Thoughts on Second Hand Clothing

There’s a lot of discoure around second hand clothing and I thought I’d provide a few of my thoughts on them.

• There’s no shortage of second hand clothes whatsoever. Literally, if I were to drive from my house to any point in the city, I’d find at least 3 cars selling second hand clothes, not to mention flea markets each with scores of used clothing vendors. In western country’s donated clothes are bursting out of the seems. There’s no risk of “running out of clothes”. However,
  • plus size clothing is hard to find and while I don’t discourage tailoring, I’d suggest you don’t buy them for the sake of cutting them down since clothing companies hate fat people.
  • thanks to fast fashion, the quality of used clothing is tanking rapidly. The likes of Shien and Postmark have vastly increased the quantity of clothing made worse by increasingly short fashion cycles. Those nice clothes granny wore are much harder to find.
• It’s okay to make money from used clothes. If someone finds value in someone else’s trash so be it. Honestly, the clothes westerners have in the thrift stores are higher quality compared to the ones shipped off elsewhere anyway. Being trendy isn’t a human right.
• I don’t give a shit about the gentrification of thrift clothes. Gentrification is another one of those terms that gets me as it effectivley seems meaningless. Honestly, given the glut of used clothes, there’s no risk of rich people buying out all the used clothes and I’d prefer that rich people buy them instead of going on Shien hauls.
• Likewise, I don’t give a shit about local African textile industries. Their clothes are really expensive compared to what you can get elsewhere and most Africans can’t afford them and the proposed Africa free trade bans reeks of protectionism and rent-seeking. The few remaining textile workers should admit they have a skill issue and either git gud or find a new line of work.
• They are a lifeline to may. As said in the aformentioned point, many people rely on cheap used clothes not just for the need for clothes but to those who sell them as well. Saving money is good actually.
• It’s a big win for the environment. Clothing accounts for 10% of global emissions and a great way to reduce that is to go second hand.
• Fast fashion is cancer. As I alluded to earlier, the influx of fast fashion clothes is reaking havoc on the used clothing supply. This is the only good argument for restricting their trade because the poor countries don’t have the infrastructure to deal with all of it (let alone the rich countries which send it).

Agree, disagree? Let me know. In general, they are fabulous though they will be less so given the proliferation of fast fashion.