Sustainable Fashion, Privilege and The Gentrification of Charity Shops

There's always been something very distant to me about the way people talk about the fast fashion industry. The quote that follows the sustainable fashion movement and is brought up over and over is “When you buy fast fashion you are buying items that you wear for a season and then throw away". To me viewing fast fashion that way is.. already extremely privileged? If you look at fast fashion from the perspective of it being disposable and assume that's how everyone sees it, you are speaking with an immense amount of privilege and need to consider that before criticizing every person who shops from fast fashion stores.

The biggest reason sustainable fashion is a privilege is accessibility; cost, size, time, and location. More often than not ethical fashion brands are expensive and not inclusive of plus sizes. Even fast fashion is only just catering to plus sizes. A common response to this is being told to shop secondhand (thrift shops/charity shops), however, what you save financially you are sacrificing in time. Something a lot of people just don't have due to working and taking care of children. There will be people that don't have anywhere to shop second-hand locally, despite the popular belief that they are everywhere. Charity shops may have more size options but I doubt that Oxfam is filled with current fashionable clothing in a range of sizes. No one wants to have to wear something that doesn't make them feel good or uncomfortable. 

When looking at second-hand clothes online, it can quickly get very expensive, not only for the actual item (people upping prices of things that have no right to be so expensive) but shipping too, not everyone lives in a big city that's easy to ship too. This links to the gentrification of charity shops. The fetishization of thrift shopping is the main cause of gentrification in the UK and the US. The introduction of second-hand shopping apps such as vinted and depop have made this even more prevalent online. "Thrifting" is talked about in the vein of saving the environment, however, excessive buying in this way can affect local communities. I'm looking at youtube hauls where the person buys in bulk to show off all the cute things they bought, in a way virtue signaling and then going on to barely wear the clothes they bought. Which is counterproductive because the movement aims to reduce overconsumption.

We are beginning to see charity shops starting to invest in "high-end" stores to cater to the gen-z, middle-class group that wants vintage clothing but don't want to go through bags of old clothes.  Because they are having to curate it to clothing that is more designer and high end and doesn't need much maintenance they are throwing away clothes that people could be in need of.  Because they are investing in these stores they have higher maintenance prices, which in turn means higher clothing prices which shuts out the less fortunate in the local community who rely on those clothes. 

Depop is a popular resale app where a lot of people profit from reselling second-hand clothes, often at unreasonable prices. Even seeing sellers going to charity shops, buying in bulk, and then marking up the prices for a high profit. This causes the same problem, just take it online. Which can cause fast fashion to be the only option. 

You can’t discuss fast fashion but ignore the roles of poverty and fatphobia, for example, and in that regard, we can’t have a movement against it without factoring in the importance of a livable wage. the same thing goes for veganism, we can’t ignore ableism, fatphobia, classism, and racism in diet and any vegan movement needs to look at making it more affordable and available while simultaneously working to support farmers and indigenous peoples. this sort of purity where you’re automatically evil if you partake in these things doesn’t get you anywhere, it only ostracizes people from your movement and harms those most at risk even further, perpetuating current power dynamics. 

I think this almost purity complex people have toward ethics is such a serious problem with our approach to various issues I see it a lot in, both veganism discussions as well as fast fashion, this idea that it’s on us to be perfect and never eat meat or shop at prettylittlething but the reality is so much more complex and I think with both of these things we’re better served looking at the systemic issues that lead people to these being their default or only option. Of course, I would love for fast fashion to no longer exist, the effect it has on the planet and the barely paid, poorly treated workers are far more important than having a new dress each week, but it's not fair to have the sustainable fashion conversation without addressing how much privilege is there. I hope we are on the way to sustainable fashion being inclusive.