The Second-Hand Fashion Revolution
- savydibre
- Dec 11, 2024
- 2 min read
Hi all! Today, we will discuss the surging second-hand clothing market. We will discuss not only the environmental significance of secondhand clothing but also a bit of its economics. In the past decade, second-hand fashion has become not just more common but also a luxury. Celebrities and influencers have influenced us all to want to partake in this trend.
So, how does second-hand fashion help our environment? Well, shopping second-hand means you are buying something that was repurposed. This means that you aren’t wasting energy, water, and resources to buy newly produced clothing. By buying second-hand, you are increasing the life of garments. If everyone did this, then there wouldn’t be a need to constantly reproduce garments, which takes a massive amount of energy and a significant toll on the environment.
The main reason thrifting will help our environment, aside from reducing carbon emissions, is that it will limit fast fashion. The reason fast fashion thrives is because of the constant change in microtrends. This allows fast fashion companies, such as Zara and H&M, to thrive by cheaply producing an extremely large amount of garments that follow these microtrends. Consumer’s main focuses are to remain trendy, so they disregard the quality of their clothing or the way it is produced. As long as consumers stay trendy, they are content. Fast fashion companies thrive off the consumers’ desire to follow fashion trends. However, consumers can constantly follow these trends also if they thrift. They can find clothing and also give away some old clothing that is no longer wanted. By thrifting, you can still follow these trends while maintaining a respectable approach to doing so. Thrifting allows us to follow trends while being environmentally conscious.
However, there are also some issues with thrifting. Not enough people partake in the act of thrifting, which leads to the incineration or discarding of clothes. So, although thrifting helps the environment by extending the life of clothes and limiting the amount of carbon emissions, it doesn’t help unless an extensive amount of people partake in it. You’re not helping if you just thrift one item. In order to make a real difference we need to thrift constantly and we can’t be the only ones to do it. We need an extensive population of people to partake in the act of thrifting in order to make a true difference.
So, if you enjoy constantly refreshing your wardrobe don’t partake in fast fashion, instead thrift! This is a way for you to continually buy new clothing while limiting the amount of carbon emissions produced. You can also give some of your old or no longer wanted clothing to thrift stores for someone else to thrift. Let’s partake in the circular motion of extending the lives of our garments and preserving the environment while we do it!
Stay Curious! Signing off with a smile - Savannah
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