Fast fashion lets me keep up with trends on a student budget, but I recently calculated that I've bought 40 cheap tops in two years and only half survived more than five washes. Throwing away clothes that fall apart after a few wears feels wasteful, yet spending $80 on one quality shirt isn't realistic for most people I know. Is the convenience and low cost of fast fashion worth the environmental and quality trade-offs, or does the cheapness fool us into buying more than we need?