Australia’s hooked on cheap gear. It’s not a good look

July 20, 2026 — 7:30pm

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Let me be upfront: I am not writing from some pristine, capsule-wardrobe moral high ground. I’ve done the late-night online poke around, added a few things to a cart because they looked good on an Insta stranger, but to have the parcel arrive with five pieces of fast fashion rubbish and – kind of maddeningly – one genuine gem that I still wear.

That’s the trap many of us fall into. It’s not that fast fashion is universally worthless, but the model is built on making us buy 10 things to get the “one thing”. And somehow we’ve all agreed that’s the new wardrobe normal. But you know what? It absolutely isn’t.

France’s parliament has passed a law imposing fees of 25¢ to €6 (41¢-$9.80) per item on ultra-fast-fashion e-tailers like Shein and Temu, climbing to €10 by 2030 – and banning those companies from advertising altogether, including through influencers. That, to me, is a government that’s actually looked at the........

© The Age