A Truly Green (and Frugal) Fashion Choice: Thrift Stores

It feels like a new socially responsible fashion line emerges every week: handbags made from organic hemp, sunglasses fabricated from 100% renewable materials, jewelry crafted from recycled gold and responsibly mined gems. Green fashion is almost mainstream: you can purchase your organic cotton t-shirt from Barney's...or from Old Navy. Don't get me wrong, these are all wonderful developments, but they continue to feed our insatiable appetite for consuming "new stuff."

It's time to start thinking about a fashion choice that doesn't come with a "feel good" eco sound bite: your local thrift store, vintage shop, or a clothing swap between friends. With the economic downturn, shoppers have started to wean themselves off Macy's and learned to love pre-owned designer merchandise. (Oh, and if you're turned off by thrift store cooties, I'll help you get past that a bit later.)

For the eco-minded out there (those of you who shop locally, bring your own bags to the grocery store, monitor the parabens and bisphenal A in your life), it's time to take note: besides being a way to snag high-quality, fashionable threads for a bargain, second hand shopping is one of the most socially responsible shopping choices you can make.

Just consider today's most rampant "disposable fashion" item: a cotton shirt, available for less than $20. This fictional shirt started out as cotton in a pesticide-laden field in the US. It was shipped to China, where it was milled, woven, and then dyed using harsh chemicals that leaked into the local water system. It was cut and sewn by children working in appalling conditions, before being shipped back to the US and sold. It's a process that keeps the price low at the expense of quality, the environment, energy resources and labor practices.

And even your sweat shop-free, organic, vegetable dyed, carbon offset garment has consumed energy. Some virgin materials were likely used. The item was produced, packaged, and shipped, perhaps several thousand miles. It was likely marketed in some way, maybe on the pages of a magazine that was printed on virgin paper.

Comparatively, no energy is spent to create a second-hand item. If you purchase a shirt from a thrift store, you're basically saving it from landfill (according to the EPA Office of Solid Waste, Americans throw away more than 68 pounds of clothing and textiles per person per year). Another benefit: second hand products have also likely finished "off-gassing" their most noxious chemicals. Many new items such as clothing, carpet and furniture release potentially harmful gases (including VOCs: Volatile Organic Compounds). Off gassing usually decreases as products age, are washed, etc., making second-hand items a safer option for your home.

If you think thrift stores are home to nothing but pilled sweaters and 1980's prom dresses, think again. You may have to weed through a lot of fashion crimes, but you will find amazing designer clothing that looks like it's never been worn (and quite often, it hasn't). I have found a drawer-full of pristine cashmere sweaters, designer handbags (including a gorgeous white Ferragamo purse), Ellen Tracy blouses and a Benetton suit with the tags still on...along with a closet-full of other fashion scores. Oh, and I rarely pay more than $8 for any item! And if you're tired of "throwaway fashion:" items that wrinkle, bunch, tear along the seams and shed buttons, go to your thrift store, where you can suddenly afford cashmere, wool, silk and designer labels.

Thrift stores are also a fantastic way to support your local community in these tough times. Your money is almost always going towards a charitable cause, and the stores themselves often serve as job training programs.

Not into wading through heaps of junk? Head to a chic vintage shop, an upscale consignment store, or a resale chain such as Buffalo Exchange or Crossroads Trading Co. You'll pay a slight premium for the benefit of an organized and well-edited shopping experience, while still reaping the benefits of thrift store shopping.

Finally, if you're squeamish about thrift stores and the "pre-owned" factor: have you have ever stayed in a hotel? Are you sure they washed the comforter or wiped down the remote? If you eat food from restaurants, do really know what's lurking under the salami in your sub sandwich? And if you've tried on pants in a store, chances are they've made contact with someone else's crotch, and you've been exposed to just as many cooties as you'll find at the average thrift store. Carefully inspected and then laundered, second hand fashion is cleaner than the escalator handrail at the mall.

So give recycled fashion a try: it's cheap, chic and truly green.

Follow Karla Zens on Twitter: www.twitter.com/karlasbonanza

Comments

[PatA]

In the past year, I've bought two pairs of lined linen (black) pants from Ann Taylor..price? $.50 each. One pair had the label on and retailed at $75.00. And to think that I used to SHOP at Ann Taylor stores. I have a gabardine rust colored dress (from the 40s) that is trimmed in beautiful rust seed beads..$.75. I can outfit my granddaughters for $20.00 or so. That would be about $150.00 retail.

[jackson1015]

Karla Zens, you are speaking my language. Prior to this economic downturn I would never even set foot in a thrift store. Now I'm obsessed with Goodwill. In the past few weeks alone I bought a leather Calvin Klein jacket for $9.95, plus blazers by Jones of New York, Ann Klein and Isaac Mizrahi for $5.95 each. Oh my God.....I am now a true convert and happily living in thrift shop heaven .

[Karla Zens - Huffpost Blogger]

Congrats on your fabulous finds! I'm glad you've gotten comfortable with it...And I hope the stigma fades away. I'm discovering that there's a ton of different options for second-hand shopping. Almost anyone should be able to find a store that suits them: upscale boutiques, kids shops, online, etc. It's such an easy way to save money and prevent waste. Personally, I'm still hooked on good old fashioned thrift stores, because I love the thrill of the hunt!

[FeelinGroovy]

I agree. I love the charitable thrift stores in the upper class neighborhoods best. I've gotten some great deals on some good clothes. It's a great way to shop.

[Karla Zens - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks - and you've convinced me that I need to plan a field trip outside of San Francisco again soon, and hit thrift shops in some of the upscale 'burbs!

[MerrieWay]

Carla, we can laugh all the way to the bank by the savings you've mentioned. Recycling our clothes by paying it forward to the needy is still high on MerrieWay's list of give-aways.

[Karla Zens - Huffpost Blogger]

Absolutely: and thanks for mentioning that besides shopping at thrift stores, it's important to donate to them! I'd never dream of putting old clothes into the trash. Someone can always benefit. Sometimes it's someone like me, scoring a designer dress for $5. But other times it's someone on a limited budget finding a suit for an interview, or a thrift store employee benefiting from a job training program. I've also done some research and learned that a lot of our discards get bundled and resold by the pound, to be recycled for other textiles. Or the clothing is sold yet again in developing countries. It's fascinating (and important) to learn about the life cycle of our clothes.

[bouldercreeker]

My local thrift store charges $8 per grocery bag full of clothes. They've got a lot of junk, but there are plenty of treasures. I've put several cashmere sweaters and two wetsuits into my $8 bags over the years. I rarely buy anything but underwear new.

However, while reusing clothes is greener than buying new, the greenest solution is to reduce the number of clothes in one's closet. As my Croatian grandmother used to repeatedly remind me: you can only wear one thing at a time. In my mind, most of us own way too many garments, we wash them too often (causing them to fade, shrink, and wear out), and toss them in the trash long before they're unserviceable. Variety is nice, but it's completely unnecessary.

Donate TO thrift stores rather than acquiring more stuff FROM them!

[Karla Zens - Huffpost Blogger]

That's a great point, and something I'm working on... I've finally learned not to buy clothes from thrift stores just because they're cheap. Instead, I try to invest in quality pieces that I'll get a lot of wear out of.

I avoid clothes that need drycleaning, wash everything with cold water, and try to air dry as much as possible. I also think it's important to try to repair garments, shoes and handbags. I have a feeling that a lot of clothing gets discarded just because of a loose button or a fallen seam. What a huge waste of resources!

[Amy Turosak]

Couldn't agree more as from my March 2nd opinion in The Christian Science Monitor, "Green Shopping. Don't say 'eww' to thrift stores," followed by May 3rd, "We count calories. Why not carbon?"

Just posted photos from spring trunk show of thrifted items on The Thrifty Chicks blog, http://thethriftychicks.blogspot.com. Photos of more items will be posted later this week.

Godspeed all thrifters.
Amy Hardin Turosak aka Ms Shopping Golightly

[Karla Zens - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks Amy. You've got a great way of getting to the heart of the matter: we can still buy things, and look beautiful, and surround ourselves with beautiful things...we just need to work on being a different kind of consumer.

[mzrecycle]

I've been a thrift store shopper for 4 decades. I would say that back then, the "carefully inspected, then laundered" description was correct. Today, I'm very likely to find clothes with spots (and therefore not dry cleaned or laundered). I frequent the better thrift shops and the not so great ones. Even the better consignment shops have slipped in the cleaniness area. I always wash or clean the items, as I know what I'm dealing with.

[Karla Zens - Huffpost Blogger]

I agree, and I also think that some shops spray clothes with Febreeze so they *smell* clean... So you absolutely do need to wash everything when you get home. And it's not a bad idea for new stuff too: even new clothes have been handled by many many hands before making it to the store, where they've probably been tried on...perhaps by many people!

[DebReDress]

Curvy shoppers might find it frustrating to shop at places like Buffalo Exchange or Crosstown Trading as they don't have much in the way of plus size clothing. Re/Dress NYC is a green/resale shop in Brooklyn, NY dedicated to the conscious curvy consumer.

Also think about all the emotional energy wasted when you've got a closet full of clothing that you're not wearing. There are millions of women who put their lives and their wardrobes on hold waiting to lose weight. You've only one life to live ladies, clean out your closets and fill them with clothes that make you look and feel renewed.

We buy, sell or trade your gently used clothing sizes Large and up.
www.redressnyc.com

[Karla Zens - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for sharing this resource: what a great concept. I'm excited to see that second hand stores are popping up to fill all kinds of fashion niches. Besides thrift stores, there are upscale consignment shops that carry only designer labels, vintage shops devoted to specific decades, and stores for kids clothing and toys. And that doesn't even cover all the second hand fashion that changes hands on eBay, or the amazing creations made from recycled/repurposed materials on Etsy.