND ALTERING - In terms of sewing, I would like to see people learn to mend/repair and alter their clothes so that they can wear them until they csn no longer be worn. If we were in the 1930s, many people would be making or having their clothes made locally. They mended their clothing and dresses were "made over" (altered, added onto, upscaled) when fashions changed or when you wanted something "new" to wear. Our views would need to change though overall re "fashion" which honestly is a capitalist and individualistic creation. We would need to be happy with smaller wardrobes and less turnover of our garments. Maybe the individual expression will have to come more from accessories (easier to make) than entire garments (this to your comment on the capsule wardrobe) - though there are capsule wardrobes made for styles other than that Ralph Lauren/Michael Kors beige, white, blue jeans style.

It is a very utopian concept. The economic library focuses a lot on the greedy behavior of large companies, however, it ignores our own concept of self. As much as humans belong to a community, we are also individuals who like to keep our objects and possessions.

getting a basic sewing machine was an expensive investment, but also one of my favourite investments of all time. I don't sew nearly as much clothing as I thought I would, but I have sewn SO many kitchen towels, bags, pouches, etc. random textile items for practical use, and I love that I'm able to do that, and has helped so much with home organisation and such. Last night I made a small drawstring pouch for a new phone charger cable I had bought, so it could be separate in my bag and not get tangled up. And I can have pouches and bags of good quality linen and other textiles with durable textures, rather than the flimsy cotton or even polyester that many cheap bags are made of. Also I've fixed torn up clothing so many times, or hemmed dresses/pants and so on. Wooh!!

18:43 the point about environmentalism not having to be a negative “taking things away” but instead about “making things better, cleaner, and safer for the future” is so so so important for changing the minds of people who don’t already support these kinds of concepts

Is a thrift store not already a library of clothes? You buy something used for less money than it cost to make or acquire new (usually), you wear it as long as you need it, and then you donate it or sell it back to a thrift store so it can have another life in the community. If you make sure to complete the cycle, then you've basically rented a garment for however long you wanted it. Maybe we need to focus on making clothing donation and resale standard practice (and make sure more donated clothing ends up in stores, rather than being sent to landfills). I loved the video! I really enjoy hearing you think through issues, and clothing and fashion are so important to creating a more sustainable but still beautiful world.

I am a fashion designer, I actually made my thesis in business about a sustainable business, the idea is making clothes for non binary people like me that are not boring or beige or has no shope. So I bought vintage fabric and made the collection and sew everything, learn a lot, but mostly how hard it is to make clothes in general, never mind making something hard like a blazer, the hours and hours you spent. So I know the struggle and I deeply feel the pain of every worker that gets exploded and gets paid like 0.20 cents an hour or less, it’s not fair. And if people would have an idea of the effort that goes into making clothes I think they would change their minds about fast fashion. But to my point was I made my business plan and had the numbers I knew it was going to be extremely hard to try and make that business work. Were I live people won’t pay you what the clothes are actually worth, and the fabric is not cheap, and I would have to make more clothes to gain something. So at the end I decided that I was not going to go through with that, because I was not going to be able to make really sustainable. And when most fashion companies tell you they are sustainable, it’s a lie, they can keep somethings in check but a real sustained company is the one that doesn’t make clothes. So now I give sewing classes and is cool to see how people want to make their one clothes, in the future I would like to give free classes to people that really need this skill, but in this capitalist society that seems unlikely.

As someone who has a very "nonstandard" body, to the point where I struggle to find off-the-rack clothing to fit me, the whole clothing library idea is an immediate no for me, and I think for anyone who also has a body that deviates from what is considered a "norm". I either make my own clothes or have my garments tailored to fit me properly. I just... don't own a huge amount of clothing and try to make sure I buy clothes that are high quality and will last a long time. And a capsule wardrobe doesn't have to be boring and beige! It absolutely can be if that's your vibe, but I personally love lots of color. I also have neutrals for mixing and matching, but I will never have a wardrobe without plenty of pink!! I think the key is to be content with less. The most sustainable option is always what you already own. We don't need to be on the bleeding edge of fashion. We can cultivate our own personal style, independent of trends. That's always made me happier, anyway!

Leena Norms is a queen 💕 I dress alternatively so that makes me look at clothes at brands like H&M or Zara and go "omg this looks soooooo boring, there's nothing here for me", but unfortunately last couple of years I've been seeing fast fashion (and by that I mean popping out a new collection every two weeks) creeping into some alternative clothing brands as well. I try to be more and more conscious of what I buy, I will still buy new clothes sometimes (from alt brands), but generally I try to thrift and also support small businesses/individual makers (on Etsy for example), and yes, those clothes can get very expensive (compared to Primark or H&M) BUT I know that when I buy them I help someone pay for food and rent, and not just add a new zero to a white male billionaire's account :)

I like your emphasis on sustainability while still prizing human expression. Your videos ask the tough questions and don't just revert to simplistic answers and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it! Every time I get important stuff to think about and wonder about. You're complicating my life--in the best possible way! Have a great week, Alice!

Making my own clothes (sustainability is a secondary reason for me) has been a lesson in quality. Anything i make that i really like gets abused like crazy. Im contantly learning tips and tricks of how to reinforce my garments to last through hundreds of washes. My goal is to make things i can still use a decade or two.

Haven't watched the whole video yet, but I just wanted to say that the whole sudden focus on the evils of fast fashion seems like a deliberate distraction from the near universal damages the fashion industry does as a whole, fast or slow.

More than dropping frames, Alice is dropping content. That’s more important. #Priorities

I'd be reluctant to use a clothes library or similar. Firstly, I'm an unusual size. I am 4'10 and not especially skinny. I want clothes that fit and look good. Petite in fashion terms exclusively means short. It does not mean skinny or extra small. I'm not interested in suggestions of places that make clothes in an XXXS or something, it's irrelevant to the discussion. I wouldn't expect a clothes library would have things in my size. If it did, I doubt they'd have things that I actually like. I hate beige. I hate grey. I rarely wear neutrals. I like colourful prints, but no neons. I'm extremely picky with the clothes I like and I'm unwilling to compromise on my style.

Do we get to consider the difference between the usufruct of books and the ones on clothes? Not only do your clothes affect your identity in a way that I don't see it coming to practical terms at the moment that one changes clothes several times a day, but also there's a matter of hygene that doesn't work remotely similar on both kinds of items. Also theres an issue about the respect for the public item, I don't imagine the life expectancy of a communitarily used-piece of clothe being too long. I see the problem with the fashion industry, but if I find that, if trying to convince people for the creation of a public bank system where financial burdens are commonalyzed is hard, convincing them of creating a system in which what you are wearing today was wored yesterday by your neighbour is gonna be seen as nonsense. I would rather point out in the direction of benefiting the local industry and charging those ones pollluting and mass producing than having to depend on these kind of community-shared clothes.

I love Leena Norms!!! I was so pleasantly surprised to see the two of you talking!

Solar punk visuals are pretty, BUT the two towers with trees growing from the balconies in Milan are super greenwash-y: to manage the load of the trees, the building has an f-ton of reinforced concrete that these trees would never offset. Also, the SP aesthetic always involves a lot of glass, which is super bad at keeping warmth in cold months and keeping cool in winter. There is also this thing called the sand mafia, who DW made a video about, look into it. I get fashion is a hot and sexy topic, but the building industry is responsible for 40% of the global co2 emissions. Any aesthetic that suggests demolishing the old and building anew is sus to me.

the clothing library is really good, but I immediately went to cleanliness. Dealing with pit stains, sweat, laundry detergent residue (most ppl use wayyy to much), dandruff, lice, bedbugs, etc

literally almost all the clothes i own are thrifted, but personally i dont like the idea of a library economy. i dont want to get clothes just for later to return them or have 50 other people who wore it before me. if im thrifting something its mine im not taking care of a piece of clothing just to return it later? also what do we do with people who steal the clothes from the "library"? people who dont return them? lose them? ruin them? its not a good system

As a fashion design graduate who dealt with this topic for years, thrifting is the no 1 thing we can do right now, full stop. - reduces demand for new - diverts garments from landfill (for a while) - accessible to fashionistas that can’t imagine self-restraint in dressing The package using resources is not really a necessary argument when compared to the resources new stuff needs. The fact that thrifting is the best solution WITHIN the existing system is not a drawback, it is its strength. Yes, in the meantime we need to build a fair trade circular economy. But until then we also need solutions.

Last year I visited Turku, a city in Finland, and I was surprised to realize that a *lot* of clothing shops had a rental system (a lot of those shops are advertised as second hand). Basically the shops were divided into small sections, each containing about 20 items of clothing (including bags and shoes), and you could rent the entire rack for a month. In some shops, the racks were created & belonged to the shop, and in others, they had been created by individuals lending their own clothes (and getting some of the profit). In some shops, you could buy individual items from the racks, and in others it was rental only. I thought it was a really good idea, to just get about 20 new pieces of clothing just for a month, if you love the idea of changing wardrobe regularly. Your video reminded me of this.

Good thing I don't buy clothes because I'm poor. I get to live an eco-friendly morally virtuous existence wearing ten year old t-shirts I got for free from a conference in high school

As a plus size woman, my worry about a library of clothes is similar to that of thrifting: how do I find items that fit me well?

I am fully with you that we need to change the whole system around how we see clothes and fashion! One thing I was sceptical with was your view on minimalist wardrobes, as your idea of this system is more based around the minimalist asthetic rather than the mindset. Having a more minimal wardrobe has helped me a lot with being more creative in how I style my outfits, being more frugal with what I have and use my clothing way more often. People should be able to express their individuality, but maybe having dragshows as an example is not the best idea because they are wearing costumes, not everyday clothing? You're also mentioning indigenous and traditional clothing, but as I see it, the fashion in these cultures and countries are very collectivist, not individualistic in their style. For example, the traiditional clothing in my country, Norway, the "Bunad" is very similar in its shape and form, just different to show which part of the country you're from. Maybe the problem with fashion today is that we have too much choice and show too much individualism, so we end up with closets filled with clothes we barely use because we have no proper guideline on how to dress, and we don't know our own true style. So we just keep on buying and fall victim to fast fashion trends because we trust others to tell us what we should wear. When you look back at historical paintings/photos/sculptures, everyone is basically wearing the same thing, just with little changes here and there to show off their individuality. Humans have mostly lived with a minimalistic closet through history (maybe except from the upper class), based on the function of the clothing, the available resources, their culture and the current fashion. I'm just thinking maybe having some kind of uniform is not too bad to minimize this rapid consumerism we see today.

LOVE that you brought up that andrewism video about the library economy!!! i may be biased since i work at a library but it's SUCH a good idea. i think ideally i'd really like to organize a clothing swap or something like that with other trans people (like.. i have skirts i'm sure some trans woman would probably appreciate idk) and i'm also incredibly fond of the idea of really really free markets, i don't think any happen in my area and i'm not quite a community organizer but like, things like that are really cool to me and it's a shame not many people talk about them !!

Hi Alice, thanks for another great video! The last image in the solarpunk sequence with the high-rise buildings with trees going up along the facades is the Bosco Verticale in Milan. It may look cool, but that project is absolutely not a good example of solarpunk. It's luxury apartments in a financial district full of new construction. Also I've heard that the trees and shrubs constantly need to be replaced because the planters are all quite small and the planners weren't really paying attention to what plants they were ordering, and whether they can survive such exposed conditions. I see the Bosco Verticale mentioned quite often as an example of futuristic ~green~ design but it's really just incredibly expensive greenwashing.

I recently visited a clothes swap party organized by Greenpeace. You could bring a few pieces and take a similar amount of other things back home. I immediately loved it. I could see people find my unloved clothes and being happy about them and I found some great pieces too. It's easy it's fun and it's free

My clothes wear out even when I'm the only one who wears them, so I don't think a clothing library would work for me.

I make a lot of my clothes now. I think sewing can be intimidating and have a bit of a start up cost, but it’s also a lot of fun. For those who can afford it, I encourage you to give it a try. It’s going to be a bit hard in the beginning and you are going to make mistakes but keep at it, keep practising and you will get there. I started in lockdown making masks like Leena and having a small project like that (repeated a lot of times) builds up your skill. If you have dogs or small children, practice by making clothes for them. I’m at the point where I’m making my own patterns. It’s great because I can make exactly what I want in exactly the fabric I want (always biodegradable, and I usually try to get ethical fabric made close to me, and sold locally. It’s a lot easier to source ethical, sustainable fabric than it is garments).

i've been thrifting since i was 15, i used to be a professional sewist for five years, i've been in the punk scene for many years, my mother is kind of an "influencer" on the slow fashion side of instagram, and this vid still got me thinking!! the library economy is sooo intriguing. i saw someone else say in the comments that making your own clothes creates just as much waste, but there are ways around that. i thrift all my sewing material, or get hand me downs bc people know i sew. & especially since im in the punk scene, i use my fabric scraps in all sorts of ways, like adding more patches to my jackets or crust pants. im in the middle of making a quilt right now with old scraps. i use my thread cut offs to stuff little pillows and stuffed animals. i saw a video on instagram of a small clothing brand making their zero waste purses where they include those thread cut offs in the final piece in a visible way. if it's in your own hands, you have the power to cut down on the waste or even abolish it!!!!

The suburb I live in has a 'buy nothing' group, and as part of that we have a lending library, where people can 'host' items at their home (not limited to clothes, could be power tools, sewing machines, craft/party supplies, anything you can think of!) and it's such a great system. For example, I work as a classical singer so have quite the wardrobe of fancy dresses/outfits, which I loan out to people for school formals (''prom" for those not from Australia!), parties, fancy events etc etc. Obviously they're limited to people who are the same size as me, but it's so helpful particularly for teens who just need a fancy dress for one day.

Something I try to do with my wardrobe is what i would call "catch-and-release thrifting." If I find I don't wear an item as much as I thought I would, instead of tucking them away in a closet or selling them for more money, I re-donate them to the thrift store where I found them. I think of it as sort of "replenishing the well" so that somebody else can enjoy these things again, and perhaps more so than I did. In the process of doing this I get to try on a lot more items for longer, and see how they look with various parts of my wardrobe. If I dont like them it's usually no major financial loss for a shirt or dress that was only a few bucks. I think it also encourages me to take better care of stuff, and has helped me narrow down what sort of things I like to wear.

Additional point: thrifting as a male - at least where I live - is almost impossible. I would really like to get into it, but it is always a disappointment since I rarely find anything that fits (I have a very generic body-type) and when I can, those clothes cost more than similar ones in fast-fashion. Which is sadly not an affordable option for me.

In my hometown, there has been a lot of interest in clothing swaps. They're happening so frequently, it almost feels like the clothing library you advocated for in your video. Right now, everything that doesn't get taken gets donated by the event hosts, but with a little bit of work (post-swap storage and inventory tracking would be the main things I can think of), I can see it becoming a more formal mobile clothing library.

I’m trying to streamline my wardrobe to only pieces I love. 3 things which have helped the most: picking a colour scheme (2-3 neutrals and 2-3 pops of colour), picking out 3-4 silhouettes (Pinterest really helped here, plus sticking to my “best” neckline for tops and dresses); and lastly always looking at the materials and care label to make sure I can look after the garment

yesss i love the collab with Leena! and i share a lot of your observations on thrifting; when i was in middleschool/highschool i was basically addicted to thrifting and i would buy items i wouldn't even wear later just because they were "good finds". i am working on my bachelor thesis right now and I'm still struggling to get rid of the thrifted items. i am simply drowning in them. social media, the contemporary pop-culture and the fashion industry promote the need to own so so many clothes, to own all the unique pieces, to never wear the same outfit twice. its not only not sustainable but also so tiring. i wouldn't say i have a capsule wardrobe right now, but i definitely limited the amount of clothing i own, so its no longer a "collection", but just a wardrobe of comfortable pieces i can rely on. the clothes i wear are no longer a mental burden and when i buy anything new (which is very very rare, maybe 2-4 times a year) i only buy from (rather expensive) sustainable brands. i don't want to make impulsive decisions, but rather well informed ones. i try to not only think about the aesthetic, but also the sustainability and workers rights.

While a society where we've implemented a "clothes library" and have sufficient mutual aid infrastructure to cover all of our creative and accessibility needs sounds utopian given our current situation, it's important to remember that the alternative to radical action is inevitable ecological disaster. Thanks for the video, always gives me new ideas to think about. Also I love @Andrewism's work, it was awesome to hear him featured in this video!

16:50 this is such an interesting idea. It reminds me of a bartering system that native people used to do, the idea that if you have to much of one thing exchange it for something you need. Of course this won’t work on the large scale of our planet. But even if we need to adapt the idea to our life it will always be better than what we have now. Also I can’t sew shit, so the idea of just needing to cook lots of food for some to have clothes in exchange delights me.

I got into this topic a lot over the last years and it’s truly quite hard to realize your own bad habits and then change them. inspired by a capsule wardrobe I now stick to my 100-Pieces Rule for my entire wardrobe, this includes accessories, shoes etc but not socks and underwear. i know i only like a few colours beside the basics of black and off-white and they are a specific shade of green and a little bit of purple. i found out that I love handmade linen garments and now I have my (in my opinion) very versatile wardrobe of 100 pieces for the whole year and I never get bored of anything. when i buy something new (which happens rarely these days) I part with something else. and before I buy something I ask myself „is it truly better than what you already own?“ usually it isn‘t because I‘ve worked long on my collection and i truly love and feel confident and happy with the pieces I ended up keeping.

I feel like with a library-model for fashion we'd see a shift toward clothes incorporating a lot more size-adaptive elements, like having hidden drawstrings somewhere, or featuring more wrap-like styles etc. Its interesting to think about how fashion could shift to fulfill those new needs that come up. In my city we have "bike workshops" where people can use shared tools to take care of their bikes and i think it'd be fun to have something similar for clothes, with materials for altering clothes and maybe a handful of more educated sewists being around a workshop to help people or teach mending skills.

I used to volunteer in a shop that was similar to the "library of clothes" idea. People exchanged clothes donations for points which they used to purchase clothes from the shop.

I feel like it's still possible for people to express themselves through a capsule wardrobe. Just like how the cycle of thrifting (buying, thrifting, reselling, etc.) uses energy and resources, so would a library system that requires switching clothes out with people in your community. It would also work significantly less efficiently in rural areas. While it's true that many capsule wardrobes today lean into a very specific style, wardrobes have been limited much longer than they have been limitless. Prior to the mid-1900s, most people only had a select number of clothes. The modern mentality of expressing yourself through many different outfits is not inherent to self-expression.

I absolutely did not expect the video to go in the direction it did, but I'm grateful. I almost skipped it entirely -- my own fashion rarely varies beyond jeans & black t-shirt, so I don't think about the topic much. But seeing fashion in the context of essential larger changes in culture, politics, and economy was very enlightening. The ending almost gave me a sense of hope, but as soon as I felt it, my anxiety increased. I'm afraid to hope and there are so many things trying to make it impossible -- but I know it's essential. Thank you for the reminder.

In the UK we have charity shops in which you buy secondhand clothes and the profit gets donated to charity (some going to utilities and rent though). My family often donates clothes back to charity shops after so many years because of style changes, size changes and such and continues buying different clothes from charity shops. Does this not act sort of like a library economy of clothes? You do pay money but it gets given to charity so its justified and clothes get recycled. Also having a big family creates a great clothing library for me even if they don't know they are part of said library lol. (also thank you for the video!

ahhh high school me was dreaming up these exact things -- clothing libraries, tool libraries, seed sharing, skill sharing (not the website but the actual doing things for people in exchange for them doing something for you with the possibility to teach each other things along the way) I like thrifting as a better option in the current system, but it would be amazing to have more community "free stores" and make that catch on so when people were done using something they could bring it there so someone else could use it. or go there to repair things for free. this kind of thing exists near where i live, on some small islands with pretty progressive/hippy cultures. sometimes there is a free store near a recycling drop off location so that people can take their recycling but divert the things from trash that can still be used. thank you for making this hopeful video so we can dream of a better future!

Just dropping by to say that my absolute favourite clothes are the hand-me-downs I have from my parents. The pieces are well preserved, altered, tailored if needed. My friends and I share our wardrobes lots so that we can have a bigger pool to experiment with outfits, but not everything fits everyone. I find that my mom's garments, whose body composition I inherited, always fit nicely. Most pieces they have given me are outerwear, denim, sweaters and accessories, that look as if you found them in H&M today (only cooler and way better quality). You can express yourself just as successfully with timeless and more "basic" pieces and I will die on that hill!

my main thing is people end up treating thrift stores like the mall. having huge hauls and such, where when i am in need i cannot afford a huge thrift haul and must only buy one or two things that i must have for work, or for recreational fashion. spending in excess at the thrift store takes away from the people who need thrift stores prices for necessity. i actually have found many thrifts have almost the same priced pieces as buying those pieces new!

In defense of the capsule wardrobe, while many magazines and some bloggers will have one think that minimalism and capsule wardrobing is about sticking to neutrals, simple shapes, and single material fabrics this is in fact false. As a member of several online minimalist communities (à la Facebook and Reddit), this lifestyle and it's aesthetics are diverse. There are colorful and eclectic minimalists and there are capsule wardrobes that live "beyond the beige", lol. Mine certainly does as jewel tones and oranges pair best with my complexion. Almost anyone can switch to minimalism and retain their unique aesthetic, or find one like I did via simplifying. So much of my non-minimalist life was quintessential American--doing way too many things at once. My wardrobe reflected that. Now, I have an intentionally designed (color filled) home and wardrobe that reflects me rather than trends.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I bought a new article of clothing(besides underwear.) I've been wearing my favorite coat for almost fifteen years and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon:)

I've stepped away from the idea of seasonal fashion purchases since the pandemic started, and it is remarkable how little I actually need. Many of my clothes are from high school, and I have Forever21 pieces that have lasted me almost 10 years now. I don't give them much special treatment, but I do try to be light on detergent and avoid putting more delicate fabrics in the dryer. Once something has deteriorated (aka is full of holes) I put it in a scrap fabric bag for future use. I'm trying to approach my purchases with a better eye for quality and longevity, and avoid buying synthetic fabrics as much as possible. Ideally everything I add to my wardrobe should last me 20 years, not 10, and be something I'm genuinely happy to wear. It's always a work in progress.

I love all of these ideas. As a mom to 3 young kids I've tried to think about how a library economy would work for them. The “take care” part is difficult when you just want kids to be free to be kids. I'd love to hear suggestions. For now, I think thrifting may be the best choice for their clothes.

"If it belongs to everyone/the community, it will be cared for" - if you ask anyone from the post-communistic countries, they will tell you the exact opposite: "if it's everyone's, it's nobody's, no one will care for it". I think both are true in different situations. Sometimes peoppe feel additional responsibility and sometimes people feel less responsibility than they would feel if it was theirs. There is a potential scientific research here to understand when and why. Of course, the library could issue fees for damages, so it's not really that big of a problem here.

loved the video ! the library of clothes reminds me a bit of the app by rotation. it’s rooted in a similar idea of people sharing the clothes that they have with others, people pay to rent them out and then give them back, making sure theyre in the same condition as the start. maybe ideally the ‘clothes library’ would be accessible in a different way & people would be able to keep the clothes for a long amount of time, but this seems like a good start. i know it’s a lot of people use by rotation for special events to rent out more formal clothes that they don’t have since they wouldn’t get used a lot, which makes so much sense when thinking about the value of a sharing community that views other people’s needs as linked to their own

THANK YOU FOR SAYING THIS! I've been a long time thrifter for my own clothing when I've needed something and the insane amount of people at the thrift store these days is absurd. It's like everyone took all their overconsumption impulses and have just switched to the thrift store. People need to have a real and serious consideration of WHY they are consuming and HOW MUCH they actually need in their day to day lives and remember that the most sustainable thing you can do is buy nothing.

I personally cant thrift usually, for reasons you said - I'm plus size simply because im tall, and struggle to find clothes that fit that are new. I try to buy clothes mindfully but it is frustrating having a non average sized body

Funnily enough, my quest for personal style, body type and essence made me buy fewer clothes. Each year since 2017, I have bought fewer items. Probably made less than 10 fashion purchases last year and I haven't purchased anything yet since 2023 started. Plus I studied fashion design years ago. I didn't graduate but I still have the skills, so making my own clothes is the best solution.

Really great food for thought! I studied textile design and also have been figuring out my style in charity shops and thrift shops over the years. I only buy clothes second hand! I'm loving the trends around people enjoying doing visible mending of their clothes, I'm darning my partner's jumper today actually. I'd also say to everyone, if you want to take this one step further, j recommend reading Alice Fox's latest book I think is called Wild Textiles? And Jenny Dean's book Wild Colour. The first explores the actual processes in taking things from plant fibres to textiles (Alice Fox makes textile threads from plants in her allotment, it's really cool!) and the latter explores using plants as natural dyes, doing away with toxic chemical dyes. Some combination of this library idea, plus those in the industry who have the skills to work on textiles changing their practices to help keep the library fresh and vibrant and mended, as well as making new pieces sustainably with the skills to use plant waste and plastic waste and natural dyes. Also, natural dyes are so cool! If you're interested in them I recommend checking out India Flint's work.

Alice: "If you told the queer community that from tomorrow they only get to have a capsule wardrobe, it's not going to work" Meanwhile Lesbians: "The government mandates 3 pairs of cargo pants and 5 flannel shirts per person? Shit, where am I going to get two extra shirts?"

Random thing, but I really relate to what Leena said about "vegetarian journey" of going from not eating meat because of environmental/health reasons to rediscovering my childhood disgust for it.

All I’m learning from these videos is that the humanity will need to breakdown many of the systems and networks we have today that help to establish some kinds of connections between people or things and begin living more communally and truly give love and care to their own little community pockets. It seems like a best possibly course for the future among others that I’m sure exist, or other variations of what I’ve proposed.

After thinking about it for two minutes, "library" concept for clothes would not work for two reasons. One, unlike books and their content, neither fashion trends nor the pieces of clothing themselves are long-lasting. Two, unlike books, you have to maintain clothes with washing, ironing, etc.. where would be the perceived responsibility when buying new clothes is often cheaper than professional cleaning? Actually, third reason: Seasonal clothing. Where would be the warehouses to store all the winter jackets after spring came around? After thinking about it for five minutes, it's also something we're already doing. In my familly, clothes get hadnded down between siblings, cousins, nephews or nieces... I grew up wearing mostly hand-me-down wardrobe. But who can afford to do that other than a large family who also has a family house to store it? So there's a barrier to it as well... (Not to mention that I had huge inferiority complex because can you imagine attending high school in clothes bought for your seven years older sister? ☠️☠️☠️)

The issue with this is then you get up charged for fabric (which may also have been made immorally) and you have to have the time to gain the skills to sew so it’s not really accessible or “fixing the problem” The problem is about how you are seen in “old” clothes. How things that are worn or patched are “bad” and must be hidden otherwise how can you be taken seriously? We need to look at not just fashion but the function of clothes themselves to solve the problems around making them - even ethical brands often don’t design clothes to be easily mended or to wear in rather than out.

can we PLEASE at least talk about how "thrifting" makes it extremely difficult for lower income people to find clothes that look good? and people who can afford paying full price for clothes taking from thrift shops and reselling them for a PROFIT, raising the prices to be unattainable to those who need them!

Love what Hannah said about how she grew up thrifting with her mom often out of necessity but also because of the beauty we can find in vintage and thrifted items. So cool to see thrifting being a uniter within families. I'm fortunate that my mother is also a crafty woman who sews, reupholsters, stains/paints, builds, you name it. Just for an example, she took the old barn door from my Grandfather's farm and put it on a roller system and suspended it over a doorway. She also took an old french door and turned into a desk for me by attaching table legs that she found on the side of the road and recycled wood from the beams in her Dad's barn. I use these skills on a daily basis as I'm an artist and an art educator and love to expose my friends to the joys of thrifted and crafting.

orthodox jewish communities (in ny and other parts of the U.S specifically) sorta have libraries for clothes! they’re called “gemachs” and there’s ones for baby/kids clothes, wedding dresses, wigs (cuz married orthodox jewish women cover their hair) and there’s non clothes ones too for chairs for events and books and stuff. usually they’re run by a woman in the community and sometimes there’s a fee but it’s usually for cleaning/upkeep and not to bring in a profit since it’s a community service basically

Don't knock thrifting too much. You can furnish, decorate, and fill your home with functional /essential goods by thrifting. I thrift for clothing only once or twice per year, and on each visit I donate clothes and household items to be re-used. Some for-profit thrift stores are gauging prices but there are loads of charity shops that sell affordable, QUALITY items that were made before the days of planned obsolescence. Thrifting is GOOD, it's just one piece of the greater puzzle of dismantling capitalism and creating a circular economy.

Library of clothes sounds very interesting especially the community aspect of it.

The idea of a library economy and Leena's ideas of a kind of barter system remind me a lot of the utopian(ish) society of Mattapoisett imagined by Marge Piercy in her feminist sci-fi novel Woman on the Edge of Time! It was released in the 1970s but is still so relevant today. Aside from some controversial takes on motherhood, it had some very good ideas for how to do sustainability (for communities and individuals). Worth a read if you have the time!

as someone who is a knitter, I can certify that a lot of wool/yarn is moved to and from China for chemical processing and dying, creating huge toxic residues in local rivers. given that 99% of wool comes from Australia or Latin America and is most consumed in Europe or the US, the logistic trail it leaves behind is enormous. there are ethically sourced or produced skeins, and many knitters are dedicated to buying them, but they will cost you a small fortune. sure, you can pay 200€ for a sweater you knitted yourself, but it won't make for 24 different self-made outfits to post on your blog unless you have a lot of money. the perk is that self-made clothing is good quality and adjustable, so it is supposed to last a lot. same thing would go for textiles - many aren't ethically sourced, not to mention the GOTS certificate that prevents child labour, etc. upcycling is a much better solution in this case, but it does not render very good results in knitting.

I've been thinking a lot about this type of thing as I've been learning to knit and crochet. I'm knitting my very first sweater while watching this video and just thinking about how I'm designing this sweater to be a forever piece, something I wear for the rest of my life because it's exactly what I want and it expresses who I am. I genuinely think the rise in popularity of making your own clothes, wither it's through knitting, crochet, sewing, etc. is a great thing and will help a lot of people get to a place of thinking more about clothing in a positive way.

I think the library of things is a good idea, but I'm not sure about fashion, maybe certain things, but as someone who didn't grow up with a lot of things, I feel really attached to most of my clothing, and I don't think I'd want to share my favourite pieces. But I like the idea of doing stuff to receive stuff, like I receive a handmade sweater if I do the equivalent time of something in return.

I grew up in a post ussr asian country and the idea of throwing out clothes has always been so foreign to me. The clothing was patched up, reused, transformed passed down to family or neighbours until it's completely fallen apart. Either way it always stayed in the community. Now we live in Europe and that idea has never left me, I only grew more attached to it with time and research. That is not the case for my mom who despite her knowledge of knitting, sewing, patching etc has always been a shopaholic likely because of the scarcity she had experienced before. It seems to almost be an instinct to her which I can't fully understand, however when I confront her about it and kinda force her to think about for more than a second she always changes her mind. All that to say, the fashion industry prays upon some of our primal instincts in addition to creating an environment that feels like everything is so ephemeral that we can't miss any of it. That's why the first step will always be take time and think, any change starts with that

Thanks Alice, this was good to watch. The library of clothes is such a neat concept.

I use clothes my mom used to wear at my age in the late 80s and 90s, that are extremely on trend and get lots of compliments, and it's INSANE how I cannot find clothes the same quality or design that aren't overpriced in a store or a second hand shop

I just LOVE seeing you collaborating with Leena, her work is incredible and refreshing!

Thift stores are essentially already a library for clothes. You don't get a long cycle life out of it because the clothes people choose to return are the ones that tend to be less useful for other people as well. When you finish reading a book, you're done. Clothes need to be continuously used.

A colourfull capsule wardrobe with a lot of personnality is possible. Daria of wonder-wardrobe inspired me to make my own. Now i have a selected number of clothing items i wear for many years without getting bored. I highly recommend :)

Thanks for making another informative and thought provoking video! I like the intent, but I'm a bit skeptical about the clothes libraries for two reasons: One, how to avoid the 'Tragedy of the Commons', where people treat the library clothes with less care because they are personally less responsible for the garment over its lifetime. Second, how to avoid 'Rent Seeking' where every aspect of society becomes a 'pay to play' subscription service. A good example of this is the car rental industry which has a similar branch model, and where people treat cars 'like a rented mule', and the rental companies replace their stock every year.