How do we give life to our clothes? Any given piece of clothing is often contextualized as having a "lifespan", but this nomenclature in popular discourse is often reduced to a sort of cradle to grave oversight. A normalization of viewing garments as mere waste, which only desensitizes consumers with all too familiar images of apocalyptic marine landfills.

This fatalistic view of such a core element of our self expression encapsulates the present state of mainstream thrifting. What has the potential to be a radical form of anti-consumerism and ingenuity has fallen victim to trends of overconsumption, gentrification, and the far reaching environmental implications these practices impose on an already volatile climate can no longer be said to prevail only in commercial chains. How can this industry be reformed to fully represent an ethical alternative to supporting corporate fashion?  

What was once a heavily stigmatized practice is now incredibly in vogue. The early 2010’s era social taboo imposed on thrifting has largely been replaced by an embrace of the lifestyle as politically defiant and environmentally conscious, especially among a new generation of affluent buyers. While this destigmatization is essential to uplifting the practice, it reflects a grave consequence: Low-income individuals and families are no longer the main patrons of these non-profits. As thrifting becomes trendier it is made less accessible to those with a greater need for affordable items.
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The main culprits behind this economic gentrification are resellers; buyers who purchase a high volume of items to sell them for higher prices on alternative fashion sites like Depop or Poshmark. There, consumers pay exorbitantly for niche items to appease current trends and subcultures. Resellers play a very polarizing role in markets for secondhand clothing, spearheading this inaccessibility and while also existing as a remnant of the original ideology of thrifting- extending the life of these items.

Secondhand stores are not exempt from profiting off of the phenomenon of fast fashion. Viral posts of thrifting racks riddled with Shein tagged merchandise help expose the greenwashing present in thrift culture and its failure to uphold its core tenants. The presence of products deriving from these widely agreed to be reprehensible companies brings forth the question of ethicality, which is a crux of why young people find secondhand shopping so appealing in the first place. How many items donated to these charities were produced sustainably in their original form? When consumers demand the same expiry destined trend based clothing, the posited "second life" given to these items makes little difference in prolonging use. In its worst manifestation, this veneer of sustainability serves as a cop-out for mass overconsumption of commodities with no devotion to the real substantive politics of reuse.

How can these failures be redressed to truly grant a level of care and dignity to these vintage items? The answer lies in decoupling thrifting with large retail outlets and chains. Patronizing local community markets is part of that equation, but taking measures to avoid relegating engagement with sustainability to pure consumption. An emphasis on playing an active role in these markets is embodied by UC Berkeley’s very own ReUSE student organization, which recently partnered with California Copenhagen to organize Bon Marche, a popup second hand market catered to buyers and sellers alike.

“Stephanie's from France and lived in Paris for a long time, and one thing that we both really loved is there were these community secondhand markets, which is what Bon Marche is designed after,” Sarah Bly, consumer and market trends analyst, explains. Bly and Stéphanie Regni, founder of FillGood, a preliminary brick and mortar outlet in Berkeley specializing in refillable, zero-waste products, both played tremendous roles in organizing the Bon Marche event. "In the US we've always had rummage sales where you go to each, you know, a garage and there's one person selling or we have flea markets where you go and it's a lot of professional sellers who've maybe been professionally thrifting and reselling.”. Sarah explained, “ It's an event, a community event where people are buying and selling secondhand goods… the energy is a big piece of what we feel we're bringing”.

The joy and utility of having this be a public driven space makes the process easy and accessible for sellers with a wide breadth of backgrounds and skill levels, inviting investment into these markets. “If you sell online, there's a barrier of the photography, using the apps, taking the pictures, getting the reviews, all the shipping, all of these things,” Stéphanie said. “So by creating a space that, you know, it's fun, it's easy, anyone can do it, that's our goal: to make it really so anyone can sell." This inclusivity, live music, food vendors, and costume swap events all cultivate a sense of community which is indispensable in promoting alternative economies; It's not your typical garage sale.

In collaborating with student volunteers from ReUSE, Bon Marche is able to integrate repair into its model through the restoration of already beloved clothing by local craftsmen. The benefit being that the "life" of clothing may be mended, nurtured beyond the confines of its congenital material quality. "To me, repair is important. If I have something that I love, I want to be able to repair it,” Sarah said. “Of course you're not gonna repair a $10 sweater that you bought at a fast fashion store, but if you have things you really love and bought at a higher quality, repair is definitely something that people are looking for, so we want to make it more accessible."

The unsavory truth is that phenomenons of fast fashion and overconsumption are the intended byproducts of profit driven industries, and even non-profits like Goodwill often rely primarily on retail sales to generate funding. This means direct competition between these industries and their niche, environmentally conscious counterparts seldom garner the levels of success needed to materially challenge mainstream firms. In 2023, the holistic revenue of secondhand markets totaled to an estimated $53 billion, a figure equal to the projected earnings of Shein for 2024, just one player in the fast fashion trade.  

“A conversation needs to be had about the financial equation associated with repair,” Stéphanie went on to say. “It's my personal belief that we need nonprofit structures supporting [repair firms] because every time we try to make a business or a profit driven case out of it, things go awry. So I do think we need these external funding models that make all those things accessible, available, and affordable to people”.

Government incentives along the lines of grants or reduction in sales tax would go a long way in facilitating a circular economy around repair. France sets an pioneering example, offering a sweeping  €6-25 subsidy for all clothing and shoe repair as a decisive measure against textile waste, aiming to increase fabric repair 35% by 2028.

Still, restorative services extend far beyond the realm of clothing; which is why ReUSE collaborates with Nimble repair, a household appliances repair service. "Right now the most important thing that we can do for impact to minimize environmental harm is to use the things that already exist as long as possible; and that's where repair is critical, “ said Kimberley Schroder, the founder of Nimble. “It's just maybe it's not easy or not everybody knows how to do it, but somebody out there can do it. So how do we find that person?"

Nimble is able to optimize the process by connecting specialists to those in need of repair, highlighting that it is neither a lack of supply or demand, but a gap in market infrastructure that keeps repair marginalized. Still, repair is a skill anyone can learn. Organizations like StopWaste in Oakland host weekly workshops centered around promoting self-reliance, recruiting experienced professionals to volunteer in teaching self-sustaining repair for a variety of items. It's not enough that consumers become more aware of repair options; producers need to be compelled to manufacture higher quality items.

A common grievance with modern manufactured goods is that appliances are no longer "made to last"; that products are often sold at a low quality, and thus break apart after limited use. This phenomenon is often referred to as planned obsolescence, the deliberate shortening of an object's lifespan by producers, and it has fully been integrated into the profit model of many companies. Planned obsolescence also functions to withhold reparative infrastructure in the form of making products difficult or expensive to fix, or by refusing to make necessary tools for repair available.

That's where California's 2024 Right to Repair Act comes in. The principle of right to repair is self-evident, that items should have repairability incorporated into their design, and parts and manuals for repair purposes should be readily available. As Schroder explains, "the goal is that more items will be designed repairable in the first place and that repairability will be factored into a business’s model so ideally right repair legislation is great". The Act has a huge potential to engender sustainable consumption, and moreover to fight against the overconsumption of these goods. Repair has been found to reduce the need for a new purchase by up to 82%, almost offsetting a purchase. The only issue with this system is that the responsibility still lies solely on the consumer to take repair into their own hands, when this issue is largely top down.

The solution and the counterpart to the Right to Repair Act are producer responsibility laws. Last year, California passed the Responsible Textile Recovery Act, set to go into effect in 2028, mandating that these corporations are liable for the complete oversight of their apparel, including their repair, disposal, recycle, and safe management. "That's what we really need,” Schroder said. “If you make a thing you're responsible for that thing not just until you sell it but it's whole life. You're responsible for its disposal and therefore you're responsible for its repair to minimize its disposal." The bill is a watershed incentive for firms to create more circular models, internalizing the cost of repair and waste management and holding these corporations accountable for the environmental devastation of their practices and to regulate producer behavior.

Just like our coats, these systems too can be mended. California is at the forefront of legislating a greener economy, powered by grassroots efforts. In the Bay Area, there are countless inspiring organizations and community events catered toward emboldening thrifting, repair, and sustainable product models. There is still an innumerable amount of work to be done in changing consumer and firm behavior in light of an ever pressing volatile climate. The degree to which this alternative economy is embraced will determine if reconciliation with our clothes, and moreover our belongings, is possible; or if industrialism succeeds in erecting textile graveyards. Where will you be taking your next pair of ripped jeans?

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