The Price Of Quitting The Game

[Cowboy]

Haven't bought anything in well over a month, have no urge to buy, have no urge to post on Care tags (I'm sure this isn't much of a travesty)

Feels good honestly.

My strategy is focus so much energy on debate that very little else is important. Currently feeling some fallout from this (grades, health, social) but at the same time see many positive effects that come with motivation rather than Drift. Spent a lot of time in what I call Drift

[paf]

Been away from the 'tags for a good minute, just been more focused on other things. I've still been buying things though. These purchases haven't really been driven by happening across things on webstores or auction sites and impulse buying them; more garms that fit a platonic ideal of something I've wanted for a while.

For being in the game as long as I have (about 3.5 years at this point, at least of being an "informed consumer" - I've been interested in clothes for much longer) I've bought relatively little. I basically wear the same jeans and the same jacket every day right now. At the same time, however, I don't necessarily feel extremely content with my wardrobe, though I haven't really taken time to think about what I want out of it. The lack of contentedness might come from accruing clothes very slowly, and thus the development of my style has been slow as well (I think). I'm not really super worried about that though, and I wouldn't say that I'm "discontent".

"Quitting the game" has never been an ultimate goal for me, but my interest in clothes, or at least the amount of time I invest in thinking about clothes, or looking at forums, webstores, etc. seems to wax and wane. Sometimes I go for long periods without buying anything or spending time on the Fashion Internet. Not out of any conscious decision, but because I just get burnt out and fashion doesn't seem as important as other things anymore.

Perhaps it's telling that the person so consumed by quitting the game is the one that seems to have the most trouble with it. I don't know if quitting the game is something you do by explicit choice. I feel like you have to let the game quit you of its own natural accord. One day you wake up and realize the game is a distant memory. I might just be projecting my own experiences though. Let me know your thoughts.

[bels]

I think you can definitely influence how well you quit the game, but just saying "I'm goingto quit the game" isn't very effective. More effective is lifestyle changes IE not being on the internet much, or not getting a chance to wear your fashion clothes.

Also btw my game quitting is going great! I got rid of lots of clothes that I'm in the process of selling. I bought one thing in the last two months with the spoils of war. Still want an old town jumpsuit and some 3/4 swrve trousers for summer but that's about... it and I can probably live without the jumpsuit.

[paf]

Glad to hear you're doing well, Bela. Def agree with the lifestyle changes - no cop as a strategy is akin to saying "I need to eat less" to lose weight vs. say, going for runs in the morning, shopping at the farmers market, not eating straight out of the container, etc. Though it's also difficult to enact these changes.

Just the other day I was idly speculating about only wearing different colored Old Town jumpsuits as a potential game exit strategy, should I ever need one.

[dbcooper]

.

[bels]

Get rid of the dark tops. Then you won't have those problems with them not pairing with anything.

[bels]

[schiaparelli]

NO-SHOP and NO-COP have honestly effected a total mindset shift for me beyond just the
buying or not buying
or searching or not searching for clothes

i think the reason i am so attached to this thread is that

"quitting the game" is not just about quitting fashion and deciding to piously forgo the buying and enjoying of clothes—i often imagine huddled in a corner of his room reverently refolding his white t-shirt collection. i think quitting the game is about enacting a struggle against a society that is always tilted towards us consuming, imputing desires and sartorial values onto us, allowing corporate product-pushing to act for us instead of rediscovering and transparently reflecting our true desires in our behavior.

what do i want?

do i want more clothes?
do i want better clothes?
do i want fewer clothes?
do i want nicer clothes?
do i want more interesting clothes?
do i want quieter clothes?

i've had a bit of a Theory lately that—although fwiw i don't agree with the idea of an "end game"—if there is one—as in an "end game" continuous state of being of satisfaction and enjoyment with your clothes, not in the sense that you have made it to a superior end state where your mode of dressing is clearly the most Intellectual and Avant Garde and Amazing and Just Wow it's so Fashionable and Relevant but also Timeless???—

if there is an end game maybe what it involves is remembering your earliest fashion desires and stepping back into them. sometimes i think personality and aesthetic taste doesn't shift all that much in some core ways. when i got into fashion i wanted to wear cutesy shit, which meant frilly ruffly things and lots of sundresses and twee fox prints and quirky jewelry. i went through a period where i decided okay, this cutesy shit Isn't Cool and i tried wearing leather double riders and all black and white and drapey shit.

last week was an important moment for me. i sold off a garment i'd worn for the very first time. it's a draped black helmut lang dress that is very cool and very slightly edgy (but not that much bc it's not OG helmut lang lol) and i looked great in it and it fit and i could have worn it in other situations. i didn't keep it because whenever i put it on it started to feel like wearing someone else's clothes—someone else's desires. i bought it at a time when i believed there was a certain style i was supposed to love.

i have accepted i want cutesy shit. i started looking back at old wishlists and old pinboards and i was surprised to find the themes of what i loved then reoccurring in what i love now. the manifestations are different, maybe, but instead of one kind of kitschy whimsical shoe now it's a new kitschy whimsical shoe. i feel like in some senses i am regressing to a more innocent state where i didn't worry that what i wanted wasn't Cool Enough. i can want independently now and i can want meaningfully.

no-shop / no-cop / quitting the game is not just about
not wanting / not buying / not enjoying fashion

but i think it's important to me because i have an oppositional relationship with what it means to desire and want, since so much of those feelings are influenced and filtered by participating in a consumerist/status-oriented society. i think it's really important to question what i want out of fashion and sometimes aligning with an architecture of—okay, i'm not going to look for clothes today! i'm not going to buy anything this month just to see if i can! i'm going to talk myself out of buying x y z just to see if it's possible!—these are my ways of flexing and asserting an independence from a societal pressure to consume. and it is not just a societal pressure to consume in general but a pressure to consume explicitly validated and recognized things.

i want to be certain of my wants
and love what i have sincerely, not anxiously

i feel a lot richer in the clothing i own these days, i love all of it more because i am interrogating what the fashion game is and what role i want to participate in

[bels]

to follow up Celine's long post with my own reflections after 2 months of not buying much (I bought a Puma sample jacket I'd had my eye on with proceeds I made from sales of other stuff, I also bought some underwear) I feel like my relationship with clothes in general has changed a bit since I've really set my mind to not buying much/any.

(I'd say previously I was just whining about buying too many clothes rather than actually seriously trying to work out how to stop)

I feel less interested in some clothes and more interested in others. The clothes I am less interested in are generally designed to make the wearer feel cute/happy/positive/on trend. The clothes I'm more interested in are either snooty "conceptual garments" OR boring, "ethical" (whatever that means) practical clothes which will actually function in my life. More illustratively I'd say my opinion of TSI Holdings LTD has gone down whilst my opinion of Previous White VC has gone up (disgusting, I know, I hate myself) but I also feel more interested in stuff that I thought was a bit whatever previously like CDG and Uwe Rosenberg. Obviously there are lots of people who don't need to stop buying clothes to appreciate CDG and Craig and I don't want anyone to think I'm insinuating otherwise!

I do frequently feel like I "don't have enough clothes" since I trashed my war chest, but in the end I normally just wear what I do have and things somehow turn out OK. This has emboldened me and I feel like I will try and sell a few more things that I own. I've definitely been in this state before and it is sort of nice to have less options to choose from each morning. I definitely haven't had a 20 minute morning freak out for a long while. It's not something that happens everyday any more.

Full disclosure, if I can get enough money from selling things I am definitely going to try and buy an Old Town jumpsuit. If I can't I won't though.

[schiaparelli]

[MythicSquirrel]

i walked downstairs today and saw four pairs of shoes sitting by the front door. I realized I will never need four pairs of shoes and don't even know why I own more than two. I have a Fred Perry jacket otw but I think it'll be my last purchase unless this summer is really hot and I need some short shorts

[dbcooper]

.

[dbcooper]

.

[charybdis]

I quit the game and then got really invested in buying skincare. Although, I think compared to fashion, it's a lot easier to be like "I'll buy that in a month" and keep putting off buying something until you quite forget why you wanted it in the first place.

[JonjoShelvey]

WARNING: pretentious rambling ahead

quitting the game was the best thing ive done for developing a 'personal style'

distancing myself from the consumerist hell that is online fashion has helped me gain a lot perspective in what i want from fashion and clothing in general. i wish it didnt take me a couple thousand dollars to realize it, but that's life. these days i only buy knock off hats from the gas station and various bright colored tshirts.

i now spend my free time obsessively finding new music and getting mad at bigots online. clearly, quitting fashion was a net positive in my life.

[mc-lunar]

[mc-lunar]

No-cop until 2017.

I have too much Stuff.

I am very happy with my clothing when i wear it

Buying more clothes won't make me happier.

Buying more clothes won't find me new friends at university.

Buying more clothes will only make it harder to enter the world in the morning.

Wish me luck

[BobbyZamora]

starting to slowly sell off all my designer garments.

i'll probably keep my ACNE trucker and maybe will purchase a jacket or something in the future

haven't really been doing "fashion" much the past year. DIY and unique little things I find from various retailers and thrift stores are more interesting to me these days. can't afford "fashion" any ways.

[ratchetkoala]

I wish I understood your ups and downs, .

[teck]

Went to the dover street market warehouse sale and while the first 30 minutes was giddy shopping euphoria I ended up just leaving with one thing that i definitely didn't need. i ended up the next day just wearing my usual comfy clothes.

What's the proper way way to "disconnect"? To quit the game or retire? like how pro athletes have to do a special exercise/diet regimen to scale down to non-athlete size after carrying out an extra 40 lbs for a decade? Or how a starving person has to slowly be reintroduced to food through saline drip then soup then fruit then bread.

[adiabatic]

[Francks]

Proper way to disconnect is to understand precisely why you buy stuff in the first place and pinpoint the issue; Different buying patterns may relate to different underlying "issues".

But globally I think this is partly caused by the society we're living in. Now everybody is implicitly conditioned to be perfect, no flaw, etc. (and the representation/definition of this perfection is not that obvious). So to me obsessive buying could be the consequence of some sort of perfectionism (or lack of self confidence which is itself a cause of perfectionism).

[silvaeri]

I think I'm only going to buy clothes going forward that are "utilitarian" in that I can ride my bike in them or they can be used to climb / serve functionality outdoors, anymore.

As much as dope fashion shit is cool and all I'm realizing I'm buying cool things and never wearing them because they don't fit into my lifestyle.

Is this quitting the game?

[bels]

I've been doing that for at least a year and I can safely say: No, it isn't via my techwear jackets and y3 tennis gear.

[BIGBEE]

[adiabatic]

[silvaeri]

[bels]

People who don't wear nylon 4 way stretch garms with dwr think you can cycle in anything but they are damn wrong

[freddy]

I don't know if my post fits in line with this thread but: Has fashion served y'all purpose in the first place? I was thinking that if it hasn't it's difficult to go on an arbitrary self-imposed no-cop rule. I know for me acquiring fashion garmz has largely served it's purpose in terms of how I want to aesthetically express myself day to day. I'm quite happy - aesthetically happy if I may.

Personally I don't feel guilty about the seemingly consumerist mentality of purchasing my garmz. My interests has shifted a bit elsewhere but I'd still cop but with not as much intensity. Perhaps it can be said I've reach contentedness with my current curated wardrobe and style, probably because I got to experience the aesthetic of the designers' I obsessed about. At some port for RRL/Belstaff I can only have so many variations and color-ways of their same offerings. I know I'd want some more Prorsum pieces but I don't have the means to retrofit my wardrobe to complete the idealized modern London city-boy look.

And aside from financial constraints, I'd like to wear Thom or a cropped Rick/Balmain blazer but that's largely aspirational for me. I'm at a point where it's minimal cop for my purchasing habits now, because some pieces and labels just doesn't fit in my lifestyle or the way I want to express myself. For those aforementioned brands I don't think I can really enliven the designers aesthetic and really embrace it, so it's best that I excuse and save them for another time. For example, if I went out the night life scene and were in a creative work environment, I'd feel that Balmain/Thome would be congruent to the asthetic self-expression I would want radiate. While they certainly don't have to be worn with such intentions, it's how I see them, which like for many pieces/clothes, have their time and place.

However, while I've hit a personal fashion plateau, I don't think I'll ever stop copping but designers creation enhances my life with color. Though sometimes it's great to have the time to really enjoy the wardrobe I've selected and collected thus far, as I like to believe it was meant for us to shake up themicrocosm of our daily lives - transcending beyond one dimensional lookbooks, runways unveils, magazine photoshots, and catalogue offerings. Not to be self congratulatory and pompous but perhaps I've won the what is this so-called fashion game? Maybe if reframing the fashion game on how to win and not necessarily and either-or acceptance or rejection is a better view.

Maybe we need a contentedness thread.

[radicalbusiness]

Found out yesterday that I got a dope fellowship for the summer. Gonna get paid to do work I actually want to do for once! feels good. pretty quickly after finding out I found myself doing some mental gymnastics to justify the purchase of beams sneaks on the mr porter sale. telling myself things like "I just got income for near future nailed down" "I should treat myself" "I deserve this" etc.

Recognizing that thought pattern, I realized I could apply the same logic to instead justify giving away some of my nicer clothes I intended to sell. Just reached out to my gf's brother to see if he'd like my OL sweat I haven't worn for months. I think it'll go super well with his wardrobe too. Hoping to continue this practice as well as NOT replacing discarded items and end up with an increasingly smaller 'drobe.