op shopping

Ethical Consumption vs Retail Therapy by Nina Gbor

Preloved dress and sandals from Australian Red Cross op shop.

Preloved dress and sandals from Australian Red Cross op shop.

This week I’m giving a talk about ethical consumption at the Australian Red Cross with REDxYOUTH. The preparation got me thinking about my own consumption behaviour. So, it’s time for me to come out with an open secret; I have way too many clothes. For all the minimalist wardrobe techniques that I teach, workshops on capsule wardrobes that I run and clothes swaps that I organise and clients whose wardrobes I help reduce, I still have a really big wardrobe. 

I started op shopping and eco styling at age fifteen. My love for one-off vintage clothes, rare and unusual pieces made me a collector of fine garments that spark tremendous joy in myself and others. It’s been somewhat of a sacred art, with style being like a religion to me. Scouring the racks at vintage stores, op shops, clothes swaps and preloved markets is a rite that I’ve been performing faithfully. Fortunately, I’ve been able to alchemise this practice into a purposeful career in sustainable fashion. 

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The fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries. Its greenhouse gas emission levels have recently surpassed all international flights and maritime shipping combined. Globally we’re consuming about 80 billion brand new garments every year which is 400% more than what we consumed just twenty years ago. Australia happens to be the second-largest consumer of new textiles after the US. According to United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), World Resources Institute (WRI)in total, up to 85% of textiles go into landfills each year. A massive part of the environmental degradation happens with fashion manufacture. For instance, the United Nations Environmental Programme says the fashion industry is the second-largest consumer of water worldwide. It takes about 2,000 gallons of water to produce a pair of jeans. That’s more than enough for one person to drink eight cups per day for 10 years! 

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On the other side of it, we can afford to be so wasteful because clothes are cheaper than ever. Majority of the people who make our clothes (mostly women) are exploited with a plethora of human rights abuses ranging from super low wages to inhumane work conditions. Workers in developing countries can be forced to work sixteen-hour days for as little as $6 a day which does not come anywhere close to a liveable wage. 

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Our modern pattern of fashion consumption is a vicious, short-lived cycle of buy - wear once, twice or not at all - bin it - then buy new all over again. I believe the cycle is driven by trends. Trends are powerful because from birth, we’re conditioned to follow trends. For many decades, possibly even longer, fashion has cleverly advanced its skills in making the masses believe you have no value unless you wear their brand or follow trends. It’s one of the very things that makes us feel like we’re not enough, then promises happiness and acceptance if we buy. All the while, fast fashion brands amass billions of dollars on the back of exploitation and untold levels of environmental damage. What’s also sad is that this fashion consumption model does not seem to be giving us consumers any true, lasting or genuine happiness. This then begs the question; why the heck are we still doing this?!

My recommendation is that it’s time for us to ‘get off the fashion trendmill’. Individual preference and sustainable acquisition methods should be the premise for consuming clothes, not fashion trends. This is the key for buying less, choosing well and making our clothes last much longer. Preloved (secondhand) clothing keeps garments in a circular economy. This delays (or prevents)garments going to landfill. Even though about 97% of my wardrobe is preloved, and I tend to cherish pieces for a long time, I still sometimes wonder if I’m consuming too much. On the other hand, it’s also my career, therefore, these are tools of my trade. As a would-be fashion consumer, I would feel enticed to buy the latest shiny trend to feel validated. However, in my world of preloved shopping, even though it’s more ethical, it used to be fuelled by the need to fill a void like loneliness. It was also a form of escapism from a trauma that I was experiencing. Later, I became more conscious of my personal thought patterns that were driving the behaviour. I guess it’s up to each of us to introspect with brutal honesty to explore why we’re consuming so much in order to heal those parts of ourselves and shift the behaviour of overconsumption. What comes up for you when you think deeply about why you shop so much?

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STYLING

This week, in honour of Australian Red Cross and all of the incredible humanitarian, aid and community services they have provided globally since 1914, I am wearing a dress and beige sandals from The Red Cross op shop. This 1950s vintage-style replica dress has a lovely pattern, laced in with side and lower panels of glorious, vivacious art drawings of on-the-vine oranges and flowers. I paired it with beige strappy, chunky heeled sandals I also found at the Red Cross op shop on a different visit. In some photos I’m wearing a charcoal preloved Miu Miu designer light mohair jumper I found at another op shop. I’m wearing a petticoat underneath to give it the voluminous 1950s full skirt look. 

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ReStyling tips

If you own a patterned or multi-coloured summer dress like this, you can wear it like I did with a petticoat and dressed-up shoe to look elegant. Otherwise, try any of these tips:

1. If you love pattern clash (like me), try wearing a top, button down shirt tied at the front in leopard print, zebra print or polka dot over the top half of the dress. The key is to make sure at least one of the colours of the top matches at least one colour on the bottom half of the dress. This makes the colour-pattern interaction look balanced. Otherwise it might look too out of sorts.

2. Go casual with no petticoat and a pair of flat sandals. You can even wear a plain, basic t-shirt of a with a colour that matches the bottom half of the dress. 

Outfit sourced from: 

Multicolour Summer Dress: Red Cross Op Shops

Beige Chunky Heel Sandals: Red Cross Op Shops

Charcoal Miu Miu Jumper: The Green Shed Underground Op Shop

Nina Gbor Australian Red Cross

Photography by Brunela Fenalte.

 

♥ Nina Gbor

Circular Fashion and The Virtual Op Shop Mall by Nina Gbor

Preloved clothing is one of the popular ways to curate a sustainable wardrobe. Several platforms have emerged to support the need for a circular economy. Second hand clothing is rapidly gaining communities of people who are embracing style and sustainability. We spoke to the founder of Sell My Clothes (The Virtual Op Mall), Irena Trajkovska to hear her reasons for creating the platform and how it’s supporting sustainability in the fashion industry. 

Irena Trajkovska, Founder of Sell My Clothes - The Virtual Op Mall

Irena Trajkovska, Founder of Sell My Clothes - The Virtual Op Mall

1. Hello Irena, talk to us about Sell My Clothes.

Sell My Clothes (SMC) is a Virtual Op (shopping) Mall. It’s a new concept based on the physical shops, except it’s online. Many of us lead busy lives these days so it’s just easier to sell or get what you need online. This Virtual Op Mall is for buying/selling/swapping/donating/renting fashion items only, but it incorporates a Map of garage sales and markets all over Australia as well, maps of tailors, op shops and charities all over the country. We also have a personal eco styling services for those in need of wardrobe restyling or a wardrobe upgrade. On top of that, we’re excited about giving everyone the chance to guest blog and show their op shopped or preloved personal style because we believe that “Style has no price tags”.

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2. Tell us how the idea for the platform was created. 

When we first moved to Sydney, I found myself hunting for new clothes for my kids every few months because like all children, they are growing. Somehow, deep down inside, I knew the fast fashion cheap stores were not the answer for our needs, although it seemed the only logical and financially sustainable solution at the time.

So, one day we mistakenly entered Vinnies thinking it was just another store. We later realised it was a second hand shop! To be honest I was initially apprehensive, even though excited about the prospect. I was, at the time fighting with the stigma that I had been engrained with my whole life that second hand clothes are only for poor people. It is truly hard when you are trying to wipe off decades of limiting beliefs about second hand. 

With a newly discovered and growing sustainable lifestyle, I noticed the impact that recycling clothes was having on our family budget. All of a sudden, we were left with excess money to spend on experiences, rather than material things that we or the children would outgrow or lose interest in. 

After spending a lot of time scrolling through preloved ads, engaging as an active member within second hand fashion groups and struggling with sales from all over the world, I decided to create a safe place for the Australian second hand fashion community, and this is how the Virtual Op Mall was born. 

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3. What’s the link to sustainable fashion? 

We encourage people to reuse, resell and recycletheir fashion items. There isn’t a single person that hasn’t done impulsive shopping, and we’ve all had bad days when we bought something, only to find that we didn’t like it the following week. Our motto is: DON’T THROW IT AWAY, resell it and save it from being added to the landfill! The bonus is that you will earn some extra money. The same goes for reusing and recycling – this is why we have our map of tailors, the blog, and a personal stylist – you never know how a single piece can be reused, differently combined or recycled, so take the chance and give it another try!

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4. With so many second hand platforms online, how is SMC unique? 

We LOVE that the market is waking up and all these platforms being born! I am sure we are all unique in a different way, but what makes The Virtual OP Mall one of a kind is that there are no transaction fees.  Compare it to a real shopping mall – we do not interfere in the stores’ policies and payment methods, nor we want to take percentage of their sales with the customers. It is also Australia wide ONLY (no worldwide competition), great filters that will help you find anything you need and other awesome features to help you maintain your sustainable life.

We are here to host their stores for which they pay a one-off, monthly or annual subscription fee (rent of $2 per product, $9 per month or $79 per year and that is all), give them a 24/7 technically supported platform and spread the word on the social media. We also have many other features (as mentioned above) that are FREE and there to help the second hand community in their sustainable journey (like creating groups, followings, ratings, adding events, sharing unique pieces found in the op shops around the country, etc.)  

5. What’s your hope and vision for the future of SMC?

We’d be delighted if we could see it growing with people who never ever thought of using second hand fashion pieces. You know, you can sell ice to Eskimos, as they know the benefit of it, and how to use it, but try doing that to someone from a hot climate who’s never seen it in their life. We are on a mission to try and do that – convert as many people as possible into a more sustainable lifestyle, and by doing that, to stop the devastating impact that fashion has on our environment. 

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