Can these new apps fight fast fashion?

The clothes in a bedroom closet or dresser drawer can move like the ocean tides; through everyday wear, re-wear, laundry practices, and the changing of seasons, some items get picked up and swept to the back, and before they’ve made their way back to you again, you’ve sort of forgotten about their existence and purchased something new. But what if we could easily see everything we owned at a glance? Might that help us cut off our relationship with fast fashion and an overwhelming amount of stuff? 

That’s the promise of wardrobe cataloging apps, which Constance Grady recently dug into for Vox. The idea is that if you can see exactly how much you own, you’ll be able to shop your own closet instead of buying new things. It’s a tempting offer — and the apps are touted by a lot of influencers — so Constance set out to find out how well it works in practice.

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—Rachel Wilkerson Miller, senior editor

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