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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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COVID-19: the impact on the fashion world
COVID-19 has hit the world population hard and has knocked the economy drastically. The mainstream media is trying to provide the most relevant and recent information, confirming that the UK’s total cases are rising steadily each day. Although we are used to internet trolls and are wary of online scams, we undoubtedly have to trust the severity of the pandemic and understand the government’s decisions for lockdowns and the immediate closure of nonessential businesses. But just how impacted will the fashion industry be? Global impact We are witnessing a domino effect with the virus, not only by spreading it, but with travel restrictions and the shutdown of several countries across…
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5 ways to become a more conscious fashion consumer
It is common knowledge that the fashion industry is now of the leading waste producers and contributing to the ongoing climate crisis. While industry professionals and designers are taking their stance on this debate, we as consumers need to make our own contributions. So here are 5 small steps that you can take to become a conscious yet fashionable citizen. Buy less, Consume more Data suggests that the value of unused clothing in wardrobes has been estimated at around £30 billion. It is also estimated £140 million worth of clothing goes into landfill each year. While there is definitely an opportunity for local authorities to take action, individual initiative is…
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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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Bricks and Mortar
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 2015 the used textile market was worth close to €4 billion. Today, the volume of used or second-hand clothing is enormous and growing. And increasingly, this volume isn’t just coming from more economically developed countries, but from countries around the world. For example, 60% of Chinese consumers now admit to owning more clothes than they need, with the average number of wears per item…
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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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Vintage Love Don’t Cost a Thing
‘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? In November 2018, a sheer, svelte cream dress, adorned with thousands of tiny crystals sold for 4.8 million USD. This coveted vintage garment was worn by Marilyn Monroe when she sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to President John F. Kennedy in 1962. It holds the record for the most expensive dress sold at an auction. What’s the most…
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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…
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Vintage Fashion: Sustainable Style
I used to walk past high street shops and fill to the brim with excitement. There is no doubt that the feeling got my adrenaline pumping. As a British girl living on the continent, my options for shopping were limited in my eyes. I took trips to London just to go to the Oxford Street Primark. My friends and I would go mad in that shop, buying all the latest bright-coloured trendy tops. Although Primark was my favourite store, as a thirteen-year old I could easily be dragged into any famous high street shop. The whole experience was thrilling to me. A shopping trip never ended in disappointment. I was…
