Ever since I can remember, clothing has held a magical place in my life. As a little girl, I could spend hours rummaging through my mother's wardrobe, curious about all the fabrics, colors, and shapes. Later, as a teenager, I really started experimenting with clothes. Back then, I shopped at major fashion chains; I knew absolutely nothing about the impact of clothing. As I grew older, this became increasingly prominent in the media, and I did my own research on the clothing industry during a six-month study in Australia. I was amazed by the sheer volume of clothing produced, and then all those images of mountains of discarded clothes. That's when the switch flipped! I decided to buy less clothing and buy as much secondhand as possible.
Second-hand clothing
To be honest, secondhand clothing was a bit awkward for me at first, too. Isn't that weird or gross? Well, not at all. And if you think about it, new clothes from a store come straight from the factory, still covered in dust and dirt, and may have been tried on multiple times by sweaty people in a fitting room. That's why I always put clothes from the store in the wash before wearing them; it's no different with secondhand clothes. Afterward, you smell the familiar scent of laundry detergent and it immediately feels like your own. However, I noticed that modern secondhand clothes from well-known large fashion stores deteriorate quickly. It's still fast fashion, of course, and no matter how good it is to reuse, if it starts to thin out after a few washes and develops unsightly stains in the fabric, the fun quickly wears off. That's how I discovered vintage clothing and its qualitative advantages.
Vintage clothing
My love for vintage clothing goes beyond the high quality and positive environmental impact. There's something much deeper: the stories that vintage clothing conveys. Each item is a piece of history and reflects trends and developments from the past. Think of the mod dresses of the '60s, which marked the revolution in women's fashion, or the iconic shoulder pads of the '80s, an era of power dressing and self-assurance. Fascinating, isn't it? It's remarkable how something as mundane as clothing can simultaneously be so special.