Normal does not mean right, it does not mean good. Normal is just the loudest. Normality would have us believe that clothes lose their value as they age, that clothes are useless when ripped, that everything must be bought fresh from the store. Victor Lebow says, “the measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns,” and I think this quote describes our current relationship to clothing. Clothes are a marker of economic class, of culture, of gender. Clothes help to place us in our social order. However, to look at the oceans of clothes in outlet stores, to see whole floors swallowed by them, trash bags piled on street corners and curbside donation bins, to see the amount of clothes bought and then thrown out, is to see the violence of normality. Normality does not serve us, it serves those in power. When confronted with the realities of clothing waste, the power clothing holds starts to slip.