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Time to Reuse
Shopping renewably and locally has never been more important. Now more than ever, we are relying on fast fashion. I too, am guilty of ordering countless lockdown parcels – but it’s also now more than ever we should be looking for a more sustainable way of clothes shopping. A circular economy focuses on eliminating waste and reuses resources we already have. It is something that has benefited the fashion industry greatly in the past, and could further help now, and in the future. Already we are seeing a step in the right direction. My home city, Sheffield, has many reworked vintage shops, and brands are following suit. Urban Outfitters, established…
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To Buy or Not to Buy – the Concept of Circular Fashion
Over the recent years, the detrimental effect on the environment exerted by the fashion industry, overproduction of clothes, and, consequently, consumerism, has been commonly addressed in the media. For this reason, a community that is making new sustainable purchases on an ongoing basis without potentially threatening the environment deals with no guilt. It is even considered a manifesto of some sort or, in some cases, a sacrifice. What is this about? I am referring to a quite novel concept called circular fashion. “Circular fashion can be defined as clothes, shoes or accessories that are designed, sourced, produced and provided with the intention to be used and circulate responsibly and effectively…
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It’s time to throw out throw-away culture!
Arguably the principal issue facing society is climate change. Our environment is under threat with fast fashion and throw-away culture advancing the issue. One-use items are so commonplace nowadays. People’s go to when buying items are from the big brands; whose carbon footprints are jaw dropping. The fashion industry accounts for a whopping 10% of carbon emissions each year (IPCC). The waste produced by the industry places it just second to oil on the worst polluters. However, there are alternatives. Independent vintage sites and clothes are making a resurgence and seller sites like Depop are growing in popularity. Also, recycling clothes is one way to tackle the growing trend of…
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Sustainable fashion: The community you want to be a part of
2020 has been a chaotic year; politics has become so polarised, the world has gone into lockdown, and our climate is descending into madness. But in reality, this could be our future if we don’t act now. 2020 was the year to save our planet and to hold the big industries accountable. 2020 was the year to redeem ourselves, but the pandemic has diverted our gaze to the immediate threats we’re facing. It’s time to make our consumption sustainable. Climate crisis Environmental activists have been flooding the media with statements trying to draw the world’s attention to our planet’s cry for help. We are rapidly depleting our resources and most…
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The Horror Story of the Fashion World
Simply put, we are killing the planet. And one of the big contributors to this is the fashion industry. It is the third biggest pollutant on the planet and it continues to rip through our natural resources on a daily basis. We have the solution right under our noses, yet we still do nothing. We, as consumers, need to become more aware of the impact this industry is having. Our money is single-handedly funding our planet’s demise and the majority of us have no idea how. The life cycle of fashion The life cycle of your typical fashion garment is probably a bit of a mystery to most – other…
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Should We Choose Fast Fashion or Conscious Buying?
When it’s easier to turn a blind eye to the problems of fast fashion, how do we even try to start solving the problem? The problems caused by fast fashion Fast fashion is quickly becoming a phrase that is actually starting to mean something to the people spending their money on it. With its utterance conjuring images of sweatshops, mountains of clothing destined to be worn once and never again, and oceans polluted with microfibers, fast fashion seems to be something we hate, but are doing little about. The company Boohoo, now recognised as one of the UK’s online clothing giants and valued at around £4.3 million, has recently been…
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Will fashion ever be truly genderless?
In this article we’ll be investigating whether or not genderless fashion is just a trend, or whether it’s here to stay. While gender-fluidity can seem like quite a recent topic, it can be traced back to 1824. Hidden in the forests of Indiana, a small town called New Harmony was founded. In this town, both men and women could wear shirts and trousers. But how could one small town revolutionise gendered clothing while the rest of the world was trapped in rigid gender-stereotypes for the next 150-200 years? How has vintage and second-hand clothing changed gendered clothing? Now that sustainability is becoming a huge part of life for all of…
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Ambiguous Vintage
‘Vintage’ can mean different things to different people and clever marketing has given it a rise in popularity in the last twenty years. Nowadays, you can find ‘second-hand’ clothes for 99p while a ‘vintage’ tag can push it towards £99. Did we trade in value for cool points when ‘vintage’ became a desirable look? When I first moved to London a few years ago, I was excited to discover events called Vintage Kilo Sales. The idea behind these events was quite simple – a local hall is filled with pre-loved items and the price of the clothes is determined by their weight. A kilo of clothes thus has a set…
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The Supply and Demand Of Vintage Fashion
While online-only brands like ASOS, Boohoo and Missguided chip away at our formerly fashionable high streets, is the same true when it comes to second-hand? Do charity shops, vintage boutiques and thrift stores suffer at the hands of online marketplaces such as eBay and Depop? In December 2011, Mary ‘Queen of Shops’ Portas launched an independent review – recommended by the government – into the future of British high streets, researching the decline she believed to have ‘reached a crisis point’. Adamant at the time that business was the bottom line of the decision-making process, with sentimentality playing no part in her desire to turn the failing high street around,…
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Falling into the Cracks: The Second-Hand Struggle
Second-hand clothes are wardrobe treasures passed on from one person to the next and each unique item tells a story – yet they seem to get a mixed review among shoppers. Does using the term ‘vintage’ free you from the stigma or does buying second-hand clothes make you feel like a second-class citizen? Let’s get it out of the way. A bulk of the stigma around second-hand clothes exists along class lines. For many people who are living from pay cheque to pay cheque, second-hand clothes are the only viable option to dress themselves and their families. Declaring that they shop vintage doesn’t change their everyday reality nor does it suddenly remove the obstacles they face as…
