Gatan do rock Comments - Answer Overflow

- Labor is cheaper while imported goods (like clothes and shoes) aren't. For example, the price for an Adidas Samba here would directly translate to $140, and those sneakers are $110 new on retail in the US. However, a minimum hourly wage here is about $1.10. Meanwhile, the federal minimum wage in the US is $7.25. It translates quite directly in eight times less buying power. So pretend those Adidas were $880 and you got the picture. Because of this discrepancy between the price of imported goods and the price of labor, above some point between $60-100 it would be more economical for me to order everything but formal tailoring 100% custom-made as a replica rather than importing it. However, I'm not at that price tag yet to make use of this knowledge. I'm just buying thrifted stuff at $10 max rn. - Because I want nice things without paying the full price, I lean into oversized fashion by snatching the nice imported things out of the second-hand stores if they don't go too big and making them work. - I'm fortunate not to live in a violent place so I can queer-code publicly. - It is easy to stand out fashion-wise in the street. Even some "safe" looking americana here would stand out. Most middle-aged men and older don't pay too much mind on they dress. There is a resistance to the idea because of machismo, and the thought that worrying about fashion is something only "the gays" do is still common. - The younger ones do worry. Those who do pay some mind usually go to athleisure with branded everything if they are 20s (which is somewhat a status symbol since the imported goods are expensive) or basic bastard if they are 30s+ - If I go looking into the right places I can find guys who like streetwear and goths (who only go really really goth on important ocasions because it's hot here). - It's usually about 80F here (nearing 90F at mid-day) so I lean into lightweight fabrics and cuts. Can't wear that 20 oz denim shit in Texas.

37 replies

Mmfad

•Created by Clark'sDesertBot on 11/10/2024 in #topic-of-the-day

Location and how if affects your style. - Topic of the day 11/10/24

I live on a not too big, not too small city in Brazil. It's difficult to compare my experience to someone in the US or Europe as I haven't ever been to the global north. From my impressions, though: - Anything slightly avant-garde must be ordered online, by shopping at womens places or thrifting if you're lucky. - Most clothes are trashy polyester or tropical cotton. I can see some rayon stuff when it's summer-spring. Linen I have never seen a blend with over 12% in person. - Most pants are chinos, sweatpants (cotton), sweatpants (athleisure) or jeans. - Women's fashion is vastly more diverse, although it can be difficult to find basics, ironically. - That's talking about casual wear. Formal tailoring I'm not experienced with, but I think it's very odd we follow european cloth weights and suit colors for the formal stuff rather than getting things in more lightweight materials and lighter colors. I think that people generally view the traditional european ways as "more correct". Really, the first thing everybody complains about having to get into a suit isn't that it's stiff, it's tgat it is too hot to wear. - Every material not mentioned above I had only seen in person outside of thrifts, but the most popular ones can be bought online from national places. - Variety in products in general is smaller than the US. If you want something niche, it needs to be imported from overseas or custom-made. Brazil is pretty big, this is due to variety being expensive, see below.

37 replies

Mmfad

•Created by Gatan do rock on 11/9/2024 in #questions-and-advice