Detox. No, we don’t wear a garment between seven and ten times on average

It’s a statistic that has been in the debate for years: we would only wear an item of clothing between seven and ten times on average, to the chagrin of the slayers of the consumer society. Most of the time, those who quote this figure are based on a report by the NGO Oxfam.

This report, published in 2020, on the ” fast fashion And its social, environmental or health consequences, wrote that the clothes were only worn 7 to 10 times. But in 2019, the European Parliament already cited this statistic, citing as a source a report by Mc Kinsey from 2018. Contacted by Désintox, the famous cabinet explains, for its part, derive its statistic from an even older study, carried out by the organization British charity Barnardo’s.

By dint of pulling the thread, Désintox found the original study, which leads to relativize the scope of the famous figure. In a 2015 poll, Barnardo’s asked British women how many uses they considered clothes bought for a special evening or occasion to be too old? On average, the answer was 7 times.

It is this figure which has therefore been generalized, in a somewhat abusive manner. Indeed, the question related only to outfits purchased for a special occasion, and not to clothing in general. It is also difficult to extrapolate a global practice from 2,000 responses from women from a single country even if fast fashion is a very real phenomenon. Another study in 2017 from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that the number of average uses of clothing in the world fell between 2000 and 2015, from 200 to 160.

Find Detox Monday to Thursday, on the show 28 minutes on Arte, presented by Elisabeth Quin.
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