导读：以H&M, Zara这些品牌为代表的廉价时尚(cheap chic)正在风靡全球，而一些时尚人士也指出这是一种浪费行为，你如何看待廉价时尚？

Once upon a time, fashion was glamorous models and movie stars wearing haute couture on glossy magazine covers. People saved their salaries and shopped once or twice a year for high-quality clothes that could last for many seasons.

曾经，时尚就是登上杂志封面的那些身着高级定制，魅力非凡的模特和影星。人们省下平时的薪水，每年会逛一两次商场，来选购那些耐穿的高级服装。

Nowadays, fashion is fast-changing and cheap thanks to retail brands such as H&M, Zara and Topshop. Fashion has become ever more accessible. But is it a good thing?

现在，由于H&M、Zara 、Topshop等服装品牌的出现，时尚变得日新月异，且成本低廉。时尚对于大众来说触手可及。而这是件好事吗？

US writer Elizabeth Cline doesn’t think so, although she used to be the owner of a wardrobe solely made up of cheap chic.

美国作家伊丽莎白•克莱（音译）却不这样想，虽然她曾经拥有整整一个衣柜的这种便宜又时髦的衣服。

In her recent book Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, she writes: “I paid less than $30 (191 yuan) per item for each piece of clothing in my closet. Most of my shoes cost less than $15.”

在其新书《着装过度：廉价时尚背后的惊人高成本》中，她写道：“我衣橱里的衣服每件单价不超过30美元（合191人民币）。大多数鞋价格不到15美元。”

Altogether she has 354 pieces of clothing, accumulated in less than five years.

在不到五年的时间里，她一共购买了354件衣服。

Americans buy an average of 64 items of clothing every year, that makes Cline just an average consumer.

美国人平均一年会购买64件衣服，所以克莱只是一位普通消费者。

Then one day came the epiphany. In a supermarket sale, Cline ended up buying seven pairs of identical canvas flats marked down from $15 to $7.

然而有一天真相还是暴露出来了。在一次超市的大甩卖中，克莱一口气买了七双相同的帆布平底鞋，打折后的价格从15美元到7美元不等。

When the shopping frenzy receded, it occurred to Cline that there was something wrong and deeply disturbing about acquiring so much cheap clothing.

当这种购物热情渐渐消退时，克莱才突然意识到有些不对头，她开始为自己买了这么多的廉价服饰而深感苦恼。

It didn’t bring her satisfaction. She soon got tired of the shoes and the style changed. The same went for a lot of her other clothes.

这次血拼并没有为她带来满足感。很快她便对这些鞋心生厌倦，而时尚潮流也变了。于是她又以相同方式购买了其他衣服。

The average price of clothing has dropped in recent decades. Cheap clothing is branded in such a way that it is no longer associated with lack of style.

几十年间，衣服的平均价格已经下降。廉价服饰不再被打上老土的烙印。

Budget fashion exemplified by the “street fashion” photos is seen as chic, practical and accessible to all. However, Cline argues that the demand for ever cheaper clothing has created mountains of waste.

一些“时尚街拍”就是对此的很好诠释。其平民范儿被看作是一种时髦、实用且大众能接受的低成本时尚。然而，克莱认为对廉价服装的需求产生了堆积如山的垃圾。

Americans are buying and hoarding roughly 20 billion items of clothing per year as a nation, Cline points out.

克莱指出，美国人每年购买和囤积衣物的数量大约为200亿件。

“Buying so much clothing, and treating it as if it is disposable, is putting a huge toll on the environment and is simply unsustainable,” she writes.

“人们购买如此多的衣物，好像它们是一次性的，这正在对我们的环境造成巨大影响，这简直是不可持续性的行为。”她写道。

What’s more, cheap clothing destroys our relationship with our self-image. Fashion should be flexible and reflect personal taste.

另外，廉价服装破坏了我们与自我形象的关系。时尚应该是灵活多变的，且能反应出个人的品味。

But global chains are trying to reduce risk by selling the same carefully packaged trends. These trends “are repeated on the racks of virtually every retailer, making our store-bought looks feel homogenous and generic,” Cline writes.

然而，一些全球连锁品牌正在试图通过出售形式单一、包装精美的时尚商品来降低风险。这些流行时尚“反复出现在几乎所有零售商的货架之上，这使得我们穿上从商店里买来的商品后，如出一辙且毫无特色。”克莱写道。

Cline says that clothes could have more meaning and last longer if we think less about owning the latest or cheapest thing and develop more of a relationship with the things we wear.

克莱表示，如果我们能少买一些最便宜的最IN单品，更多地去发展自己与衣着之间的和谐关系，那么服装就能更具内涵，也更耐穿。

Though it may sound shallow, we are what we wear. Cline suggests that we build a wardrobe over time. We should pay attention to quality. She says: “Obsessing over the perfect hem, luxuriating in fabrics, and patching up our clothes have become old-fashioned habits.

我们穿什么，我们就是什么——尽管这句话听上去很浅显。克莱建议人们应该随着时间的积累去打造自己的衣橱。我们应当关注衣服的品质。她说：“痴迷于精美褶边、良好质地以及修补衣服，这些都已成为过气的习惯了。

“But they’re also satisfying antidotes to the empty uniformity of cheap. If more of us picked up the lost art of sewing or reconnected with the tailors, we could all be our own fashion designers and constantly reinvent, personalize, and perfect the things we own.”

“但相比那些单调空洞的便宜货来说，这些旧习惯确实能让你摆脱廉价时尚。如果我们中有更多人能够重拾遗失的缝纫艺术，或者再去光顾裁缝处，我们可能都会成为自己的时尚设计师，并且能够不断重塑、完善并个性化我们所拥有的东西。”