Some days back while rummaging through my closet to find a cute outfit for another one of my great outdoor adventures (Read: monthly grocery shopping), I was greeted by an old, sullied pair of Zara jeans which I wore all of two times in my life because it was too tight on me. I felt a wave of guilt wash over me not only because of the dent it had caused on my pocket but also a certain fact that I had read in an article a while back:
“It takes up to 10,000 litres of water to make a single pair of jeans.”
Absolutely astonishing, isn’t it? For all the cute, trendy pair of jeans we own, thousands of litres of water, precious, life-saving water gets used up. At least 2700L of water is needed for making that very cool, H&M graphic tee you buy with your saved-up pocket money. If you look deeper, you also are hit with the sad reality of pollution, resources, toxic dyes and underpaid workers that goes behind the manufacturing of these clothes, some of which we are all guilty of not even wearing of one or the other reason.
In this recent period of awareness about fast fashion, a solution that is usually thrown our way is to get clothes from sustainable brands. But let us face it, we are broke college students who can’t exactly afford to buy clothes that are more expensive than our kidneys.
So what do we do – give up clothes and go around naked? A bit extreme… But a solution that doesn’t sound as ridiculous is thrift shopping!
Thrift shopping, as the name goes, is the ultimate way of helping our environment (and also our pockets) by shopping from thrift shops that sell second-hand, pre-loved clothes.
But second-hand?
There is a dire need of removing the no-good stigma around buying second-hand clothes. Honestly, the number of pros of getting pre-loved clothes beats the cons of buying them any day!
First and foremost, let’s just get it out there: These clothes are cheap! You don’t have to survive off Maggi for days after buying that very, painfully expensive little black dress at the mall. Just go thrift. A lot of times, you even find designer labels and expensive brands at a fraction of the real price – you just need to have the eye for it! It doesn’t need to be your boring shopping day at the mall anymore, it can be a thrilling hunt at your local thrift store. All the pieces are unique and have a story to tell. You remember the time when everyone wore that exactly same hoodie from one particular brand? Well, with thrift you never have to worry about the accidental, unpleasant twinning ever again. Your piece is one of a kind- just like you. So, go ahead, ask your shop owner the story of the cute, pink top that caught your eye and make it your own!
If that isn’t enough, here’s another beautiful fact about thrift stores. A lot of them are often set up for a particular cause which means the money earned goes to charity. Come on, you cannot say no to that! One for the community, yes please! Also, did you know you could even make money out of this? Thrift shops always welcome donations. You can sell your old clothes and get a good deal. Guess I now know where I can send my Zara jeans, right? What a closure!
Most importantly, it helps the environment immensely. You don’t realise the number of resources that get saved if we all buy even one piece of pre-loved clothing. The amount of pollution that we might help reduce and the amount of water that doesn’t go to waste.
My heart is full as I see more and more thrift shops emerging in India with absolutely beautiful, unique and gorgeous designs. Naturally being curious, I asked the owner of one such shop that goes by the handle of @thriftology.in on Instagram why they started this journey. If everything that I wrote in this article wasn’t enough to convince you to thrift shop, I hope her answer might-
“Fashion industry is one of the fastest waste-producing industry. More than 80% of the clothes end up in landfills. Buying second-hand clothes not only increases the life of the clothes but also makes sure they don’t end up piling in the landfills. It’s a green cycle, you reuse clothes and help the environment in return. It reduces your carbon footprint, you also become a conscious consumer. Second-hand clothes are heaven, you get all the designer and brands you want without paying even 25% of the original cost. As a kid, I grew up wearing mom and my sisters’ hand-me-downs and I loved clothes. From where I grew up, wearing second-hand clothes was pretty normal. Sunday local market visits meant hunting treasure in a pile of clothes for lesser than 100 bucks. I always loved thrift shopping and particularly vintage. I like fashion but I also wanted to be unique so growing up, I would always try to find pieces that blend in my personality and you find those unique pieces only in second-hands! The joy of finding these unique things in a pile was a different kind of happiness. I started a page called ‘oldthingsnew’ six years back on Facebook and later on Instagram where I sold second-hand clothes. Back then I was just trying new things for fun and there were hardly any stores that sold second hands. Second hand clothes were always looked down upon in other parts of India. Luckily for me, it was normal. I opened this online store in January last year and started uploading clothes that I would wear and represented my style and personality. People loved it and slowly it started growing. Seeing the mushrooming Instagram stores proves that we have come a long way and people are enjoying choosing consciously and slowly adapting to the lifestyle. It’s amazing to see young people accepting it wholeheartedly.”
Ultimately, we also need to remember, shop only when it is necessary. Hoarding is tempting, but it doesn’t help anyone! I realise we all are sceptical and unsure of what lies in this very new age of shopping. But if we don’t give it a try, how do we move forward? Just one piece of pre-loved clothing might make all the difference. Let’s do our own bit. Let’s try and change the face of the world, one second-hand piece of clothing at a time?