Like dressing up for Halloween, the trend has taken off in other countries including the UK and Australia, and of course online. Black Friday is now officially a thing everywhere. Here in Sydney, my phone keeps pinging with texted special offers - plenty of them, I have to say, from sustainably-minded smaller fashion brands. Few are immune.
With the current pressures on the retail sector, many brands are reliant on shifting sale stock. We are over-shopped and over-stocked, producing too much fashion for our collective needs. If you feel the pressure as a potential sale shopper, you can bet retailers feel it more. And what’s so wrong with grabbing a bargain anyway? Who am I to say you have to pay full price? What if you can’t afford it? Perhaps it smacks of sustainable fashionista privilege to be coming down on something that democratises access to more affordable goods.
By all means wait for the sales if you can’t afford something you really need (or really desire). No shame in that. But at the same time, I believe we must look deeper into the causes and effects of rampant sale culture and also interrogate the idea of affordability. Who’s paying the real cost? You probably know it’s the planet. But did you know it could be you too?