The search for unique style added to a rising eco-conscience, particularly among Gen Z, boomed the thrifting tradition. With the growing costs of living, secondhand clothing becomes an affordable alternative, as a way to express individually while promoting eco-friendly practices. However, fast fashion still dominates the industry, which promotes an unstable ground for the slow fashion movement.
THRIFTING IS BOOMING
While also promoting sustainability, thrift stores came from a necessity to buy clothes at low prices. It is a retail establishment that sells gently used items.
Originally, buying second-hand clothes in thrift stores was a solution for a lot of low-income families who could not feed new digs. And also, for the environment, because it promotes sustainability by giving pre-loved goods a second life instead of discarding them. However, a few years ago, thrifting has evolved from a necessity for low-income families into a mainstream cultural phenomenon, driven by sustainability, individuality and affordability.
By offering unique, one-of-a-kind, and vintage items, thrifting allows people to express individuality, by curating a distinctive personal aesthetic. It promotes mixing eras and styles, enabling consumers to explore their own fashion tastes, rather than following mainstream trends. As a rebellion against the trend’s styles, and also against fast fashion’s waste, Gen Z has incorporated thrifting. The market is booming, blending physical charity shops with online platforms.
Brazil got a raise of 31% of thrift stores, now there’s 118,000 of them. A survey conducted by Sebrae Minas, reveals that 61% of the purchasers prefer the secondhand market, because of the quality of the clothing items, which has an enduring material, with a low-price in a good origin.
In the US the secondhand clothing sector is among the fastest growing in the world, with projections to reach US$367 billions in sales by 2030, according to the ThredUp Report.
Thrifting is defining a new meaning for fashion consumption. It offers a sustainable, budget-friendly alternative to fast fashion, significantly reducing waste and environmental pollution. By purchasing second-hand items, the resources used in manufacturing are conserved, extending the life of garments, and preventing clothes from entering landfills. Although, slow fashion grows while fast fashion still dominates, which means that this movement is not that simple.
WHY IS FAST FASHION SO POPULAR?
Focused on quick and mass production, fast fashion replicates and sells current fashion trends at low prices. It is a business model in the textile industry that tries to bring styles from runways to retail, often leading to a “throwaway” culture, significant environmental impacts and ethical concerns over labor.
Internationally, 92 million tonnes of discarded garments find their way into landfills, out of the 100 billion produced every year. Because they rely on low costs and rapid high-volume production, fast faction industries are not worried with quality, but with quantity. As a result, this production model is responsible for several global problems, including massive environmental destruction, resource depletion and unethical labor practices.
In an article written in 2024, Greenpeace details the hostile conditions of production in this industry: low-quality clothes — which can harm both people and environment; huge amounts of discarded; cheap materials and exploits low-paid labours.
Even knowing all of the negative effects of this massive production, its ability to offer trendy and catwalk inspired clothes at affordable prices, allow consumers to constantly update their wardrobes without high costs. Solene Schirrer, project manager responsible for textiles, analyses the psychology aspect about fast fashion: “the psychological satisfaction of instant gratification, offers a sense of novelty and trendiness that encourages impulsive, high-volume consumption”. Therefore, most of the fast fashion consumers end up ignoring the real problem behind the manufacturing process.
As a direct response to the rapid rise of fast fashion, the slow fashion movement began in the mid-2000s. The movement is based on advocating thoughtful consumption, high-quality garments, fair wages, and environmentally sustainable production methods.
Slow fashion emphasizes buying fewer, but better quality items and reusing clothing to combat the high waste of the “throwaway” clothing culture. Gen Z is now turning to thrifting in a new trend.
SLOW FASHION OBSTACLES
As thrift shopping becomes trendy, demand increases, causing prices in thrift stores to rise. The rising cost of secondhand clothes makes them less accessible to low-income families, who have traditionally relied on these items for necessity rather than fashion, who are forced to back into buying cheap, poor-quality fast fashion.
On the other hand, with the thrifting success, social media promotes “thrift hauls”, where influencers show off dozens of inexpensive items, mirroring the overconsumption habits of fast fashion, with secondhand items.
The turnover of secondhand clothing, in the near future, implies that thrift stores will increasingly be flooded with low-quality fast fashion brands, meaning these items will likely end up back in a landfill soon after being purchased.
For thrifting to remain positive, truly sustainable and accessible, it requires more conscious, purposeful consumption rather than participating in the fast-fashion-like rush of modern, trendier reselling.
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The article above was edited by Sofia Bianco.
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