One Fashion Writer Wonders, Is Thrifting as Sustainable as We Think it Is?
Thrifting is more than just a way to find new clothing at a discounted price in surprising new spaces. It has become a branding technique for some influencers, taken up almost as a hobby or even a stamp of coolness— “Oh this old thing? I just thrifted it!”
But thrifting doesn’t just score points for creativity. It also provides a sense of contentedness for those who indulge in fashion, an industry built on a poor foundation—including threatening the climate, under paying workers, the creation of sweatshops, unfair work conditions, to name a few of the fashion world’s problems. Thrifting is a way to engage in fashion sustainably and reuse fashion through secondhand shopping. Right?
This brings up a larger conversation surrounding the ethics of fashion, a conversation that is being had more. Thrifting is a less prevalent conversation, due to its status as a form of “recycling” and being “sustainable.” But it is actually a lot more complex than this and is worthy of investigation.
To start, one problem with thrift stores and secondhand shopping is when the shops raise the prices of a piece of clothing that was originally sold for less. This is commonly known as inflation; the issue is that the secondhand shop has now profited off of the piece of clothing more so than it is technically worth, which brings monetary ethics into question. The conversation becomes increasingly complex when you consider who actually made that piece of clothing. If it was a young, underaged worker in a sweatshop with poor and illegal working conditions, there is a huge issue at hand. Because now two different entities have profited off of the article of clothing—the first seller and the secondhand seller—all at the expense of an unfair situation, which might have been illegal in the first place.
A second problem has to do with accessibility to thrift shops. Their utmost goal is typically not to be the space of your epic, Instagrammable fashion finds. They are actually to serve the community with affordable options of secondhand clothing. When the prices of secondhand clothing are raised above their original price, or even at the original price, it becomes less accessible to low-income shoppers.
Additionally, when these spaces are overloaded with individuals who can afford other clothing but choose to take from the thrifting supply, the integrity of the accessibility of a thrift store to low-income individuals is compromised. This, of course, assumes that the goal of a secondhand store is to serve the community in this way and that the resources are being drained significantly, which is rarely both the case. Thrift stores usually have more resources than they can use and there is no way to identify this statistically without proper evidence of who is a low-income shopper, making it an unlikely problem. But the conversation deserves space when considering the ethics of thrifting.
Despite these potentially problematic ethical situations, there are major bonuses of thrifting—engaging individuals in fashion that might not be able to afford pricier items, dissuading someone from fast fashion, creating a community of shoppers, being better for the environment, etc. Remembering the ethical drawbacks of thrifting serves as a good reminder when engaging in it because at the end of the day, mindfulness is key. If you can choose where you shop, choose to support local businesses and stores that match your ethical boundaries!