Pre-loved was accessible in both cost and location, but—to my surprise—it also more than satisfied my shopping desires. My days of sleeping around dreaming of how fabulous I’d look from top to toe in Topshop party dresses were over, but I became someone who took risks when changing clothes and enjoyed layering and patterned outfits for found a new look. The eclectic nature of secondhand means that my clothes have remained unique and reflect my own taste rather than dictated trends.
Switching to second-hand shopping requires a change in mindset. You have to be much more patient and experimental. A proper review of a charity or vintage shop takes time. It’s usually a good idea to get a friend to talk to and consult with. Sure, the likes of Depop, Vestiaire Collective and eBay enable a specific search, but half the joy of pre-loved shopping is the opportunity to snag surprising pieces.
Over the years, I’ve met like-minded individuals and in an effort to fill and understand this more organic approach to fashion, I began documenting their incredible wardrobes on my website, My Indie Wardrobe. “Usually when I decide to buy something, it has to be a special piece. I look for quality and usually choose natural fibers like cotton, linen or silk. I often choose pieces that I know I’ll love for years to come,” says Selena Williams, recent subject and owner of Selena’s Shop.
For me, the “next years” element in secondhand fashion has been a recent discovery. The spontaneous addition of casual sparkle to my wardrobe – while fun – didn’t always make for the most functional clothing collection, resulting in quite a high turnover. When you read Aja Berberi’s book Consumed, I discovered that only 10 to 20 percent of clothing donated to charity shops is resold, with a large portion being shipped overseas—to places like Kantamanto Market in Accra, Ghana, where a staggering 15 million garments arrive each week. In the Kantamanto market, bales of clothing are bought by vendors, but 40 percent of the unsold clothing is still sent to landfills, informal landfills, incinerators or simply to the sea.
Second-hand fashion doesn’t help with sustainability if you treat it as fast fashion: a disposable item that is worn for a night before it ends up in landfill, often having a hugely damaging impact on countries in the Global South. Barber recently tweeted: “The first step is to STOP. People want to replace one-for-one fast fashion with ethical fashion and it just doesn’t work.”
Second-hand fashion helps if it is carefully selected, loved and repaired, taking the place of a brand new purchase and complementing clothes already hanging in the wardrobe. Like my old black and white t-shirt, which – with any luck – will have a few more stories to tell in another 20 years.
