No- Thift shopping is not sustainable
- Jillian A. Keith
- Jun 1, 2020
- 2 min read
Why shopping second hand will never be fully sustainable.
Photography by Jillian Keith
The anti-fast fashion movement has now successfully filtered into the mainstream and “sustainability” is the buzzword on everyone’s lips. Consumers are waking up to the harsh reality check that the fashion industry is the second most wasteful in the world, and influencers and big brands are responding with promises of ethically sourced clothing.
Nevertheless, the constant greenwashing of our consumption and round of applause towards giant producers becoming sustainable is blinding the average low impact consumer. No matter how you sew it, nothing new can be sustainable. And to a certain extent, even secondhand fashion doesn’t have the ability to fit the “sustainable” label we all believe it does.
“The premise of fashion is to be fashionable. Being fashionable means being on-trend. Being on-trend means only buying things when they’re deemed trendy by big influencers…. brands that promote sustainable fashion and trend following charity shops allow people to be environmentally aware while not sacrificing our desire to be fashion icons.”
With a passionate audience following the sustainable fashion scene, big brands along our high streets are feeling the pressure to go green. Gucci announced that they will no longer be using fur in their products, Adidas is on the path to only using recycled plastics in all of their products by 2024, ASOS has vowed to no longer produce or sell clothing made from animal parts.
Meanwhile, fabrics such as linen, which has a very low environmental impact, are coming back into trend.
Despite all of these efforts, buying new is never the best option. The efforts of green, eco-friendly and ethical fashion influencers on Instagram such as Clare Press, Sarah Corbett, and Isabella Broden encourage people to buy sustainably and secondhand whilst never showing the flaws of the system.
Graphic by Jillian Keith, Information via Indigenous
Comments