When it comes to giving a second chance, clothes definitely deserve one. In a world, running on fast fashion, the popularity of pre-loved, second-hand, reused clothes has picked up, as talks of sustainability and climate change has taken centre stage. Even, reality television show Love Island for its eighth season is planning to dress contestants in pre-loved clothing by partnering with eBay UK as its outfit provider.
While, thrift shops selling second-hand and vintage clothes have been popular in India with markets like Sarojini Nagar and Janpath in Delhi, and Fashion street in Mumbai, there is a thriving thrifting scene, being witnessed online and on Instagram.
THRIFTY FOR THE PLANET
Environment conscious millennials and Gen Z, with their sense of unique style are running thrift stores on Instagram, democratising second-hand, vintage and export surplus goods.
Tamanna Chawla, co-founder Curated Findings, a thrift and consignment store that operates on Instagram and online , said, “It started as a passion project in January 2020, and at that point , the whole intent was to provide people with sustainable yet affordable option to fast fashion. And, second-hand fashion helps us fill that gap. My business partner and I, are young professionals and we didn’t have much money to spend on sustainable brands. I was absolutely against fast fashion and then we discovered second hand fashion. Eventually, we wanted to share this with others so that the impact is wider.” The bio of store reads: “Making Second Hand Culture Cool Again.”
According to the 2022, resale report by thredUP, the world’s largest online thrift store, ‘Secondhand is becoming a global phenomenon, expected to grow 127% by 2026. The global secondhand apparel market will grow 3X faster than the global apparel market overall.’
“Earlier, thrifting was mostly for the reason of saving money. Now, we have an aware audience that knows, that it’s good for the pocket and good for the planet. Even if you go for any sustainable brand, at the end of the day, reusing something that has already been produced is more sustainable than producing anything new, no matter how sustainable it is,” said Ishita Singh, founder of Oakark.
Sustain your fashion
Fast fashion is proving to be a disaster for the environment as brands are overproducing to meet the demands, leading to Western countries, dumping unused clothes in countries of Africa and Asia, majority of it ending up in landfills. For instance, The Kantamanto Market in Ghana’s capital, Accra, is West Africa’s hub for used clothing from the West. According to the OR Foundation, an NGO from the US, estimates that about 15 million individual items of used clothing now arrive in Ghana weekly, though 40% end up discarded due to poor quality. With no use for them, the rejected items first end up at landfills and then travel further into the ocean.
“This is why we need to reuse clothes. We work through flea market vendors since flea market has lot of second-hand goods that is exported to the country from the Western countries. This is how the cycle of secondhand goods work, globally. All the excess clothing are exported to countries in Asia and Africa from rich Western countries. This ends up in the flea markets. Then again, these flea markets are filled up with export surplus, which are generated here because India is a manufacturing country. When export houses get an export order, they must make 5% extra, to compensate for any issues with the clothes produced. These export surpluses end up in the flea market. If it’s not sold out, it has the same future – it ends up in the landfill,” explained Chawla.
Pre-loved to Re-Loved
Featured range of clothes and accessories on these thrift stores are curated with lot of thought behind it. The ‘collection drops’ are given attractive names and even themes. From T-shirts to rare vintage dresses, shoppers can find a treasure trove at these thrift stores, for a couple of hundred rupees. Once a customer likes something, they can leave a comment on that post, asking the seller to reserve it. Payment mode is shared and the goods are shipped to the buyer.
Afreen Akhtar, founder, Ismat Store, calls it a “gender fluid thrift store”. “Even before my thrift store, I wanted to sell memories to people. When we ship products to the customer, we send them postcards which are literature and art based,” said Akhtar. Stressing on the need for inclusivity in fashion that she follows in her store, she added, “Generally there are clothes for sizes like XS and S, that you mostly find. There’s not much for plus sized people. We are trying to source for bigger sizes. The problem with fashion brands is that they are still making clothes for a particular gender. We just want to tell people that you can literally wear anything you want. You don’t have to conform to the idea of fashion the society should follow.”
So, has wearing second hand clothes garnered acceptance? “Some people don’t understand the concept of a thrift store. However, 95% of our customers are cool with the clothes. Some people will keep asking for discounts saying that if it’s second hand, then why are you selling it at a particular price,” said Akhtar.
“Yes! Many have become more open to thrifting in India. When Mirinwon started, some of my customers already knew what thrifting meant , but many weren’t, the same question asked to me was “is it a new piece”? said Ngahon Tungshangnao, founder of Mirinwon, based out of Ukhrul, Manipur.
The popularity of these stores is evident from the numbers in pieces sold,every time a new collection is dropped. Wakute Wezah, founder of Nagaland based, Thrift Nations Apparels, said “I sell around 150-200 pieces in a month. Over the years there has been a certain boom in thrift stores online, especially after the pandemic. Thrift stores now serves as a platform for people to earn their pocket money and also provide the audience/followers to shop clothes at affordable rates, while avoiding the harmful fast fashion.”
The author tweets @Namyasinha
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