The Importance of Second Hand Shopping

It was an ordinary day: Edie received two packages in the post (braces and a t-shirt), and decided to use them in an outfit post. She managed to, somehow, squeeze into her jeans she'd lived in since April, and walked downstairs with her camera. Her mum asked where her new top was from - Depop. Then, she realised EVERYTHING she was wearing was second hand... via depop. And the post ideas came flooding in.

Hello everyone! I hope you're having a nice day and you weren't too offended by the cheesy introduction. So, second hand shopping. I think a lot of people get weirded out by the idea of wearing someone else's clothes, and if it's not that, they think they'll only find old granny skirts and cardigans. Well, hopefully I can help anyone who's feeling like that realise how long the list of positives is.

You're helping the environment.

In the good ol days, fashion was produced to last for a long time and be worn for many years. Today fashion is quicker paced and the industry is trying to make people believe they need to have the latest styles each season (and throw away the stuff they bought just some months ago). If you wear something that another person has worn before, you prolong the life of this garment. If a lot of people do that, less new clothes are produced, as well as less waste. It's fashion's way of recycling!

You save money.

Probably the most obvious reason is: you get the garment, shoes, accessory or handbag cheaper. A lot cheaper. Depending on where and what brand or type of clothing you buy, you might get it for a fraction of the original price. This means you can either get more clothes for the same budget or better quality for the same budget. Or you simply spend less on what you wanted to buy!

You help by buying.

When you buy at second hand shops like Cancer Research and Oxfam, you do not only save money and help reduce waste. The money these shops make from selling second hand clothes are put towards such amazing causes, and the sales people there are all volunteers and work for free. (Be nice to them and appreciate what they do!). It's so amazing to be able to find something really nice and at the same time help someone else.

You can find really unique, beautiful pieces.

You could think that buying something from a few months or seasons ago is outdated and not 'fashionable' any more. You don't need to buy that 80s lookalike shirt from H&M, you can buy one that is really from the 80s at a vintage shop that no one else has! And if there's, for example, a lot of mint green around on the high street and it's not for you, you have emerald green from 1996, hunter green from 2003, sea green from 2007... I will admit I just did research on the colour green. 

You change the lives of workers.

This is the most important one for me. If you haven't seen the True Cost, which I highly recommend you do, it really delves into the lives of garment workers and all the hardships they go through. It makes everything feel very real and really touched me. You can read my previous post for some book recommendations on this subject, but, to summarise, the conditions these poor workers have to work  in and how little they get paid is disgusting. Just by being aware of how much you buy, or realising that you may not wear that dress you've got your eye on enough, can make such a huge difference. Every documentary I watch, every book I read makes me more and more determined to make a change, and, make others aware of what I'm so passionate about.

These are only a few of all the benefits of shopping second hand. I really hope this post has inspired/helped you in some way! I'll definitely be incorporating a lot more ethical and sustainable fashion into my blog, so you can be expecting a lot of that! Do you shop second hand often?

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now playing: your love the outfield/human rag'n'bone man/love me the 1975/emperor's new clothes panic! at the disco/10,000 emerald pools borns (but I prefer the acoustic)