Change is in the air at Gap Inc., which has been struggling to attract customers lately in the crowded retail arena of mid-priced clothing. After announcing in June it’d be closing 21% of its U.S. stores by January, for a total of 175 locations, the company is promising that it’s starting to turn things around, though changes won’t be immediate: by next spring, the company says it’ll have clothing people actually might want to buy. [More]
clothing
H&M Sells Customers’ Old Clothes Back To Them As Recycled Denim
By 8.21.15
A few years ago, H&M was caught destroying unsold clothing to discourage dumpster-divers, enraging people, especially if they were already opponents of fast fashion. A few years later, the Swedish chain did the exact opposite: they offered customers a discount for their old clothes, and promised to recycle those old duds into rags, insulation, or even new clothes. Now, three years later, you can theoretically buy your old clothes back from H&M in denim form. [More]
Today In Weird Clothing Trends: Wearing Jeans Infused With Jade To Beat The Heat
By 7.24.15
Because no one likes having heavy fabric clinging to sweaty, suffocating legs when it’s hot outside, many people turn to a clothing innovation known as “shorts” to give those limbs some breathing room when the weather is hot. But over in China, Lee jeans has decided to push another option — denim infused with crushed jade stones, a method that theoretically keeps wearers cooler. [More]
Target Sorry People Are Offended By Its “Trophy” T-Shirt For Women
By 7.22.15
A storm has been brewing recently on social media over a women’s T-shirt sold by Target that bears the word “TROPHY” across it. As in, a trophy wife, someone who is meant only to adorn the arm of another and look pretty. But Target says it’s just part of its collection for women of the marrying kind, and that it’s received an “overwhelmingly positive” response to the item. [More]
Amazon’s Apparel Sales Could Surpass Macy’s By 2017
By 7.20.15
While Amazon used to be the site where you bought affordable books, CDs, DVDs, and electronics, the online retailer is quickly gaining ground as a seller of designer apparel and accessories. [More]
Doctors Warn: Squatting In Skinny Jeans May Lead To Nerve Damage
By 6.23.15
If you’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that there was something not quite right about the trend of encasing your lower half in skintight denim, that feeling might be justified: Researchers say squatting while wearing skinny jeans can cause not only temporary discomfort, but nerve damage as well. [More]
9 Things We Learned About Patagonia’s Efforts To Avoid All Exploited Labor
By 6.3.15
You can’t avoid it: along the entire supply chain of everything that you wear, someone has most likely been exploited. Just ask outdoorwear company Patagonia, which performed audits in 2011 all the way down its supply chain to look for exploited workers and victims of human trafficking. They found problems, which were not unexpected. [More]
Amazon Reportedly In Talks To Purchase Luxury Online Retailer Net-A-Porter
By 3.27.15
Amazon appears to be on the cusp of its largest purchase ever with the potential purchase of luxury online retailer Net-a-Porter. [More]
Old Navy Tries To Explain Why Women Pay Extra For Plus-Size Clothes But Men Don’t
By 11.12.14
When men go shopping at Old Navy, it doesn’t matter what size they buy; prices don’t vary. But that’s not the same for women, who may have to pay extra if they purchase plus-size items. In just a few days, nearly 19,000 people have petitioned the retailer asking it to end this policy, but Old Navy claims there is a reason that it charges more for larger female sizes. [More]
The Fashion Industry Wants To Make Buying Ill-Fitting Clothes Easier
By 5.29.14
When you order clothes online, do you order two different sizes, figuring that one will fit you and you can take the other back? Joke’s on you, over-ordering person! That consumer behavior is one of the reasons why women’s clothing manufacturers are switching clothes from numbered sizes to small, medium, and large. [More]
Save Money On Clothes: Make Yours Last Longer
By 1.24.14
It’s exceedingly obvious: the easiest way to save money on something is to not buy it in the first place. Everyone has to wear clothing (outside of the house, anyway) but clothing is now so cheap that many of us don’t put much thought into making it last longer. Avoid trips to the store: make your clothes last longer. [More]
8 Things We Learned From Planet Money’s Cotton Seed To T-Shirt Project
By 12.4.13
Have you ever wondered about the people who made your clothes? Not just the people who sew the fabric pieces together, but the people who produce the fabric, transport it from place to place, grow or extract the raw materials, and every other phase of creating a single item of clothing? [More]
Hanes Wants To Know The Color Of Your Underpants For Some Reason
By 8.2.13
If you’re female and wearing underwear right now, Hanes wants you to come visit and share a little too much information. In exchange, you might win some free underpants and annoy your friends. Hanes gets some market research data and customers might send some sort of creepy tweets. [More]
Jockey Wants To Change How Bra Sizes Work. Can They Succeed?
By 5.31.13
The standard American bra size consists of a number and a letter: the measurement around the wearer’s body in inches, and the lettered cup size, which indicates the difference between the bust measurement and the measurement around the ribcage: in other words, how big the breast is. As anyone who has ever bought a bra knows, this system has its flaws, including vanity sizing, variations between manufacturers, and variations in sizes from one style to another. Jockey is out to change that, but does their new bra-sizing and trying-on system solve the problem or create more? [More]
Ask Tax Dad: Old Clothes, An Audit Dispute, And IRA Rollovers
By 4.8.13 — Updated: 4.15.13
Usually, our staff Certified Tax Cat handles readers’ questions about taxes, but he’s also a cat, and cats occasionally just do whatever the hell they want. Filling in for him is Laura’s dad, a retired accountant and real live independent tax preparer. Exclusively on Consumerist this spring, Tax Dad answers your questions. [More]
Why A Super Bowl Loss Is Good News For Kids In Mongolia & Zambia
By 2.4.13 — Updated: 1.31.17
Even for people who don’t follow football, Super Bowl Sunday is a de facto holiday here in the U.S., filled with its own rituals, language and imagery. It’s also a time to celebrate for people in some underdeveloped countries, who will reap the benefit of the 100,000+ pieces of clothing that the NFL can’t sell. [More]
Why Won’t Old Navy Exchange My Jeans That Won’t Fit?
By 12.7.12
If you go shopping on Black Friday at a clothing store, you should take the time to brave the fitting rooms, no matter how long the lines are. Nick learned this the hard way, buying three pairs of jeans for $15 each. He made it out of the store unscathed, but when he got home, found that the jeans didn’t fit. Boo. Oh, well, he can just take them back to the store and swap them for the correct size, right? Not so fast! [More]
What A Black Friday Logistics Disaster Looks Like From The Other Side Of The Register
By 11.27.12
We mere consumers sit here waving our credit cards, whining about how we missed this or that great holiday deal, or our orders were canceled. But what’s the winter shipping frenzy like on the other size of the counter? One employee of men’s clothing store Joseph A. Bank reached out to us to explain the chain’s Black Friday logistics mess from the other side of the register. In addition to regular in-person shopping frenzy traffic, employees had to fill online orders if they happened to have the inventory. This worked pretty well until orders started to come through in multiples. [More]
