system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: For environmental reasons it should be acceptable and even respectable to wear old, worn clothes



The production of clothes consumes resources and generates pollution. Hence one of the things we can do to protect the environment is to buy less new clothes and use our existing clothes for longer. I am not interested in discussing what fraction of our environmental footprint this constitutes. This is just one of many things we can do to help the environment, and every little thing helps.

Unfortunately this is not always socially acceptable. Wearing worn clothes looks like a sign of poverty and can get you discriminated against. This is perhaps especially bad in a professional environment. Customers and business partners can be unwilling to do business with someone whose employees dress like poor people. This is incentivizes employers to pressure their employees and prospective employees to dress up. This is a negative-sum arms race that harms the environment.

We should not discriminate against people who wear worn clothes (within reason). Instead of assuming that the person is poor or lazy, it is better to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they might be environmentally conscious.

Fancy new clothes should be thought of as a luxury, not a social necessity.

The environmental benefit may be small, but it is still worth it.

**EDIT 1**: I've given a delta already for the argument that it's good to buy quality clothes that last longer.

**EDIT 2**: Some people seem to think that I am trying to outlaw new or fancy clothes. That is not what I said. I just want it to be socially acceptable to wear clothes that are neither new nor fancy.
gpt
You can wear old, used, and/or repaired clothing and still look respectable.  Plenty of people do, but you probably don’t really notice them because they don’t look like they are poor.

Dress nicely is usually more about being deliberate about how you present yourself to others than it is about acquiring the latest fashion.   That’s *easier* by just buying new clothes than by keeping old clothes in use, but it’s not necessary.

Go to some thrift stores or consignment shops, look for some basic clothes that fit you well, and no one will think twice about your clothes.  

The biggest problem is that people buy cheap clothes, which wear out faster and are harder to repair.  So the core problem is not that it’s unacceptable to wear older clothes, it’s that people don’t want to spend the money up front on clothing that will last a much longer time.