Story by Allison Haeger
Thrifting is sweeping the nation as the next best hobby, especially for teenagers and young adults. Its promises of cheap bargains and possible name brand deals are not the only aspects that make the hobby enjoyable, though — making lifestyle changes to improve the environment is the driving force behind this new pastime.
Fast fashion, which involves the inexpensive mass production of clothing by big retailers has been criticized more over time. People are beginning to realize the negative effects fast fashion and overproduction have on our environment, as well as on the people working in the factories producing the clothing. This is one of the primary issues that motivated fourth-year Maddie Toole to create a thrifting Instagram account which spreads awareness of the environmental impact of fast fashion. As one of the top polluters of the environment, fast fashion is responsible for tons of waste accumulated by unused or relatively new clothing and textiles that get dumped in landfills.
Through the account, @eco.thrifted, Toole makes recycled pieces more accessible to her followers to purchase in an effort to promote living sustainably. Toole does not charge more than a few dollars over what she paid for pieces she is selling and is willing to provide free delivery and pickup to those in the Oxford area.
Business accounts like Toole’s work great for locals and students who want to make an effort to purchase recycled clothes but feel like they don’t have luck finding the right pieces when they walk into stores. Whether it’s because of a lack of patience and accessibility to good stores or a time constraint, people often leave thrift shops feeling unfulfilled because they couldn’t find anything. Toole’s account, on the other hand, singles out pieces of clothing so shoppers don’t have to search through rows and rows of clothes, which can be a great shortcut to thrifting while still making sure to avoid fast fashion.
In terms of thrift shops, Oxford boasts a single Goodwill with not much else in terms of recycled and reasonably priced clothing. The next closest resale shops are Valley Thrift and Goodwill in Hamilton, which aren’t very accessible locations to students who don’t have vehicles or time to travel that far out of town. Olivia Lampl, a fourth-year Interactive Media Studies major, recognized the recycled retail drought in town and wanted to create an opportunity for people to swap clothes for her senior thesis project.
An obvious aspect of fast fashion that Lampl noticed on campus was the popularity of brands like SheIn and Romwe, which deliver incredibly cheap, cute clothes to students at a rapid speed.
This is great for getting a good look fast, but not so great for the environment. Lampl recalled one of her fashion professors saying, “If you can buy a t-shirt for five dollars, what does it mean for the hands that made that shirt?” This question stuck with Lampl because she could see all the contributions students made to globalized fashion industries like these, and she wanted to show people a way to find great clothes that were not made by child labor and could help the environment.
Lampl’s thesis project allows students to donate clothes and get a new piece for every item they exchange. Or, if students want, they can choose to only donate, and any extra items will be given to homeless shelters or Goodwills.
The main motivator behind Lampl’s passion for thrifting and living sustainably is her need to cut down on the clutter in her life. Over the past couple of years, Lampl realized she had accumulated so much stuff that she didn’t need and is now trying to stick to the :one in, one out” rule of buying clothes.
Even though thrifting is a great way to contribute to creating a cleaner environment for the future, Lampl ultimately enjoys the excitement she feels when she finds a great piece out of the masses of clothing in a store.
“It is so fun when you go through a thrift store and find something you actually love— a piece that you’re not settling for or have to alter, but finding the little treasures. I think that’s the best part of thrifting,” Lampl says.
Zero Waste Oxford is an organization on Miami’s campus that has similar views to Lampl regarding fast fashion. Treasurer for the organization Naiyi Jiang thinks people are beginning to wake up to the effects of fast fashion and are seeing all the positive sides to thrifting in comparison.
“Since mainstream news and social media are emphasizing climate change so much more than they did before, I think more people are becoming convinced to try out thrifting if they never have before,” Jiang says. “And the fact that more people are starting to see the effects on our environment through their education and travel is unavoidable.”
Jiang hopes that people will begin to get more in touch with nature and will contribute to keeping nature the way it should be by thrifting, picking up trash, and communicating with others to get more involved with the outdoors. But the president of the organization, Cassie Conrad, thinks the best first step to changing a wasteful lifestyle is to take a step back and notice what is wasted and used throughout a day.
“One of the easiest things to do is bring a reusable coffee cup to Starbucks,” Conrad says. “By taking this small step, it also gives you practice in requesting zero waste accommodations and standing up for what you believe in. From another perspective, it saves seven disposable coffee cups a week.”
One of Zero Waste Oxford’s main initiatives is the student-run thrift shop they hold in the Armstrong Student Center every couple of weeks. Similar to Lampl’s clothing swap, Zero Waste Oxford takes donations to sell to students, and they typically try to keep the clothes in-season. The shop is popular among students and faculty who enjoy perusing the selection, and it’s yet another site on campus where living sustainably is being promoted.
Besides being able to find cute clothes for a bargain, thrifting is mainly about working to create a better world for current and future generations to live in.
“I think the millennial and Gen Z generations are fed up with the consumer society that has been passed down to us,” Conrad says. “We're challenging that, and that means embracing the environmental and advocating for it.”