The Price Of Quitting The Game

[Cowboy]

2018 will be a test year of a quit. No forums, no message services, and no buying outside of essentials and Uniqlo U

I did 8 months once I can do 12

[wiggly--woo]

In reference to cowboy's post above, and building on some of maj's observations, thought I'd share my own experience of the past couple of years.

some background/context in spoiler


So essentially it's been a 14 month no cop followed by a 13 month no cop, with very limited forum browsing. Anyway here's what I've learnt:

#1 - I have plenty of clothes. I didn't need more. And after a while of no cop I didn't want more either. Those clothes you don't really like any more and want to gradually replace? You'll like them again. You'll wear them again. They're just clothes, and they do their job. Not buying clothes is very easy.

#2 - Money is money. If you can pay your rent, bills etc, put some into savings, have a decent social life and still have a bit left over then spend it on what makes you happy. If that's clothes then buy clothes. Personally, I earn enough money now at my new job to spend a fair bit on clothes again, but for the most part I'd rather put it towards weekends away, days out, nights out, nicer food etc.

#3 - Time is ultimately much more valuable than money - the time you spend choosing what to wear before you leave the house, the time you spend browsing forums and auction sites, the time you spend making trips irl to see/buy something in person, even just the time you spend thinking about clothes. Tracking the amount of money you have and how much you're spending is quite easy, tracking the amount of time you invest is a bit more difficult. Re-directing the majority of the time I had spent looking/thinking about clothes and forums into other things was by far the most fruitful aspect of no cop.

#4 - I actually really like clothes but I like clothes much more now than I ever did before. When I stopped buying, I appreciated what I have more, and when I did make purchases, I enjoyed it more because it's less of a routine thing. Cutting out forums means I now have a much better sense of what I like to wear and the kind of style I want to move toward, because it's a much more personal thing now. I don't know or care what people on forums are wearing anymore and that means more freedom to discover things for myself. And while my taste in clothes has changed a huge amount over the past couple of years, and there is that small part of me that wants a major wardrobe revamp, I'm more than happy to carry on with what I have because...well, see point #1.

---

For what its worth, I don't think a cop freeze is necessary for everyone, nor should everyone wean themselves off forums. But its been a valuable experience for me and I've managed to achieve a lot just by spending money elsewhere and better utilising the time that I previously would have wasted sitting on the computer looking at forums and planning my next buys, and I'm sure there are others who could probably benefit too.

[oucho]

Being a student for the last two years I didn't buy as many clothes as before, my ebay spend on clothes for this year so far is £132 and last year it was £132 total, I also bought some t-shirts and socks from Uniqlo and a couple of bits and bobs from vintage stores + some TEF pieces but I don't buy those

I think the only thing that makes high fashion and mid-range fashion at retail prices interesting is the thrill of buying something and the media/social media hype that surrounds a lot of fashion. High fashion clothing is ultra luxury and buying truly artisanal clothes is very decadent, it just isn't 'for' most people. The problem with mid-range brands is that they're neither here nor there and you tend to get something that is a bit better quality than uniqlo for 10x the price and the design is normally a bit middle of the road too. I think people made a big thing of the idea that if you had money it was easy to dress well, or that it was hard to style a good outfit without buying all designer gear and honestly I have no idea where that came from (from only seeing and presenting outfits through photos probably) because it doesn't seem true to me and if you ever attend any fashion shows and look at what everyone else is wearing you'll see that all designer clothing is often pretty gauche but fun to see for sure. I think there is also an element of a lot of internet fashion people coming from non-art backgrounds and wearing high fashion is an accessible and thrilling way to become part of a different milieu. And actually I think that is one of the best arguments for caring about clothing - to send a message to other people that you want to be part of their clan.

The thing is - not having any new clothes in your wardrobe gets pretty boring. Clothes are only fun if you get some new ones sometimes. Unless you wear a strict uniform you still have to pick out outfits and picking out the same combos gets boring. Plus what are you gonna contribute when your friends talk about ebay for an hour straight and you're doing no cop.

[bels]

I've been wearing a black muji yak wool jumper (white tshirt not visible beneath) with black swrve trousers and black vans slip ons every day and I think it's giving me a lot of power. I recommend it to anyone who wants/needs to get some power. You have to wear black though and it has to be every single day. As soon as you deviate the power disappears.

[maj]

Having all your clothes stolen is the best way to quit the game imo, I have 0 interest .

[kickingthefly]

sorry didnt intend that to be a negative, thats awful. and i thought a few moth holes were bad

[charybdis]

Was just reminded about c-t because I saw some of y'all in london yesterday... I dunno if I've "quit the game" but I think I've quit being that invested in fashion as a way of feeling better about my projected sense of self/image. (Also I got really into a chinese anime dressup game.)

Recently bought some more clothes because I moved and had a sort of change in lifestyle/weather and wanted some things just to please myself but it didn't bring on that kind of obsessive browsing that it used to.

hope all is well, I just realized that I've posted once a year for the last two years so here's... 2019's post

[BIGBEE]

developed a much healthier relationship with clothes over the past few years. Used to use buying clothes as a coping mechanism (and being annoying online) when I felt wayward and didn't know what I wanted to do. Got a lot better at recognizing what's causing me to browse yjp for 4 hours a day looking for 20 year old wtaps.

For anyone trying to quit and reduce how much they spend on clothes, setting a saving goal worked really well for me. Having money saved up made me more stingy and gave me back some of the pre-jawns sticker shock. Also finding other hobbies and being busy with school.

keep movin' on and love to care-tags.org!

[Julio]

[WussWayne]

Step One: "We admitted we were powerless over jawnz and that our lives had become unmanageable."

[maj]

no cop is back, hotter than ever.

Join me

[mc-lunar]

Im in

1yr

[weqe]

committing to 6 month lets gooo

mostly phased out anyway really considered buying a four pack of black tees n just going from there

[bels]

small brain: quit the game
large brain: buy 4 black tees n go from there
giant brain: buy 1 black merino tee and quit both buying and washing clothes.

[BobbyZamora]

you're all small-time

[maj]

Sorry guys, just had my yearly visit to the cardiologist to remind me Im not making it to midlife crisis let alone retirement.

I'll make a cop in your guys honour tho

[BeJimmieBOB]

No idea why... this is way below the official release price from Ascaron in the UK...in addition we dont sell to Amazon

Please send me a copy of the link where you have seen that price...

[INNIT]

a uniqlo opened in my city, so i think im free now. it's been real, fashion

[andymundi]

[maj]

this thread started in 2013

below is a list of posters who have disappeared from our shores, quit the game:

adhi
teck
starfox64
can-
germinal
charybdis
rycepooding
midvh
aucontrairearto
hmwut
omgimacarrot
Capt
Stingray Sam
whinefields
lostie
tttigre
kyung
inherently
Mippipopolous
verilyvert
BobbyZamora
ballast
insted
nevergreen
wiggly--woo
stappard_
exprof
mc-lunar
Yoder
nick
eufemism
forestfeet
Ques
thatbiglake
brlmski
CleanThug
okayfruit
PrimePrime
pei
oucho
quitter
windowflowers
meatjacket
IsaiahSchafer
mike868y
finolino
JonjoShelvey
RomanEmpire
3hunna
Naka_
LelandJ
bird.in.flight
une_impasse
blanket
thecanadiancook
khayandhi
MxmHrpr
radicalbusiness

there are a few people not on the list who don't post, either i have confirmation they're still buying, or, sorry, yall didn't have enough posts/ rep for me to remember you. if you see anyone on this list who you know is still buying, please publicly call them out, we will retract their medal.

there are many people still posting from the start of the thread till now, myself included, and if i'm to go off my personal experience it's just a failure of self at this point

shout out to the people who escaped, lets hope some more of you can before 2030

[rjbman]

thought u just moved from clothes to bikes tbh

[bels]

I reckon they're still buying just on the zuckerburg owned surveillance capitalism platform.

[maj]

[WayneWuss]

Tinfoil thought: Maybe their Quitting is a sign of the accelerating instability of capitalism more than them moving on with their lives.

[windowflowers]

sad to say I'm still here, attempting to navigate the world that is post-internet fashion in the 20s

[kamotejoe]

Long time listener, first time caller. Hoping I can reduce my wardrobe to some select favorites and make less than 5 purchases this year.

[evilfriends]

I'm out here navigating post-fashion internet. Still spend as much time on reddit as before but I now I have pointless arguments about soccer instead of clothes.

[vondes]

I do not like Amazon as they badly let me down twice last year.

[bels]

To have such a complex relationship with Amazon that you're capable of considering it a gestalt entity that you are lashing out at it because you feel it has personally failed you somehow is pretty late capitalism of you.

[WayneWuss]

crazy I spent a large portion of my formative youth caught up in some internet arms race about clothing lmao. There's far more rewarding things in life. Like a Pax 3