princepondincherry:
shirinaazure:
official-lucifers-child:
still thinking about the brainrot that fast fashion has caused in people, like i made this pair of pants that are black and white with a cool flowery design, and an acquaintance saw them and said “wow i’d pay like 20 dollars for you to make me a pair” and i could barely think with how utterly horrified i was at that; i told them that 20 dollars wouldn’t even cover the materials, let alone the hours of work that went into cutting, sewing, ironing, hemming, altering, etc. they just had this look on their face when i told them that, when i said i wouldn’t make them a pair for even 100 dollars because that was still way too low of an amount, a look that said “you’re crazy for thinking that those cost 100 dollars” and maybe i am crazy but holy shit, 20 dollars for a pair of handmade, durable, lined pants fitted specifically to your measurements? 20 dollars for upwards of 60 hours of work? 20 dollars for several yards of high-quality fabric, thread, and buttons? 20 dollars???
I have had the exact same experience with Crochet. My college roommate was begging me to crochet her a huge queen sized blanket for her bed at home. I told her I’d be willing, but it would be expensive, not even just for the cost of materials (which would easily be 100$+ depending on the yarn she wanted) but the sheer time and physical strain it would take for me to make what she wanted, which was a huge queen blanket with cabling. When I told her it would cost atleast 600$ for her to buy it from me, she was floored. And then proceeded to spend the next few hours combing through Etsy to prove that was an excessive cost. Obviously, she failed because 90% of the blankets on Etsy are priced fairly properly and they all start at, like, $800 for a queen sized with just your basic-ass stitch. So, yeah, people have NO idea the kind of time, energy, thought and effort that go into handmade items in general, but especially clothes and blankets, cuz’ they can just buy the basic shit at any store for an abysmally small amount(thanks capitalism).
Also, you should never underappreciate when you receive a gift from a crafter, because that is a fucking honor with how much of their own personal time, money and energy they put into it.
Here’s the thing…I get what you’re saying, but unironically, yes, thanks, capitalism. It is a GOOD thing that we can buy cheap, generic shit produced in a factory. This has immeasurably improved the lives of millions of people, from everyone who can now afford good (or at least decent) clothes to the millions of people (usually women) who no longer have to stay at home hand-making clothing for the family all day. And before someone brings up sweatshops, even if all the textile factories had ethical working conditions with, like, unions and well-paid workers and shit, this would still be true because the entire point of technology and the economics of scale in factories is that it makes things more cheaply.
That said, yes, it does make it hard to actually find a buyer for your reasonably-priced several-hundred-dollar hand-crafted textile project. People need to realize that hand-sewn clothes or hand-made blankets are essentially works of highly-skilled art, and not be surprised when someone like you wants to charge “a lot” for it.
hey can everyone point and laugh at this person with me please? thanks
1) people had clothes. there has never really been a shortage of clothing. buying and making clothing has never been an issue except in times and EXTREME hardship (think like great depression level shit, and even then people found a way through using whatever materials they could, like flour sacks that mills started printing nice designs on specifically so people could still have nice designs on their clothing). clothing now being mass manufactured is not “immeasurably improving” the lives of ANYONE, because poor people aren’t going to big stores to buy mass manufactured clothing
1.1) mass manufactured clothing is SHIT. none of it is good or even “decent”. take it from a seamstress, those target jeans and hot topic shirts are flimsy and shitty as FUCK and it’s hilarious to see you calling that “good”.
1.2) historically, people didn’t need huge wardrobes. people had a couple sets of day clothes, some underwear, and maybe a formal outfit or two. having a huge wardrobe was something for only the super super rich, and it was (and still is) hugely wasteful. just look at any statistic regarding clothing waste that goes into landfills. how is this better? how?
2) human work goes into EVERY piece of clothing you own. there is not a single article of clothing that can be made entirely by machine. it needs to be cut and sewn by a human, finished by a human, designed by a human, etc etc. yeah sewing machines are nice, but a) we’ve been using them for over a century now and people were still making shit at home during that time, and b) they still need to be operated by a human. your point is null, you’re still needing to pay a living wage for the hours of work going into your clothing.
2.1) i seriously don’t think you understand how long it takes to cut and sew a shirt? or pants? like it’s not a 10-minute ordeal, even with mass manufacturing you need to cut out all of the pattern pieces, align and pin them, sew and/or serge the seams, finish the hems, add tags and pockets, etc. like i know we’ve all seen those “super fast workers” videos but a) that’s sweatshop behaviour, and b) EVEN THAT WORK DESERVES FAIR PAY. BECAUSE THESE PEOPLE DESERVE LIVING WAGES. MY GOD.
3) you can’t throw in the “usually women” there and think you can get away with your stupid argument by half heartedly appealing to feminist ideals lol. like do you hear yourself?
4) millions of people were not making clothes “all day” lol. read any journal or diary and making clothes is mentioned like maybe twice per year, because the clothing was made to last and people didn’t need to replace a disintegrating dress three seconds after acquiring it. we have clothing that’s millennia old because it was made to last. still-wearable shirts and dresses and overcoats from the early 19th century. that’s not gonna be the case in 2 centuries, because all of the mass manufactured shit will have fallen apart by then.
5) technically the majority of my pants aren’t hand-sewn. i sewed it machine. only the button and the little bits of embroidery here and there were done by hand, but otherwise everything was machine stitched. and you know what? it STILL took forever, because a sewing machine does not a pair of pants make.
