I guess this is more of a thought piece than asking for advice, but I'd love to hear your takes on the questions at the end.

In the last few years I've seen posts across several brand subreddits complaining about higher prices and lower quality. Lately it was one about Aritzia that inspired this post. And it's objectively true. But I think it's not just a matter of brands being greedy, there are real external forces - ecological, political, and economical - that means we are never getting a $20 white cotton t-shirt that will last 10 years anymore.

What's happening at Aritzia is happening at pretty much all mid- and low- end fashion brands. Costs have gone way up, from cotton prices (yay climate change!) to higher rents, higher labour and shipping costs, and soon more tariffs, so if they wanted to maintain the same quality they would need to raise prices A LOT. But wages haven't kept up, so if they did that, people would buy fewer pieces because they can't afford more. Brands are faced with two choices: A) maintain quality, increase price, and sell fewer pieces; or B) decrease quality. maintain prices, and sell more pieces. Many in the fast fashion world are going route B) because they would lose their customers otherwise, while those in the luxury fashion segment tend to have gone for route A) because their customers can absorb higher price increases. One notable exception is Banana Republic that has gone for route A).

There is one "loophole", kind of, of up-and-coming brands who are in that early high-growth phase of trying to gain customers at all costs before they start worrying too much about profitability. But this is a phase rather than a category, and as soon as they get popular enough they're going to have to make the same tough decisions.

My question is how are you adjusting to this reality? Are you buying less, or accepting lower quality? I'm trying to buy better and buy less, but honestly "buying better" costs a LOT more than I was ready for. Instead of paying $80 for a sweater that is equivalent to the quality of a $50 sweater ten years ago, it's more like $250. I've had to make some tough decisions about not buying the trendy thing I wanted simply because I can't afford to drop that kind of money on something that might be outdated in a couple of years. I feel like my wardrobe has gotten more boring as a result, but maybe that's a good thing - fashion cycles now are too fast for anyone to keep up with, including the environment.