If you have recently been to the mall or online shopped, you may have noticed that the price of clothing is on the rise. Especially as I looked for Halloween costumes this past week, I noticed that a tank top that I would have bought for less than 10 dollars a couple years ago is now upwards of 30 dollars.Â
I know inflation hasn’t decreased the value of the dollar by â…“ in this short amount of time, so there must be other forces at play. In fact, there are. For one, newer tariffs imposed on the U.S. by China have caused an increase in shipping costs to clothing companies that we, the consumers, have the burden of paying. The Yale University Budget Lab estimated, “both the April 2nd tariffs alone and all 2025 tariffs together disproportionately affect clothing and textiles, with apparel prices rising 17% under all tariffs.”
Additionally, other global events have put limits on textiles that are used for clothing. For instance, MarketWatch estimated a 4.2% price increase in clothing as the Iran war drives up costs for polyester. While in the grand scheme of things an increase in clothing prices is one of the less important impacts of war and economic tariff wars, it’s interesting to see how global events that may seem far away from us have a way of creeping up on our lives through these smaller impacts. Not only are prices rising, but they are also shaping the way we dress.
Before we talk about how current trends are impacted by rising costs, it is important to understand how we got to the level of fashion consumerism that we are at today. Why is it that we constantly feel the need to buy new clothes? Thousands of years ago (in the 1980s), people used to buy high-quality, longer-lasting clothing items. My mom once told me that she would buy a couple of clothes per year and wear them for years. However, this seems like the opposite of consumer trends today, where I and many of my friends find our sleeves making new clothing purchases every month or even every week. In a survey, EcoCart found that about 40% of GenZ consumers shopped for clothing twice a month. What changed?
There is a micro trend of prices rising in the current clothing industry. However, since the 1980s, the price of clothing has decreased drastically as fast fashion has become an increasingly popular market strategy for producers. I find this video by More Perfect Union does a great job of explaining how clothing brands like Zara, Forever 21, and H&M paved the way for fashion companies to sell cheaper products more often.
Although these clothes did not have the quality and longevity of before, they were no longer needed because microtrends made it so that clothing items went out of style fast. The video goes on to explain how the passing of NAFTA made it easier to outsource clothing production to countries where labor is cheaper.
I wouldn’t want to continue this article without addressing the negative impacts this trend has had and continues to have. The obvious negative effect of this is that there are humanitarian rights issues associated with fast fashion, including sweatshops, low wages, and poor working conditions. Moreover, there are also adverse environmental effects. Earth.org found, “Of the 100 billion garments produced each year, 92 million tonnes end up in landfills.” And as if that isn’t enough, continued production of clothing in factories contributes to climate change and immense water usage, with the fashion industry responsible for 10% of global pollution and 20% of global wastewater.
As prices rise, however, there is a clear tension between consumer preferences and industry. There has been a clear and present shift towards buying wardrobe basics with companies like Aritzia, Garage, and now even Zara selling slightly higher quality basics. The sweats and basic tanks are everywhere now, reflecting a personal style choice that allows people to buy one item that they can wear many times. This also contradicts the idea of micro-trends, as I don’t see a basic black tank ever being “out-of-style.”Â
Looking beyond the price tag, we can see that fashion trends are largely shaped by industry, but we consumers also have an impact on what’s actually sold. In this way, fashion is a way for industry and consumers to meet in the middle, and this is the true formula for why we wear the clothes we do today.
Sources:
https://budgetlab.yale.edu/research/state-us-tariffs
https://carbonliteracy.com/fast-fashions-carbon-footprint/
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/14/how-a-trade-war-could-impact-the-price-of-clothing.html
https://earth.org/statistics-about-fast-fashion-waste/