September is a pretty extravagant month, in the way of new clothes.
Autumn is imminent, back to school is in full swing and fashion weeks are beckoning – the temptation for splurging is strong.
But this year, Oxfam wants to change the way we are buying. For 30 days, the charity is encouraging us all to cancel our Net-A-Porter orders and instead scour the rails of our local second hand shops.
Every year, around £140 million worth of wearable clothing goes to landfill in the UK alone, with summer being the biggest culprit for single-wear outfits.
To kick off the campaign, Stella Tennant has signed the pledge and taken part in a campaign alongside her daughter, Iris – styled by ES’s own Bay Garnett.
Bay, who has been working with Oxfam and their ‘Fashion Fighting Poverty’ initiative for the past two years, has been crowned by Tennant as ‘the queen of second hand’.
According to Bay, the key to successful second hand shopping ‘is to go with an objective of what you would like to find. A brown cashmere sweater? A pair of cowboy boots? A 70s hippie dress? If you go in with a mission and you are focused and determined, chances are you will find something great.’
Although the champion of finding vintage gems, Bay acknowledges that for some people, it’s daunting to move away from the new trends. Her advice? ‘You can find all of it in second hand stores; it just means that you do it more originally than everyone else who is buying the new trends. Then, once you’ve started to move towards shopping second hand, you won’t care about trends so much.’
If you needed any further encouragement to sign the Second Hand September pledge, Bay cites some of her top finds from charity shop hunting as a 70s Dior cape, a tie dye thermal sports top and the iconic banana top that Kate Moss wore in Vogue, 2003.
Find out more about Second Hand September and how you can get involved here.
