Don't Buy the Zara x Style Not Com collection

Secondhand alternatives to fast fashion temptations: February 2025.

This is Don’t Buy: a monthly series in which I dissect a fast fashion marketing tactic, and offer you some alternatives to shop secondhand instead. Sometimes it’s a list of pieces, sometimes it’s a stylised edit to help you picture how the piece would look as part of an outfit. If you like content like this and would like to explore fashion as a tool for new ways of seeing the world and participating in transforming it, then consider subscribing to Splendid Stuff <3

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In the midst of New York Fashion Week, I opened up Instagram to a cobalt blue post with white text on top. This combination will sound familiar if you, too, follow the fashion news account Style Not Com. It’s a popular account amongst industry insiders, where its founder Beka Gvishiani writes about luxury fashion in a bold, no-nonsense way. But this particular post confused me at first.

It was announcing a capsule collection in collaboration with Zara. The caption of the post read, ‘Let’s talk about fashion!’. So let’s.

But first, perhaps a quick Google search. The Wall Street Journal says it’s “the latest in Style Not Com's increasingly sophisticated business strategy”. Highxtar calls it a collection that “redefines the world of fashion”. ELLE Magazine describes it as “a line of casual wear, home goods and stationary” that is “unexpected” but “creates an avenue for fashion lovers new and old to experience the cobalt world of Style Not Com”.

What it really is, though, is merch. A hoodie in Gvishiani’s signature blue, with white text that reads ‘This is a hoodie without an idea’ (70 USD); a cap in the same colour scheme with Gvishiani’s signature phrase, ‘No, I’m not selling my cap’ (36 USD); a cotton tote bag that reads ‘It-bag of the season’ (50 USD).

For a collection that is trying to be intentionally ironic, it turned out to be ironic in a lot of unintentional ways. And the phrases sprinkled on the Zara website and on the products themselves do not help. It’s a merch line by a luxury fashion commentator in collaboration with a fast fashion giant infamous for creating designer rip-offs (‘Couture is my sport’, next to a t-shirt that reads ‘I always end up at Zara’). It’s a merch line centred around the idea of ‘talking about fashion’, yet that conversation must happen with one big, fat elephant in the room: around 90% of merch is thrown out within 6 months, ending up in landfills (‘Sun is hot, but fashion is hotter’ next to a coffee table book titled ‘Fashion in 2023’). But most confusing of all is that Style Not Com’s primary audience does not seem to be the type of person who would eat this up. In fact, the Instagram comments are mostly confused, disappointed, angry. “Let’s all pretend that we needed this. More clothes from a fast fashion brand […] Guess money always wins in the end. But being in the fashion world and knowing the ins and outs of this industry you should know better”, reads one comment. And another, “is ur audience rlly the type to shop at zara i’m confusedddd”.

And… is it?

This collaboration is confusing, but not surprising. It comes off the back of recent collaborations between Zara and other ‘fashion people’. Last November, they did a party collection with Kate Moss, where they sold €600 jackets and €200 shorts . Last September, they launched their live shopping platform with Kaia Gerber and Cindy Crawford, who did a livestream styled by Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele. And other fast fashion retailers are playing the same game: Gap hired Zac Posen as their creative director; Uniqlo hired Clare Waight Keller three years after she left Givenchy. Looking past this cobalt blue thread to the bigger pattern being weaved, it becomes clear that this collection is not necessarily about selling. Or, actually, let me rephrase: it is about selling (it always is), it’s just not about selling this collection.

Let’s start with the obvious: yes, it’s about positioning. For fast fashion brands like Zara and Uniqlo, it’s no longer possible to compete with low prices. It’s no longer enough to offer a brandless experience where the value created for the customer is ‘access’ to fashion. There’s an ultra-fast-fashion mutant monster looming over the hill, and they now have to create their own cultural and aspirational allure and move to a different hill. But it’s more than a positioning strategy.

While reporting Clare Waight Keller’s move to Uniqlo last year, Harper’s Bazaar said it was a reminder “that luxury and value can co-exist”. The BBC said it was a signal that “everyday clothing is becoming more luxurious”. This redefining of luxury to fit an exploitative fast fashion model —this blurring of the lines between luxury and fast fashion— is intentional. And the confusion it creates? Well, the confusion may very well be the entire point.

As Viktoriia Vasileva, from Vik’s Busy Corner, put it: “it’s become difficult to not only tell [luxury and fast fashion] apart from each other but also make financially and socially responsible decisions about where and how to shop.” In a world where the social, financial and ethical costs of purchasing clothing are more talked about than ever before, and where you no longer can afford to fall back on affordable prices alone to convince your customers to stay with you…what do you do? You create confusion. You blur the lines. You make it harder to answer the question: what is okay to buy and what isn’t? This is, in fact, a tactic long used by industry and politics alike to fight against cold, hard facts. As one cigarette executive once said (and as Katie Jgln points out in this excellent post): doubt is their product.

So if you’re feeling confused by this merch line; if you’re feeling confused about fashion in general in the last few years; if you’re no longer sure about what it is you should be buying, which brands fit with your values… don’t worry. You’re right where the industry wants you.

The good news is, however, that you don’t have to play their game. In fact, I’m here with some alternatives. Alternatives in how you engage with fashion, in how you recognise the tactics designed to keep you consuming without questioning, and alternatives in what you choose to buy. Let’s begin with this very confusing cobalt blue merch line. If indeed you happen to be looking for hoodies and t-shirts — perhaps a cap? — with bold text on them, may I interest you in some secondhand instead? And if what you’re after is the cultural appeal, the social signalling (no shame in this, we all do it), may I redirect you to the ultimate social and cultural signal: a used item that has lived many lives, and along with it, an active resistance to the fast fashion consumerist machine?

• Ganni bunny t-shirt, RRP €90 €60, Size S

• Zadig & Voltaire ‘je t’aime’ sweatshirt, RRP €220 €80, Size S

• Aime Leon Dore sweatshirt, RRP €117 €80, Size S

• Ralph Lauren cap, RRP €60 €29

• Pull & Bear ‘Nice Weather’ cap, RRP €13 €5

• Aime Leon Dore apple t-shirt, RRP €85 €80, Size L

More t-shirts

• Ganni ‘Time traveller’ t-shirt, RRP €90 €65, Size S

• Aime Leon Dore ‘NY’ t-shirt, RRP €85 €65, Size M

More sweatshirts / hoodies

• Subdued ‘After party’ blue hoodie, RRP €50 €10, Size M

• Essentials cream hoodie, RRP €140 €70, Size S

• Nude Project hoodie, RRP €99 €49, Size M

More caps

• Polo Ralph Lauren light blue cap, RRP €60 €15

• Polo Ralph Lauren blue and yellow cap, RRP €60 €24

• Pull & Bear ‘Great Fan’ pink cap, RRP €13 €5

• Pull & Bear ‘La bonne vie’ cream cap, RRP €13 €5

• Love Stories cream cap, RRP €50 €25