Think Buying Secondhand Clothing and Accessories Is Just Another Trend?
Let me spill the tea: buying secondhand isn’t just a passing trend or a fleeting fad. It’s actually your secret gateway into the world of sustainable living.
Shopping secondhand (or vintage, if you’re feeling fancy) is hands-down one of the simplest ways to live a little greener, save some cash, and keep awesome clothes in the mix for longer. If you’ve ever wanted to shop with more intention but don’t want to overhaul your entire life, secondhand is a seriously high-impact place to start.
Quick Take: Why Should You Take a Second Look at Secondhand?
• It keeps clothing out of landfills
• It reduces demand for new production
• It saves water and energy
• It can lower your carbon footprint
• It helps you build a more intentional wardrobe
• It makes quality more accessible
• It supports a circular economy and often small businesses
• It is really fun (hello, treasure hunt)
What Does “Secondhand Apparel” Even Mean?
Secondhand apparel is any clothing or accessory item that has been owned before (”pre-owned”) and is being resold or passed along. Secondhand apparel includes pieces that were purchased new and never worn (”new with tags”) and previously worn (“pre-loved”) pieces, in various conditions. “Vintage” is a special subset of secondhand, for pieces 20+ years old.
“Used clothing” is an umbrella term for any piece of clothing that has been worn and is in any condition. This includes all the clothing in your closet that you or anyone has ever worn, even if you bought it new. It can also mean clothing that is absolutely destroyed and has no useful life left. It can also include clothing that was used as a rag.
Generally speaking, clothing, accessories, and apparel that are being sold, swapped, or passed on are referred to as “secondhand”, implying that they are being transferred from one owner to another. (First hand to second hand… get it? Haha.) The social implication, of course, is that secondhand apparel is of a quality and condition that the second person can still derive significant value from.
Where Do You Even Find Secondhand Stuff?
These days, you can find secondhand treasures almost anywhere: thrift stores, consignment shops, vintage boutiques, flea markets, resale apps, clothing swaps, and curated online marketplaces (like WearingConscious.org). Here in Los Angeles, it sometimes feels like there’s a yard sale or estate sale on every block, with tables and racks full of clothes, bags, belts, and shoes all looking for a new home.
Once you start noticing, it’s honestly amazing how much pre-loved clothing is out there. I’ve bought about 90% of my wardrobe secondhand over the last seven years, and I can promise there’s plenty of secondhand you’ll actually want to wear.
OK, So Why Again Is Secondhand Apparel So Great?
If you’re a millennial like me, you might have grown up with hand-me-down clothes from your family, neighbors, and friends, which kind of came with the vibe of, “Why can’t I get anything new?” Maybe you even got made fun of in school for wearing “used clothes” because of the (false) stigma that pre-loved apparel is for the poors.
But those viewpoints were never rooted in the realities of used clothing and secondhand goods. The reality was and is that parents buy or are gifted perfectly good clothing that kids quickly outgrow long before the piece’s useful life is over. In an attempt to not throw good money and good pieces away, looking for a smaller kid to pass the piece on to is a great solution.
The same is true of secondhand clothing for all ages. Let’s elaborate:
1) Secondhand keeps clothing out of landfills
Clothing waste is a huge and growing problem. When you buy secondhand, you give new life to something that already exists. That’s one less piece heading for a landfill or incinerator. Even better, the impact adds up. Every time a garment gets a second (or third) life, you get more value out of all the resources that went into making it.
For example, if someone buys a pair of jeans brand-new and never wears them because they don’t fit, three years later, it still feels like a waste of money and resources to just throw them away, tags and all.
So instead, they decide to sell the jeans at a discount to someone who does fit in them and will give them all the love. Five years after that, the buyer brings the jeans to a clothing swap to introduce more variety into their wardrobe. Six years after that, the swapee realizes they have too many holes in the knees and upcycles them into a cute bag that they give as a birthday present to a friend.
2) It reduces demand for new production
The most sustainable clothing is usually the clothing that already exists. When we buy secondhand, we lower the demand for brand-new items. New clothes need fresh raw materials, dyeing, manufacturing, packaging, and shipping. By choosing secondhand, we help slow overproduction, one of the biggest sources of waste in the fashion industry.
The jeans in the example above went to four different owners: The original buyer (1), the secondhand buyer (2), the swapee (3), and the gift recipient (4). Instead of using materials and resources to produce three identical pairs of jeans and a denim handbag, only the original pair of jeans was made using new materials.
And just to point out, everyone in that example kept the jeans for years, because quality pieces are made to last and look good for ages. Fast fashion just can’t compete.
3) It saves water and energy
Making new clothing takes a lot of water and energy, especially for conventional cotton and synthetic fabrics. For real: The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of total global carbon emissions and 20% of water pollution, making it the second-largest polluting industry in the world, behind oil and gas. Those are recent stats, and they’re getting worse over time.
Secondhand shopping bypasses much of that resource use because the garment’s biggest footprint stage (production) has already happened. Think of it like choosing a reusable water bottle over a single-use plastic bottle. The more you reuse what already exists, the less you need to extract and produce.
Niinimaki et al., 2020
4) It can lower your carbon footprint
New clothing often travels through a long supply chain, from fiber production to manufacturing to distribution centers to your doorstep. Each step generates emissions.
Secondhand items can still ship, of course, but overall, they avoid the emissions-intensive manufacturing stage. If you buy locally (from thrift stores, swaps, or local resellers), you can reduce shipping emissions even further.
This is 100% why WearingConscious.org only ships to and from the U.S.A./North America. There’s no need for us to import clothes from across the ocean when there’s literally so much right here that we can use with a lower carbon footprint.
5) It helps you build a more intentional wardrobe
Secondhand shopping naturally slows you down, in a good way. Instead of impulse-buying whatever is trending, you are more likely to:
• Look for quality materials and construction
• Pick pieces that truly fit your style
• Buy fewer items that you’ll regret later
• Actually wear what you buy more than five times (which is the average number of wears for a fast fashion piece)
Over time, with care and intention, you’ll realize your wardrobe is authentically “you”. It’s a wonderful surprise: I got into thrifting in 2019 and gradually evolved my wardrobe, and I can say without a doubt that my whole closet now is an ode to self-expression. I’ve been so inspired to tell everyone how fun and exciting the journey of discovery is, too.
Years later, it’s second-nature to see a piece I love and immediately say, “That’s not my style.” Or conversely, on a rare occasion at a thrift shop, “I love that piece so much, and I have nothing like it, and it’s exactly what I need, and I simply must purchase it NOW!” There’s wisdom in truly knowing the difference.
6) It makes quality more accessible
Secondhand is one of the best ways to find higher-quality clothing at a lower price. You can often afford natural fibers, better tailoring, and durable brands secondhand that might be out of reach at full retail price. And when you buy pieces that last, you are less likely to replace them constantly.
7) It supports a circular economy (and often small businesses)
Secondhand shopping supports a progressively circular fashion system, one where items are reused, repaired, resold, and kept in circulation.
Depending on where you shop, your purchase may also support:
• Local thrift stores and charities
• Small vintage sellers
• Resale entrepreneurs
• Community clothing swaps
In other words, your money can stay closer to home and help real people (like us!), not just massive supply chains, foreign sellers, and destructive corporations.
8) It is a fun way to find unique pieces
Me this winter, headed to a work party in a fully thrifted outfit (except for the socks). The Gucci boots were a tremendous find! Additional fun fact: This is right after I moved into a new house and this table and chairs set and overhead light were two of our first home thrifts.
The fast-fashion industry churns out pieces that look remarkably homogeneous now, with few distinctions based on climate, culture, or even color. Secondhand shopping is one of the few ways to build a unique wardrobe. You might find:
• Vintage silhouettes and fabrics
• One-of-a-kind prints
• Discontinued favorites
• Unexpected gems
Shopping is positioned today as a game of immediate satisfaction, where prices are low, and the costs to the environment, workers, and society are far enough away to be ignored. Thinking about what you generally need and keeping your colors and sense of style in mind, apparel shopping becomes a treasure hunt for ways to convey your personal style.
And in a real way, you’re taking back apparel shopping for yourself, instead of buying into fast-fashion cycles.
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