the death of the clothing haul

I’ve started something new recently: unfollowing creators who consistently post hauls with lots of brand new clothing. As creators and influencers, we each have some level of responsibility as to what we promote. And even though a clothing haul can seem lighthearted and innocent, unfortunately the reality is much more grim. 

While the idea that adding dozens upon dozens of new garments to your wardrobe on a regular basis has become normalized, it is certainly not normal. Having enough clothing on this planet to dress the next six generations is not normal. Experiencing more frequent and devastating environmental disasters as a result of overconsumption is not normal. Just last week Ghana’s Kantamanto Market, which receives tens of millions of pounds of the Global North’s old and unwanted clothing, suffered a devastating fire impacting local vendors and those who make their livelihoods on our overconsumption.

Given the current destruction and frightening future we’re facing as a result of late-stage capitalism,

I’m declaring 2025 the beginning of the end of clothing hauls as we know them.

Goodbye to the ‘I spent $1000 at SHEIN!’ videos. Adieu to the ‘I liked it so much I bought it in every color’ content. Whether we realize it or not, haul culture is just another side effect of the world we’re living in. By normalizing overconsumption through clothing hauls, making people feel weird for outfit repeating, and saturating our daily lives with advertising (studies suggest the average American sees at least 100 ads on a daily basis), we’ve built a whole culture around buying a bunch of new shit we probably don’t actually need. And through social media, the frequency with which we see clothing hauls tells us (many times, young, impressionable women) that this level of consumption is aspirational.

Given that this year will be Instagram’s 15th anniversary, one would think that the clothing haul trend would have fallen by the wayside. However the exact opposite is true: the proliferation of TikTok shop, artificially cheap fast fashion, and algorithms that favor clothing hauls have kept them at the forefront of our minds and our screens. It makes complete sense from a capitalist perspective when considering that buying clothing, especially cheap clothing, can be addictive. According to a 2017 Greenpeace study that surveyed shoppers in Europe and Asia, “Around 50 percent report that their shopping excitement wears off within a day.” And until we wake up to the negative impact that clothing haul culture has on our psyche and our planet, we’ll continue depleting the earth’s finite resources for the sake of making wealthy people wealthier.

To me, clothing hauls are tired. TIRED. An influencer who builds their entire platform by just posting hauls (unless they’re a vintage sourcer/seller) is simply not very creative. As someone who has been a content creator since 2016, I believe we deserve to platform, amplify, and showcase individuals who are genuinely fashionable, not just the folks who follow trends. There are so many fashion creators inspiring the world with their most authentic and creative selves and aren’t promoting overconsumption on the reg. We deserve better than to be constantly told what’s in and what’s not anymore.

If we want to radically imagine a better future for fashion, we need to support fashion creators who are consuming mindfully, embodying their unique style, and calling out the very real systemic issues that the industry has created. While I don’t think we should be bullying people into change, there are ways we can steer culture to make the fashion revolution irresistible - just look at how we’ve already started making waves in shifting our perception of the secondhand market.

Let’s build a culture of responsible clothing and responsible clothing owners. That includes keeping garments for as long as possible, supporting small and sustainable brands, opting for secondhand as much as you can, repairing and mending clothing to increase longevity, washing items in cold water and hanging them to dry, and supporting local cobblers and tailors to keep them in business. We might not be able to change anything tomorrow, but we can certainly start to usher in change bit by bit.