Top & Pants: Chico’s via thrift shop | Shoes: Steve Madden

photography by Kat McSherry

It’s no news that trends recycle over time. Neon was big in the 80’s and (unfortunately) made a comeback in the height of my middle school days. Denim rises ebb and flow over time, and even Birkenstocks became popular again. One of the biggest trends I’ve seen so far this Spring/Summer season is matching sets. I used to be the kind of person that would run to my nearest Forever 21 whenever I saw an incoming trend because I wanted to be a part of the action. Since breaking up with fast fashion and becoming a conscious consumer, I have struggled with the entire idea of buying into trends. Buying something new because it happens to be “in” goes completely against the idea of conscious consumerism. And slow fashion brands often take too long to create trendy items while the trend lasts, so they opt for more classic and timeless silhouettes. As I’ve said before, being a conscious consumer can also leave me feeling stuck. I still love fashion, and buying clothing that won’t hurt the environment or harm people shouldn’t hold me back.

I have always loved thrift shopping — mostly because there is nothing I love more than getting a good deal — but I have come to appreciate it much more in the past few years. Voactiv has estimated that on average, trends recycle every 20 years. So these matching sets that saw their heyday in the 70’s (and again in the late 90’s) will probably be popular again in the 2030’s. I’m not saying you should hold on to every trendy item of clothing you have, waiting for it to become popular again. I am saying, though, that thrift and vintage shopping for trendy clothing is a much more sustainable and conscious alternative than buying something completely new. 

The average American produces 82 pounds of textile waste each year, adding up to 11 million tons of textile waste in the United States alone. And on top of that, I learned in one of my environmental studies classes this year that natural fibers decompose in a similar way to food waste; “when natural fibers, like cotton, linen and silk, or semi-synthetic fibers created from plant-based cellulose, like rayon, Tencel and modal, are buried in a landfill, in one sense they act like food waste, producing the potent greenhouse gas methane as they degrade”. And on top of that, you can’t even compost completely natural clothing like 100% organic cotton tee shirts because these natural fibers go through a lot of unnatural processes (like bleaching, dyeing and weaving) before becoming a product ready for sale.

Instead of buying something new and eventually adding to this waste stream, buy something that has already been made! And especially if you are buying in to a new trend, like wicker bags or matching sets or culottes (tbt to that trend), see if you can find something on trend secondhand before you head to a store. I got this matching set in December at my favorite thrift store in Florida way before matching sets were mainstream. It’s cute, on trend, but also unique from the seemingly carbon copies of matching sets available in different fast fashion stores. And best of all, I felt good purchasing it.

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