Prioritising Climate Action over mass consumption: London's gradual transition toward sustainable fashion

Charity Shops: A Space for Community, Creativity, and Sustainability

Walking into Cancer Research UK, a popular charity shop on Kensington High Street, customers are greeted with a pile of newly-donated Christmas sweaters, satin dresses, and an irresistible line of heels.

The central London's charity shop is loud with endless chatter of individuals of all ages, from young ladies, scourging for the perfect outfit, to elderly women exchanging stories of their ordinary undertakings.  

A staff member reported that most customers shop on Sunday around noon. 

He said: “I know lots of them.

"Even if I don't know them personally, I know them by face.

“They come here for therapy, they come here for a chat, they come here just to find a sort of unique item, whatever it is to make them happy.

“For many different reasons, this is more than just a charity shop. 

“If you really spend time here, you'll know that.”

In a society constantly chasing fashion trends and the need for constant validation, fast fashion has been labeled by many as one of the most alarming threats to environmental health. 

The staff member reported that people are now becoming more conscious of the environmental damage caused by larger fashion companies which 'produce  heavy waste materials, polluting the planet'.

He added: “Many people no longer see a difference between new and used items.

“There's obviously a misconception with charity shops that all things are used and cannot be worn again, but this is not the case."

He explained that approximately 40% of items donated to Cancer Research UK are new because companies cannot sell them. 

The other 60% are items people donate to be resold as pre-loved items.

Charity shops such as Cancer Research UK have become a destination not only to shop sustainably, but also, to socialise, wind down, and relax.

Transformation into a shopping destination for consumers from all corners of society

Historically, charity shops were associated with being a shopping destination for the lower class.

Sarah is a 30-year-old assistant manager at Trinity Hospice in Notting Hill.

She explained people are now attracted to second-hand shops as they are a sustainable alternative to fast fashion.   

She also explained that Trinity Hospice is a 'high-end shop', making it a respectable shopping destination.

She affirmed that charity shops now attract consumers from all walks of life and said: “I don't think it makes you lower class to shop at a charity shop.

“It removes the stigma of things and it doesn't smell or anything. 

“It removes the stigma of things being dirty because it's so well curated.”

Isha Arora, 22, is a digital assistant at Parfums Christan Dior, and a former Fashion Marketing Student at the University of Arts London (UAL).

She explained that at UAL, sustainability was used generally as a 'buzzword', but in the field of fashion, sustainability can be broken down into different subtopics, including  'overconsumption' and 'overproduction'.

She reported that consumers within the consumer culture feel compelled to constantly buy and spend,  causing the harrowing environmental impact of high fast fashion consumption to go overlooked.

She said: “Fast fashion is affordable, easy to access, and we just keep buying and buying."

She added: “There's a lot of overproduction within these companies and lots of these unused clothes end up in landfills.

“Let’s say they become spoiled, instead of mending them, we just throw them away or give them to charity, not knowing where they'll end up."

Arora reported that her inspiration for buying second-hand clothing is rooted in her desire to buy something that is circulating already within the fashion industry. 

She said: “I'm not buying anything that's freshly made, but something that's already been used and I'm giving it a second life.”

Arora added that when entering mainstream shops such as Urban Outfitters or H&M she feels nervous seeing the 'piles of clothing scattered across the floor'.

She said: “It's a bit scary to think about.”

Arora mentioned that she frequently shops at Trinity Hospice, Portobello Road, and has collected various luxury items, such as a Vivienne Westwood blazer, a Sandro Vest, and several leather jackets.

She explained that even luxury fashion is slowly embracing sustainability with brands such as Stella McCartney and the production of  McCartney, “one brand everyone developing sustainable materials.” 

She said: “Others also collaborate with second-hand platforms such as Gucci Bolt but it’s a work in progress.” 

If an item appears to suit a different age consumer and does not suit a person’s style, Isha would advise pairing the item with a piece completely of the opposite style to balance it out. 

She said: “So let's say if I bought a leather jacket, which I feel might be too old for me to wear, I might put it over a floral dress or something just to balance it out versus wearing it with leather pants that go to the extreme.”

Accessorizing with jewelry and makeup 'can also play a lot with an outfit'. 

“If you're wearing something that's maybe a bit more neutral for your taste, you could always play with your eye makeup and make it more colourful, or wear jewelry that's colorful and bold and more like up a statement piece just to make your outfit stand out more," she added

Encouraging "shame-frees " advocacy

Izzy Manuel, an ethical fashion and lifestyle content creator, uses her educational background in chemistry to transform scientific knowledge and create digestible content that people can understand and make sustainable decisions.

She introduces sustainable practices of fashion consumption in a 'shame-free' manner, explaining that a lot of the discourse surrounding sustainable fashion emerging on social media is 'very black and white and accusational'.

She reported: “If someone has bought fast fashion, instead of saying to them, 'you're a horrible person'; say, 'this is why Shein is bad, and here's how you could recreate that outfit you got from Shein more sustainably'. 

"You can try to introduce people to the sustainability community, rather than making them feel isolated and accusing them of being a bad person for not caring about the planet.”

Manuel explained that 'accusation shaming' not only causes individuals to 'shut down', but it also divides communities, rather than bringing them together. 

Instead, Manuel reminds audiences of the benefits of shopping sustainably, buying second-hand clothes, and re-wearing already-owned garments rather than going beyond their budget to shop for ethical brands. 

She said: "There is a general rule: you need to wear a garment at least 30 times for it to be a garment worth buying.

“People don't have the money to spend £100 plus on a shirt.

“It’s really important that you don't leave people out of that conversation because, ultimately, the only way that the planet is going to do better is through the collective effort of the worldwide community, which means people from different walks of life have to also be a part of that community.”

Manuel explained that vintage and second-hand clothing provide wonderful opportunities to express authenticity. 

She said:  “Fashion is a true mirror image of yourself as a person and your personality,  and how we feel that day.

"Specifically with vintage, because it is made in a whole different era and the clothing style is so different to what you see on the high street now.”

Manuel produces content that caters to millennial audiences rather than Gen Z.

She chooses to deliver an educational route to advocacy,  teaching audiences practices that promote slower consumption, and presenting facts and strategies.  

She said: “Sometimes you just have to slowly chip away with more facts and say, you could do this instead.” 

She explained that education is more powerful than showing a person a picture of a tragedy, such as the 2013 Rana Plaza Factory collapse, with 1,000 people buried underneath it.

Rana Plaza was an eight-story building situated in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which collapsed due to a lack of maintenance, killing 1,134 garment workers, and harming many more. 

It was a building that housed garment factories that supplied clothing to foreign brands, including Nike, H&M, and many others.

"We need to remind people that real people make the clothes that they wear and that we should be respectful towards them and respectful to our clothes because ultimately the clothes that we wear have touched potentially hundreds and thousands of other people through the making process.

“We live on a planet that provides for us, but also we need to provide for our planet if we want to continue living as a society in the way we do.”

Manuel felt fulfilled when she described the impact of her 'shame-free advocacy' on changing her audiences' consumption patterns.

“The most amazing thing is when you get a message from someone saying, oh, my gosh, because of you, I've stopped using fast fashion, instead,  I'm buying secondhand,” she exclaimed.

Manuel explained that to transition towards shopping sustainably, it does not necessarily require a substantial lifestyle change, rather, it just requires baby steps made by the community as a whole. 

“The most important thing to remember is that we, as consumers, are not powerless," she said.

“We just have to vote with our wallet, which is why, again, I always say when I work with brands that are doing better, here's an alternative brand that's doing better, you can vote with your wallet if you want to buy something new instead of buying from XYZ brand.

“We may not necessarily be taking anyone to a court or making legislation changes, but by simply not buying from a brand, we are sending them a clear message which is either I agree with you, I don't agree with you, you're either going to make money from me or you're not going to make money from me.”