A New Way to Shop Secondhand: Online Thrifting
Image Courtesy: Fashion United
Fast fashion is running rampant in the clothing industry. Trends are changing what seems like every week, and fast fashion allows companies to keep up with this endless cycle. Contributing to water and microfiber pollution and waste accumulation, this method has a detrimental cost to the environment.
When shopping trendy on a budget, there aren’t too many options out there. You can plan a whole day to go out and thrift, but it’s not always a hit. Big companies have been reinventing their brand to be trendy and as environmentally friendly as possible.
Thrifting has become all the rage with vintage trends being revived but thrifting can be a long, all-day outing process, and may not necessarily be successful. Online thrifting allows you to shop for authentic vintage clothes from the comfort of your home. If I told myself that it would be possible to go online thrifting a few years ago, I would not have believed you. With the evolution of the internet and social media, it was only a matter of time before this concept would enter the commerce channels.
URBN has joined the sustainability wave through their new brand Nuuly. Nuuly Thrift is a resale marketplace for anyone to buy and sell clothes. It doubles as a rental service for women’s clothing as well. They emphasize the empowerment customers feel in giving old clothes a new life. It’s similar to other apps like Depop and Mercari that we’re familiar with.
What Nuuly is doing isn’t anything we haven’t heard of before. ThredUP has gained lots of popularity. All of my favorite YouTube creators have been sponsored by them. You can buy luxury brands for discounted prices up to 90% off. ThredUP focuses on the impact that creating clothes have on the environment and showcases how much it’s helped the planet by showing off its projections. They’ve displaced one billion pounds of CO2e (Carbon Dioxide equivalent). They emphasize their domination of the circular fashion market.
Image Courtesy: ThredUP
Girlfriend Collective has taken the sustainability approach to another level. They have a program called “ReGirlfriend”. Customers can send back their old Girlfriend Collective clothes and repurpose them into something new. Personally, I love this idea because it’s so original and it shows that the company genuinely cares about reusing and recycling their clothing.
Image Courtesy: Medium
Many big fashion companies try to paint a picture that they’re being sustainable when really, they aren’t. Greenwashing is when companies convey a false impression about how their products are environmentally friendly. H&M is a big company that uses this tactic. H&M’s Conscious collection says they create “beauty from waste”. At least 50% of each piece is made from sustainable materials. But their numbers can be misleading. The company doesn’t state where its materials were sourced.
Image Courtesy: Fashion is Everywhere
When you want to stay sustainable and make good choices in the clothes you buy, how can you trust a company that sells cheap clothes is making good decisions?
In a fashion market where lots of brands publicize their green image as if it’s a trend, it’s hard to find brands that are being truly authentic. For those who are on a budget, it’s difficult to avoid this fast fashion phenomenon when they are the cheapest option. Even if you can only afford these kinds of clothes, it’s important to donate and recycle them afterward. Some brands give us hope like Girlfriend Collective, URBN, and other well-known apps that allow people to sell their trendy used clothing for lower prices.
Strike Out,
Writer: Maddy Gleason
Editor: Breanna Tang
Tallahassee