Book this is extracted from and the passage is here...

https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=-4ODDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3&dq=...

They don't seem to have a source. Not linked anyways. Sources might be listed at the end of the book.

ETA: Ah, they have the "source" in "notes." They are quoting a CEO of a retailer, so I guess they wouldn't ask sources. You would need to "fact-check" the CEO. ;)

I suppose you could just skip over all parts of the book which talks about numbers, because it's too much work to track those down to see if they are legit.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/22/rent-the-runwa...

> According to Jennifer Hyman, the C.E.O. of Rent the Runway, I am not alone. “Every woman has the feeling of opening up her closet and seeing the dozens of dead dresses that she’s worn only once,” she told me recently. Each year, as Hyman is fond of pointing out, the average American buys sixty-eight items of clothing, eighty per cent of which are seldom worn; twenty per cent of what the $2.4-trillion global fashion industry generates is thrown away.

> According to Jennifer Hyman, the C.E.O. of Rent the Runway, I am not alone. “Every woman has the feeling of opening up her closet and seeing the dozens of dead dresses that she’s worn only once,” she told me recently. Each year, as Hyman is fond of pointing out, the average American buys sixty-eight items of clothing, eighty per cent of which are seldom worn; twenty per cent of what the $2.4-trillion global fashion industry generates is thrown away.

So its probably a made up statistic so they can justify their business model of renting clothes.

On the other hand, if this number also includes socks, underwear, rain wear, winter wear, sports clothing, swim clothing, etc., it might be less absurd. And don't get me started on clothing for young children, of course.

Still, when you say "68 items of clothing", most people think pants, blouses, dresses, costumes, and the like. But that's the fun with statistics :-(

I imagine they are counting everything, e.g. counting each sock as a separate item of clothing. Otherwise, there is no way the AVERAGE is 68 items per year.

Likely does include socks and underwear but the median is probably lower than the avenger age. I’m guessing this is a skewed distribution.

Now thinking about it, children—especially newborns and toddlers—go through clothes fast. They must be skewing the distribution.

Where I live, if you enter a random mall, perhaps 1/2 to 2/3rds of the shops sell clothing. And they live somehow and obviously attract enough customers - a cursory look will prove that they aren't empty.

There must be people who buy three or four pieces of clothing every week for years.

What about 1.5 pieces per week, including underwear? Seems more likely.

I've heard of people who buy new socks and underwear rather than wash them, but I doubt it's common enough to bend the average up.