99% Invisible

Bonus Episode- Avery talks Articles of Interest with Roman

— ·99% Invisible ·9 min read

Brief

In this bonus episode of 99% Invisible, Roman Mars interviews Avery Troffman about her fashion podcast series 'Articles of Interest,' which was named the fourth best podcast of the year by The New Yorker. Troffman discusses how researching the fashion industry fundamentally changed her relationship with clothing consumption. She learned that clothing production is 'really wasteful' and contributes 8% of global CO2 emissions, leading even fashion designers like Vivian Westwood to campaign for people to 'buy less.'

Troffman explains how she broke her own consumption cycle through an accidental experiment: while traveling for research, she lived out of a backpack wearing the same black overalls and blue shirt daily. This 'clothing fast' made her existing wardrobe feel enormous and exciting when she returned home. She now advocates for secondhand shopping platforms like ThredUp, Poshmark, and The RealReal as a way to satisfy shopping urges without contributing to new material production. Fashion consultant Annie Gullingsrude influenced this approach, noting that people typically discard clothes within a year of purchase.

The conversation reveals the psychological complexity of fashion consumption - Troffman notes that everyone is influenced by fashion trends, not through top-down mandates from magazines, but through subtle shifts in what looks appealing. She emphasizes that style remains important for self-expression as people change over time, but the key is finding ways to express that creativity without constantly buying new items. The episode concludes with a pitch for supporting podcasts instead of buying clothes, positioning thoughtful media consumption as a more sustainable alternative to material consumption.

Why it matters

Roman Mars interviews Avery Troffman about her acclaimed fashion podcast series 'Articles of Interest' and how it changed her consumption habits:

Key details

  • [data] The clothing industry contributes 8% of all global CO2 emissions
  • [insight] Most donated clothes end up in landfills anyway, making the buy-donate cycle unsustainable
  • [claim] People discard clothes within a year of purchase according to research cited by fashion consultant Annie Gullingsrude
  • [recommendation] Use secondhand platforms like ThredUp, Poshmark, and The RealReal to satisfy shopping urges without buying new materials
  • [insight] Living out of a backpack with one outfit made Troffman's existing closet feel like 'a wonderland' when she returned
Cleaned source text

title: Bonus Episode- Avery talks Articles of Interest with Roman

author: 99% Invisible

content_type: podcast

publication: 99% Invisible

word_count: 2074

This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Mars. So this is a little bonus episode of 99% Invisible.

And one of the big things we did this year was we released a brand new show inside of a show

created and hosted and conceived and reported by Avery Trollman who is here with me in the studio.

Yes. And what I want to talk to you about is this was a phenomenon.

It was called the fourth best podcast of the year,

according to the New Yorker.

And so I wanted to talk to you a little bit

about the making of it and what you learned

in the process of it, both in terms of the production of it

as a show, as a piece of entertainment and information,

but also personally how it affected your view of clothing,

your view of style,

well, that's everything.

So first, what was it like to have the show with in a show

and how did it feel to be out there as the host?

What was it like?

Oh, it's so scary, I don't know.

You do it.

It's scary, isn't it?

It's really scary to have your voice out there,

especially in this realm where I didn't know

anything about it before.

And yeah, there was just so much to synthes especially in this realm where I didn't know anything about it before. Right.

And yeah, there was just so much to synthesize in this series.

I've been working on it for so long.

Yeah.

I learned so much and it really changed the way I dress and the way I shop entirely.

Oh, that's amazing.

So what do you mean by that?

The funny thing is, I think going into

the series, I was like, I am a close person. I am a person who loves close. And then after reporting

the series, I am a person who hates close. And I am a person. No, no, no, no, no, I'm a person who loves style and I love fashion. Yeah, but clothes

are tricky. Okay, so explain the nuance here that you're speaking of

So as we learned in episode number five of articles of interest about denim the process of making clothes right any kind of clothes

is really wasteful. It's pretty shocking and we live in a world where it is so easy to just buy new clothes.

And that's what I used to do all the time, not even thinking about it.

I think a lot of people who don't consider themselves big shoppers,

just here and there occasionally just impulsively buy things from the internet,

from a store, and maybe sometimes it fits, and sometimes it's your style,

and sometimes it's not, and whatever, then you donate it to the goodwill, and that's good for the goodwill.

And that is totally how I lived.

You're like, you're like, absolved from the consumerism because you know you're gonna donate it,

and close are these imminently, donating objects, but that's not enough.

It's no, no, because it's really,

most clothes end up in landfill anyway.

And Goodwill and Salvation Army,

these amazing organizations provide this virtuous outlet

for us to just continue getting rid of clothes

and buying new stuff all the time.

And we're in the cycle of like,

buy, donate, buy, donate, buy, donate, buy, donate,

which, you know, it's good to donate your clothes, but it's not the solution for overconsumption.

Right.

And clothes contribute to 8% of all CO2 emissions in the world.

And that's huge.

That's a huge output.

And we are just consuming too many new things.

And so every designer I talk to is like thinking about this, concerned about this, worried about this,

and so many people were just like, you need to stop buying clothes. Yeah. Even the people who make

the clothes. Yes. Vivian Westwood herself has this whole campaign, she has these shirts that say, buy less on them.

I don't know if she's selling them or not,

but on her Twitter, there's a video where she's like,

I'm making this new collection,

but you have got to help because you mustn't buy

more or stop by less.

Like don't buy clothes.

That's the tricky thing.

As someone who loves fashion and loves style, it's extremely

hard to be like, stop buying because it's a really important form of self expression.

And as you grow and as you change and as your entire body completely regenerates on a cellular

level every 14 years, you need to find new ways to

express yourself and the world around you is changing and the weather is changing. Like,

you can't not wear new things. Yeah. So how did you stop the cycle of

buying and giving away and buying and giving away? Ironically, my style really paired down in the

course of reporting for all of this because I was traveling so much. I lived out of a backpack and I had a uniform.