I’ve covered a few Instagram related scams and fake designer items on here before, but I haven’t really gone beyond there when it comes to fashion. So for today’s post I thought I would round up some of the biggest everyday fashion related scams that we need to be aware of in order to save our pennies.
Now I use the term “scam” quite loosely as these aren’t necessarily dishonest schemes/fraudulent activity in the traditional sense, but they’re scams in that they pry on an unsuspecting customer’s ability to steer clear of tried and tested ways of making sales.
Trends
Let’s get real – trends of the season for any label whether it’s haute couture, ready to wear or fast fashion are all scams. Nobody really needs to buy themselves an endless supply of clothes when the new season rolls around, dumping their old lot off on some poor unsuspecting charity shop that’s never going to be able to shift the tat dropped at their door as it was poorly made and not decent enough to re-sell.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – we don’t always need to invest in trends to keep up with fashion! If you’re happy enough wearing the old style of boots and don’t feel you need to get the next season’s as they’ve got tassels on, you don’t have to buy them! You also don’t need to feel pressured into buying something if you’re not convinced it suits you in order to feel “relevant”.
As a fashion blogger I’ve found myself getting drawn towards trends that don’t fit into my personal style as I’ve been scared of not being relevant to the times. There have been the odd times that I’ve bought into these trends, but I’ve got a lot more self control now than I’ve had in the past and hope that this blog represents individuality and not following the crowd.
Fast Fashion
Okay, if you’re a long time follower you know I hate fast fashion and the impact is has on everyone and everything – the way they conduct business makes it impossible for me to ignore and I can’t comfortably sit here and recommend you go ahead and buy all of your clothes from them. When I refer to fast fashion for this point, I’m mainly referring to the online companies such as Boohoo, Missguided, Miss Pap, In The Style etc.
Following on from the above point, many fast fashion brands focus on trends – as quickly as they come in, out they go and in order to keep up, you’ll need to buy more. The quality of the clothes is usually shit and it’s typical for you to wash a brand new item, only to find it’s warped in the wash due to it being cut from the off-cuts. Fast fashion is a fucking scam and I’ll shout it from the rooftops.
Sales
Sales are a great tactic for retailers to shift old stock in order to make room for new items. However, I say sales are a scam as the majority of clothing you find on a sale rack are those that you wouldn’t normally buy. For example, I remember being in Topshop a couple of years back during the annual Boxing Day sale and came across a pair of white, embroidered Jamie jeans. Ordinarily I would never have bought them, but as they were only £10 and the shape was one I knew fitted me well, I was scammed into buying them. I probably wore them once and left them in my drawer before eventually chucking them in a bag to be donated to a charity shop, thus wasting £10 and space in my wardrobe for something I truly love!
Just because a company calls themselves “sustainable”, doesn’t mean they are
I’ve got a load of posts where I’ve looked into fashion brands and whether or not they’re ethical, so this is a point I’ve become very aware of. By having one line of clothing that is good for the planet, doesn’t cancel out the fact that the rest of their stock was made in a sweatshop, with chemicals polluting the local environment and workers being paid next to nothing for the hard graft they put in for 12 hours a day. I won’t delve into this one too much further as I’ve got some more posts planned to cover this topic – don’t want to bore you with the details.
In summary, life is a scam but we’ll all continue to buy into it because… fashion.
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