Second-hand clothing shops and the faces behind them
Junior Paige Parrish thrift shopping.
As social media takes over much of our lives and thoughts, it gives us the amazing opportunity to create good things–not just scroll through a bunch of cat memes all day (although that is probably my favorite thing to do).
Junior Paige Parrish, owner of the Secondhand Brand online shop, strives to stay fashionable while also making conscious decisions about the environment and breaking the cycle of clothing waste. By reselling her old clothes that she does not want anymore/don’t fit her, she can not only make a little profit off of it but also let others enjoy the pieces as much as she once did.
“I originally started the account in hopes of clearing out the clothes in my closet that I just wasn’t wearing,” Parrish said. “I wanted to give them a second chance to be worn and loved again.”
Parrish believes that by reselling her old clothing, she can share the cool finds she received while thrift shopping and provide the items a home where they will be cherished just as much as they were when she first found them.
“It’s becoming incredibly normalized to buy cheap clothing just to throw them out, so by buying and selling second hand I feel like I am able to give items a second life,” Parrish said.
She isn’t the only one, either. Plenty of people have come up with this idea of reselling their clothes to make a few extra bucks. Junior Olivia Krzyzanowski also has an Instagram account where she sells her no-longer-wanted clothing and accessories.
Similar to Parrish’s account, Krzyzanowski has various sweaters, denim, shoes, and accessories available for purchasing on her account.
Krzyzanowski talked about her account, and how it’s a new thing to her–she really wants to see it succeed.
“I wanted money really bad,” Krzyzanowski said. “and then I got inspired by Paige’s account and I’m like, ‘I can do that too’.”
By selling her clothes secondhand, she gets to watch a new person style that piece in a unique, new way. That’s the amazing thing about fashion–there are endless possibilities on how one can style a single piece of clothing.
“I realized people could totally benefit from my clothes more than I can, especially if I don’t wear them anymore,” Krzyzanowski said.
Both Parrish and Krzyzanowski are a part of the fashion department at Carroll, reinforcing their efforts towards sustainability within fashion.
It’s difficult to determine just how bad fast fashion is, but it can only be assumed that it’s pretty bad. Somehow, we continue to feed into it (look at my previous article for more on fast fashion).
“[Mention] how detrimental fast fashion can be for everyone involved if we continue to buy cheap, inhumanly produced clothing,” Parrish said. “Fashion is responsible for 10 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and 20 percent of global wastewater.”
As the world struggles with the issue of fast fashion, people like Parrish and Krzyzanowski are two small steps that help to make one huge leap towards sustainable fashion and conscious efforts to help the environment.
Hanna Fox is the Editor in Chief at Carroll joining for her senior year with the Charger Online Newspaper. She likes the colors yellow and brown, smiley...
