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Comment by tty2300 | Hacker News Reader

How do you buy less clothes? Having less clothes just makes the stuff you have wear out faster. All of my clothes have worn out in ways you can't repair. Putting a patch over a hole looks worse than having a hole.

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You may buy only clothes that you need and that's great but I'm almost sure that you know someone who buys dress for a one night out. Media and celebrities are always showing on the red carpet in new clothes and you never see them in the same clothes again. It is encourage to buy more and more clothes that very often are getting worn couple times and left in the closet forever. Some countries are better or worst at this. Here where I live, a walk-in closets are pretty rare, in USA they seems to be pretty much a standard. Why would you need a closet the size of a small room just to put there clothes of one or two people?

This actually is surprising news for me. I know celebrities do this but I didn't think real people buy clothes they hardly use.

I just can't bring myself to throw out clothes with holes in them and wear them on the weekends because I don't want them to go to waste.

IME in certain american social circles there is often an expectation for people (especially women) to come up with 'new looks' for social occasions, and not doing so is a sign that the person lacks taste, class, or wealth (or a combination of all 3). The most common noticeable thing is if a woman is attending many weddings, a husband may notice she insists on not wearing the same dress to each wedding. This is because if she does wear the same dress, she is highlighting that she lacks wealth or class at weddings, and if anyone notices her repeating dresses it is considered an affront or disrespect.

Ok, we just need a marketing campaign to reverse that. Same dress better than many since you are damaging the environment - shame on you! :)

I encourage you to speak with someone who works at Primark, H&M or other shop of this sort and ask them how sale day looks like, how many of them are happening during the year and how many recurring, known-to-staff customers they have. You will be surprised. I don't even mention one-time-use clothes for special occasions like weddings (even as a guest), prom, Halloween etc.

If you wear your clothes until they're worn out you're already doing well. There are many people who buy new clothes because they get tired of the old ones.

I patch my jeans and my gloves. It might not look very good, but it increases their life by at least 50%. I've also replaced zippers on jackets because they wore out.

That only works if you wear the clothes you buy until they're worn out. Most don't, most buy clothes and have them sit in a drawer until they make up their mind they really don't like them and send them to landfill or the charity shop. From the sound of things, you're not the problem!

Buy for durability instead of trendy stuff. Favor trekking or work clothes.

I have found that some trendy clothes actually last a long time and some hardly lasts at all. I think I if I pay more attention I could work out how long lasting shirts feel so I can pick them out when looking for clothes.

When it comes to pants I find the pockets always rip first which is really annoying. I haven't tried to fix them yet but I have been keeping them for when I work out how to put new pockets on.

Look at quality of fabric, fastners, and stitching. No matter if 10th generarion grandma or last years sweatshop worker on a worn out machine, the result is where the value is. Cotton, nylon, hemp, even rayon over polyester, ykk zippers are still the best, look for triple stitching, nice tie offs at ends of hems, yank the seam to see if its too tight and will bind and break...

Better yet, many custom outfits can be specd and ordered online for a modest fee if you are like many who don't seem to fit americian vanity, nor asian sizing.

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