Cheap Threads

Last week I had the chance to coffee with Alexandra of Shift, a creative woman who upcycles 49th Parallel coffee bags into cute and clever bags (check them out here!!). Anyways, part of our discussion got me thinking about second-hand clothing, and second-hand material.

I've always been a thrift store shopper, and I love to repurpose old clothes and material. But.....I do have a guilty pleasure of buying cheap clothes, especially Joe brand from Superstore, and also the too expensively priced, low-quality, instant gratification items from Urban Outfitters (although maybe that store is just too teenybopper for me now anyways?). But, although it may take less work than sifting through piles of second hand clothing and altering something to fit, convenience and instant gratification is probably the only reward. But convenience and instant gratification is the way of our society, no? Or....maybe not! Maybe if more and more people stop buying it, it will just go away?? I dunno.

My talk with Alexandra touched on points about sacrificing quality, and the impact that has on our lives. In my mind, I have this ideal to only buy local or second-hand goods - there is enough new material in this world, we don't need anymore. In reality that is a pretty high-ideal. But it is a nagging ideal that eats at my conscience, and won't go away. TJ and I have talked so much about it in the past - how stores like Urban outfitters are so hypocritical in that they take a sub-culture that was once non-mainstream, and exploit that culture, make it marketable, and spoon feed it to consumers by selling cheap mass-produced items that mimic hand-made quality goods or second-hand goods. Okay, that was my rant.

So, I guess I am writing this to say that I want to work more towards my ideal. It's a big step. But maybe, like Alexandra and I were talking, it can be accomplished through a balance of being responsible and realistic.

So the question today is "what is one small step I can make this month towards my ideal of buying only second-hand or quality hand-made clothes?" I guess one big motivator is that TJ and I are becoming students again...so less buying is pretty much a given :)

Hmm, I will chew on that.