As more consumers wake up to the damaging impact of fast fashion on the planet and its people, committing to only shopping second hand seems like a positive step towards sustainability. But if you end up with preloved pieces of fast fashion in your checkout basket, does that cancel out the good intentions? The short answer is, it’s complicated.
There are layers of nuance to unpick and the outcome is up for debate - ultimately everyone is free to shop where, when and however they like - depending on your own needs, circumstances and ethics but let’s deep dive into the reasons that shopping second hand isn’t necessarily the win-win we might hope for…
Bianca-Francesca Foley, podcaster and editor of Sustainably Influenced, addresses the carbon issue first. “We keep talking about clothes and saying their carbon footprint can be reduced. The way I look at it is, the carbon’s already been produced. You can't mitigate against something that's already happened. The longer you keep an item, the better, because you’re not buying more clothes - but the emissions are already there.”
Instead of thinking of clothes’ life cycles, we need to reframe our thinking to use cycles instead, advises Foley. “We need to encourage people to to continue (wearing) these things [so we consume less newness] but (wearing our clothes longer) won’t let us go back and retrospectively erase those carbon emissions.” It’s a mic-drop moment.
Stepping away from shopping trends is a definite way to avoid fast fashion… but even if you’re buying something pre-loved, you might be have unwittingly fallen into a fast fashion trend cycle. Resale platforms are a verified way for Gen Z women to make money, whether they are selling their own garms or scouring the IRL shops and scooping up viral high street hits to resell.
“Gen Z are consuming fast fashion at an alarming rate… whether it's brand new, second hand, taken from a friend, a swap shop or kilo sales, Foley reminds us. “They still want to wear the trending pieces.” Slowing down our consumption should be a priority, regardless of where we are purchasing it from - or if you pop it on Depop it after one wear.
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Justine Porterie, Director of Sustainability and DEI at Depop told GLAMOUR that “Vintage, streetwear and Y2K are the biggest styles on Depop” but also acknowledges that they have a huge and varied range of inventory. “Fast fashion produces billions of garments every year, so you’ll find it on Depop as a reflection of the wider market.”
But does that volume cancel out the virtuous vibes that second hand shopping can bestow on a buyer? Porterie doesn’t think so. “It would be counter productive to (shy away from second hand fast fashion) because we know that 9 out of 10 purchases made on Depop displace a brand new purchase - including those second hand fast fashion items. This is called our displacement rate, and it’s what gives us confidence that resale on Depop contributes towards slowing the demand for new fashion.” That’s a positive step.
Long hours, little pay, and no room for error.
Porterie continues, “Our overall aim is to convert as many people as possible to second hand and… for many the entry point is fast fashion. We know that people who would have otherwise bought brand new fast fashion items are coming to Depop to find certain brands and are then able to explore the wider range of circular items that exist on our platform. Since 2021, Depop users have given a second life to 25 million items that already existed.” Ok, that’s pretty impressive.
But fast fashion is still the baddie of the fashion world and another major factor for this is their use of female labour forces in the Global South, who are often paid below a living wage, have little access to education, healthcare or childcare and work in “inhumane conditions.” Even if you buy pre-loved fast fashion, can you have a clean conscience over it’s manufacture?
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Venetia La Manna is a fair fashion campaigner and admits to being a reformed fast fashion fan. After a YouTube commenter prompted her to research the issues within fast fashion she now shops second hand. “Now I think much less about the brand when it comes to buying something secondhand and much more deeply about how long I'm going to have it in my wardrobe and how much I'm going to wear it.”
So fast fashion finds aren’t out of bounds?
“I think it's more important when we're consuming clothes to think about how much of a brilliant home I can give this? How much am I going to celebrate this item of clothing to honour the person who made it? That is what the focus should be on. I also look at fabrics and labels because I know that if I buy something secondhand that's made from a natural fibre, it's going to feel better, and it’s probably going to stand stand the test of time in my wardrobe.”
‘Sustainable’ labels can actually mean anything but…
While La Manna often calls out wage thefts, greenwashing, waste colonialism and unsustainable energy use she discovers through her work with The OR Foundation and Clean Clothes Foundation, she is “not calling for a boycott of (fast fashion) brands. I'm not saying never buy these brands, never shop them secondhand, because that is not improving the lives of garment workers.”
La Manna also points out the very real difficulties the Plus Size community have with shopping second hand and sustainably, too. While we wait for brands to step up with truly inclusive sizing, the items that make it to charity shops and resale platforms are a tiny percentage of an already small product pool. “When we're talking about secondhand shopping, we’re acknowledging that there is size privilege from being able to pick and choose which brands you support.”
Now can you see why our status is, “it’s complicated?”
Moving forward, commit to consuming less and cherish those second hand shopping gems - whether they're fast fashion or not - to make sure every purchase is a sustainable, long-term buy for your wardrobe, whatever the label says...
Read more from Glamour UK Fashion Director at large Alex Fullerton here or follow her on Instagram @alexandrafullerton
