FROM ONE CLICK TO MANY MORE BUYS
The other day, it started pouring rain, and I realised I didn’t own a pair of waterproof shoes or boots that could stand the level of water in the streets. Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, and after a year of heavy rainfall in Milan, I thought it would be the right time to buy a pair of rain boots. So, after some quick research online, I decided to buy a pair on Vinted. I found a very cute pair, sturdy and in perfect condition, that someone had been gifted in the wrong size. I also saved 70% on the price of a new pair. Given that these items are made of plastic, the ones already produced must be used as much as possible, reducing the need for new petrol to be extracted and processed.
The issue is, once I opened the app, I saw some old pieces I had saved and started scrolling through all the pretty things available on second-hand websites for minimal prices. I recently lost a T-shirt that I used to wear a lot, and I bought a substitute from the same brand. The more time I spent looking, the more I felt a consumerist instinct - and I had to work on my self-control to stop looking. I have the tools to do this. Being a sustainable fashion professional, I spend a lot of time thinking about the real use of things we have, but what about all those who don’t have these tools?
You might ask - what is the problem with buying a lot of vintage clothes? Are we not just redirecting items from landfill? As always, the answer has multiple layers, so let’s dive into peel them back.
VINTAGE / THRIFTING / SECOND HAND, WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE? A SHORT HISTORY OF BUYING PRE-OWNED.
Let’s have a look at the Cambridge Dictionary →
So, from all these adjectives that can be used in very similar situations, we can understand that Vintage is used for valuable symbolic pieces from a specific period and pieces that are at least a decade old. Thrifted refers to the specific action of searching and finding a piece. Second-hand is the most accurate definition, but because it has gained a negative connotation with time, pre-loved has increased in popularity.
The term "vintage" was first used in the 1920s to describe wine, but it was shortly applied to clothing, too, in particular during World War I as a response to textile shortages.
The concept of vintage, however, has existed since always: clothes were never discarded and always shared among family members and friends.
Now, it is more viewed as a solution to the enormous amount of clothing produced in the last decades. According to several sources, citing the British Fashion Council, there are enough clothes on the planet to dress the next six generations! (We have been searching for the original source. If anyone has it, can you please share?)
Today, the second-hand market is very large - valued at USD 196.56 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to USD 593.72 billion by 2031. Clothing can be found in cities at local boutiques or charities, including in large chains such as Goodwill, Salvation Army, Oxfam, Humana, Savers or Save the Children. Second-hand clothing is available online through dedicated apps and websites, such as Vinted, Depop, ThredUp, Vestiaire Collective, The Real Real, eBay, Etsy, etc.
In the past decade, buying used fashion has become normalised and even glamorised, with celebrities getting in on the action through swaps and sales of their pre-owned designer clothing. Shoppers are paying TikTok stylists hundreds of dollars for "bundles" of thrifted clothing. Sixty-seven percent of millennials in the UK shop second-hand!
Last week, London Fashion Week kicked off on Thursday with shows presented by eBay and Oxfam exclusively featuring preloved pieces worn by celebrities.
“This is the first time an on-schedule London Fashion Week show has exclusively preloved clothes, so it is a monumental moment for circular fashion,” said eBay’s preloved style director, Amy Bannerman.
Such events can bring significant shifts in consumer mentality on the value of pre-loved clothes and help reduce purchases of first-hand fashion, which comes with destructive social and environmental impacts.
IF YOU HAVE TO BUY CLOTHES, VINTAGE IS THE PREFERRED WAY
With a culture obsessed with cute aesthetics, controlling our shopping impulses is hard. Of course, clothing is a means of survival for humans, so we inevitably need to shop. However, we’re at the point of overindulgence, and our habits need to evolve to meet climate targets.
A change in consumption is required if we want to meet our climate targets to tackle climate change. According to a report from the Hot or Cool Institute, to have a 50% chance of staying below 1.5°- warming, we must reduce global emissions by 45-55% by 2030.
If you need to shop, it’s best to choose vintage. It’s estimated that buying just one used garment instead of a new one would save an estimated 0.3 kg of CO₂e per capita per year. In addition to reducing our overall environmental impact, shopping vintage also means supporting local, sourcing unique pieces that satiate our need to express individuality, and supporting the transition to replacing fast fashion.
According to the 2024 ThredUp report, the global secondhand apparel market is expected to reach $350 billion by 2028, growing three times faster than the overall global apparel market. Through shopping secondhand, we’re creating a new culture of consumption that replaces the traditional fashion business model with a circular one.
SECOND-HAND IMPACTS
Sorting centres and how much gets wasted
There's a problem in the second-hand business, however: from local thrift shops to enormous online second-hand retailers, it's hard to find pre-owned clothing businesses that actually turn a profit. A vast amount of supply needs to be sorted, cleaned, and processed. This struggle affects resellers of every size, type, and location. It is intrinsically connected to the issue of fast fashion, which gets discarded faster and faster and inputs extremely low-quality clothing into the system.
According to a 2023 study, a large Swedish charity had to pay to have 70% of donated clothing incinerated because it was too low quality to sell in-store or export. And of the clothing exported to Ghana, it is said that 40% of the average bale leaves the market as waste.
Getting a peek into the collecting and sorting operations in Karachi, Pakistan this year, it was evident that much of the clothing received at these facilities is still going straight to the landfill with piles and piles of clothing literally labelled “TRASH” and most labels coming from the Western world. Seeing the rows of buildings the size of my apartment complex, filled with just a fraction of the discarded clothes destined for resale, underscored the overwhelming scale of the secondhand industry. This vast system not only reflects but also perpetuates our fast fashion consumption habits.
How second-hand can fuel fast fashion
We love second-hand clothing and are extremely happy about all the solutions that currently exist. However, we are aware that these can provide a guilt-free solution to buying a lot of clothing, particularly fast fashion.
→ These are all examples of how second-hand can help fuel fast fashion.
While buying pre-worn items lowers the demand for new production and reduces the environmental impact, the high volume of consumption and the quick turnover of garments being purchased and resold still reflect the fast fashion cycle – just in a different way.
But in terms of overall impact, reducing the consumption of new clothing is the most effective way to reduce your carbon footprint. This leads to reductions 4x higher than the increase in garment use time and 3x higher than the current pace of decarbonisation in the fashion industry.
Shipping
The shipping process contributes to carbon emissions due to the energy required for transportation, particularly when items are sent over long distances or internationally. Packaging materials, often used to protect clothes, can also generate waste if not sustainably sourced or recycled. Online retailers tend to reuse packaging material, but it’s difficult to know whether this is always the case.
Individual shipments have a higher environmental impact compared to bulk transportation, so shipping practices need to be optimised to minimise ecological impact. As always, higher volumes can help lower the cost and impact, so the more second-hand goods are purchased, the more sustainable they will be.
UNDERSTANDING AND REJECTING THE CONSUMERIST IMPULSE
As the seasons change, I’m sure you’re familiar with the thrill of buying a new item, like new fall boots. Consuming fashion is more than buying clothes out of necessity; it’s about culture and an inner sense of self-expression. But we’re at a point where we’re overindulging in fashion, and it’s becoming unhealthy for ourselves and the planet. So, what is driving our impulse to shop, and how can we control it?
Understanding: What shopping does to our brains
For our brains, consuming clothing works similarly to chocolate or alcohol. When you shop, your brain releases dopamine. Our brains always seek positive rewards to avoid pain or discomfort, and the more we shop, the more dopamine is released, well above our baseline. But dopamine levels fall well below baseline if we don’t buy something new. This means if we don’t overconsume fashion, we’ll experience feelings of withdrawal like cravings, anxiety, depression, and comparison.
In Dopamine Nation, a book by Dr. Anna Lembke discusses how to find balance in the age of indulgence. She touches on the concept of “the plenty paradox”.
“By raising our neural set point with repeated pleasures, we become endless strivers, never satisfied with what we have, always looking for more.”
As we buy more clothing, we’re never fully satisfied. Fashion brands create an endless cycle of newness that perpetuates consumption and fuels our search for dopamine.
Our consumption is also uneven globally. Consumption levels in the Global North among the wealthiest 20% cause 20 times higher emissions than that of the poorest 20%, varied across income levels. You’d like those with a higher GDP to need less, but the opposite is true: the more you have, the more you want.
Dr. Lembki explores this paradox through social media. Instead of comparing ourselves to a friend, we now compare ourselves to the whole world, which makes it easy to convince ourselves that we should’ve done more, gotten more, or lived differently. Social media sends us constant dopamine hits filled with negative messaging, leaving us feeling like our lives lack meaning on platforms meant to foster social connections.
“Overabundance is itself a stressor caused by the mismatch between our primitive wiring and our modern dopamine-rich ecosystem”. Dr. Anna Lembki from Dopamine Nation.
Much like social media, fashion is an over-stimulating, dopamine-rich ecosystem. We exist in a culture of consumerism that makes shopping appealing and accessible. Fast fashion revolves around short seasonal cycles, pumping out collections that become closer together to appeal to trends and fuel our desire for newness. While satisfying, leaning into this culture is unsustainable for our wallets, mental health, and the environment.
Rejecting: How do we reject consumerism? Seeking pleasure elsewhere
We should all be asking ourselves and the industry what minimum clothing is sufficient to fulfil a person’s clothing needs to restore balance in fashion consumption patterns.
Overconsumption is affecting our planet.
A report by the Hot or Cool Institute states, “If no other actions are implemented, such as repairing, mending, washing at lower temperatures, or buying second hand, purchases of new garments should be limited to an average of 5 items per year for achieving consumption levels in line with the 1.5-degree target”.
Editor Tiffanie Darke took an interesting approach to addressing this issue. She coined the “Rule of 5,” in which she challenged herself and others in the industry to purchase just 5 new items a year, with the exception of 4 second-hand purchases. This approach emerged from the concept of a sufficiency wardrobe.
I’ll admit that, looking at my closet, I have bought more than five new items in the past year. I enjoy fashion as a means of self-expression and, like many, don’t want to sacrifice my ability to adopt new trends and styles.
So, how do we tip the scale of consumption when we crave the dopamine hit from fashion consumption? One way would be to enjoy the process and not the reward. Slowing down to appreciate the clothing we do have can lead us to practices like mending, up-cycling, favouring quality materials, and invoking more intentional and mindful purchases. Of course, limiting and adapting consumption habits won’t happen overnight, so shopping vintage can be a great way to wean yourself off of overconsumption through lower-impact purchases and investing in well-made pieces.
If we were to become sufficient with our fashion consumption, we’d reduce consumption levels. Reducing the amount of clothes we buy is the most effective behavioural solution to reducing fashion's environmental footprint. If we started to divide this equitably, it would look like the wealthiest countries would reduce their consumption levels the most to meet a balance. It would also mean detaching the emotional aspects intrinsic to fashion from consumption and fulfilling our needs through intentional lifestyle choices that fill your cup. Less is more.
CONCLUSION
Buying vintage and second-hand is a powerful way to address both the environmental impacts of fast-fashion and express individuality through unique pieces. However, even with vintage, it’s easy to get caught up in the cycle of endless consumption that comes with the dopamine-rush of shopping. It’s important to reflect on your consumption habits and ask yourself why you’re buying a new item beyond the initial impulse. While so many external factors influence our fashion purchases, we have control over our consumption once we break through the noise and slow down to reflect. Isn’t it time we embraced a slower life, cherishing the clothes we wear and their processes instead of letting an exploitive system dictate our fashion choices?
We think so. What do you think?
Until next time friends, always be curious and stay diligent x
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