At what point in time did rewearing outfits become frowned upon? In the early days leading up to the 1800s, most people had only one or two outfits in their entire wardrobe. How did we get to an era where rewearing an outfit is considered a bad thing?

There are often posts on social media about rewearing an outfit and whether it’s considered beneficial or basic, chic or lazy. There are multiple different ways of viewing it, but rewearing clothes doesn’t have any actual negative effects, whereas wearing a new outfit every day can do more harm than good. 

Rewearing clothes didn’t become a bad thing by accident; it was taught. With the fast fashion industry pumping new clothing “trends” into their “stores” twice a month, and social media promoting buying 500 dollars worth of cheap clothing, it makes sense why society has an obsession with buying new.

Let’s look at the Industrial Revolution. This time period was known for the advancement of efficient and stable manufacturing processes. The textile industry was the first to use this process. Textiles then became the dominant industry for employment, money and production.

This is where the production of fabrics and clothing became high in demand, and factories and stores were being built everywhere to sustain this demand. Clothing was being produced at rates it had never been before, and those with money began to buy more and more.

Buying a lot of clothes is pretty normalized today. While clothing is a necessity, overconsumption of clothing, or really anything, always has its downsides.

Cheap clothing always comes at a cost. The 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse that happened in Bangladesh is one of the many examples of the horrors that can come from cheap clothing made by these fast fashion companies. 

2,500 people were injured, and over 1,100 people died in this collapse due to the negligence of the owners. The building was unsafe to work in and was ignored by those in charge. 

An article by Mari Rich written for EBSCO touched on how, a year prior, more than 300 workers protested for better working conditions and living wages, but they were completely ignored.

This is the cost of cheap clothing. Many factories and companies will create cheap clothes at the cost of their employees’ wages and working conditions. 

There is also the matter of environmental impact. When consumers overconsume, a lot of their belongings end up in landfills once they are done with them. 

Americans alone account for the 11 million tons of textile waste in these landfills. Most of these landfills are made up of polyester, a fiber that can take hundreds of years to decompose. Once they do decompose, they send toxins into the soil, which hurts the soil’s health and can contaminate other ecosystems.

There are many other examples of how waste and landfills contribute to global warming and harm our ecosystems, and I think that this relates to why being mindful of our clothing is so important.

Once upon a time, clothing was a necessity, not a simple want. It’s okay to own many articles of clothing, and it’s okay to want more. The true question is, are we buying too much? How much clothing are we wasting simply because we want more?

Rewearing an outfit doesn’t do any harm to you or the world around you. There are many different ways to style a single outfit. Having a versatile wardrobe can help with having pieces that you can style in any way.  

Be mindful of how much you’re buying. Be mindful of where you’re sending your clothing once you’re done with it, and pay attention to where and who you are buying from. 

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Hi! I’m Hannah Planey, A Magazine’s editor-in-chief. My staff and I are committed to bringing you the most important and entertaining news from the realms of fashion, beauty and culture. We are full-time students and hard-working journalists. While we get support from the student media fee and earned revenue such as advertising, both of those continue to decline. Your generous gift of any amount will help enhance our student experience as we grow into working professionals. Please go here to donate to A Magazine.