On the charitable and ecological end of the spectrum, there is of course thrift/flea/second-hand shops, church or garage sales. Availability varies quite a bit

On the charitable and ecological end of the spectrum, there is of course thrift/flea/second-hand shops, church or garage sales. Availability varies quite a bit especially seasonally or following economic trends. It definitely takes a lot more effort. A bit farther along you can find arbitrage type businesses reselling lots or whole sale and warehouse overstock, army/navy/surplus, vintage boutiques upselling estates or whatever wont sell in retail stores for whatever reason. This is an easy option, but the price is higher since someone is curating a selection or otherwise squeezing a profit from what might've been refuse. A lot of the old-school sources (flea, thrift) have been experiencing additional inventory pressure caused by another great option which is depop, etsy, ebay, or other online shops (even goodwill has an online auction site[0]). Tons of practical, uncommon, and cool thrift finds are available online at the general cost of people farming thrift and flea markets for popular sizes, driving up prices and reducing popular sized stocks. But this also keeps tons of old weird stuff in peoples closets out of the garbage by granting a more obvious value proposition. GenZ people seem to be embracing this quite a bit. It sounds like a fun side-hustle for a college student. Frankly, if you are buying regular wardrobe, I'd make the fairly obvious recommendation of just simply buying practical, usable, and good quality. If what you buy works well and lasts a reasonable period, thats a great definition of value to follow towards the best manufacturers. Maybe buy it from a store you like and don't worry about it if we've stopped the urge to buy a little bit of trash because we feel weird at 2am. We is me. Most of the fast fashion cheap stuff is uselessly flimsy, but maybe it would work alright for a costume or some kind of bedroom scenario. I guess in one respect fast fashion is useful insofar as its hard to find some of that weird one-off junk-stuff in a thrift store or even the mall, because nobody will buy it. Its ugly and the fabric is itchy. [0] https://shopgoodwill.com/ https://shopgoodwill.com/