Relay Column: Why Did You Buy This Outfit? – Clothing in Statues, Photos, & Videos (Kiritorimederu)

In our monthly relay column series "Fashion / Technology," we invite writers active in various fields to share their perspectives on "fashion" and "technology" through keywords like clothing, the body, cultural industries, consumer culture, media, space, and communication.

For our first installment, we present a text by the critic, Kiritorimederu.

Working for 10 hours since morning, losing time to buy clothes. A 90-minute commute on a crowded train, at least I want to buy clothes for myself. I opened the app of a fashion e-commerce site. There were many items lined up that I couldn't possibly go through all of it. I wanted to look at clothes vaguely, so I started to scroll aimlessly. Someone on Twitter said that the current nonsensical place is those who simply buy clothes from the top of the site's ranking. It's okay to buy a USB cable on Amazon based on accumulated reviews and stars, it's okay to rush to buy a fig tart with a 3.7 rating on Tabelog, and although the top recipes on cookpad are not accessible without payment, why is it bad to choose this trustworthy and reputable long skirt? Surely, the idea of being "uncool" here is not necessarily about using individual e-commerce sites, but more about using rankings as a justification for unselected choices. Then, on the other hand, based on what criteria should one buy clothes?