The Treatwave: why our spending habits don’t match up to the cost of living crisis

Cost-of-living crisis: clothing and footwear sales spike

Credit: Courtesy of illustrator

Fashion


The Treatwave: why our spending habits don’t match up to the cost of living crisis

By Naomi May

3 years ago

1 min read

Despite soaring inflation and cost of living, sales of clothing are reaching record highs. Why is it that our spending habits aren’t aligning with the cost-of-living crisis? 

During the pandemic, Aerin Gold made a pact with herself. She vowed to purge her wardrobe of pieces that didn’t align with the personal style she’d been curating for herself during lockdown. Her new palette was minimal, meaning her wardrobe of sentimental florals and 00s low-rise waistbands was scaled back, piece by piece, until there was “nothing left.”

“It was a feeling of unlimited potential, as if, if I purged everything that was in my wardrobe, I’d feel cleansed almost,” she tells Stylist from her home in North London.

The result was that her wardrobe was indeed minimalised, but once the world opened up again, this also meant she didn’t feel that any of her clothes suited post-pandemic life. “It went from 0 to 100,” she adds. “I felt so good about having cleansed everything that I didn’t wear anymore, to realising that life was sort of back and I had nothing to wear.”

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