sustainability & slow fashion

We are a brand that focuses on sustainability. All that we source comes from charitable organisations, auctions and from pre-loved treasure chests from all kinds of resale and specialist vintage establishments. We do our research on as many pieces as we can and buy our designer pieces from a trusted and long-established auction house. When we make from new, we use ethical sourcing practices and local printers. We hope that our customers will adopt a similar mantra of the four R’s: Reuse, Recycle, Repair, Reimagine.

Sustainability lies at the heart of ThriftVIP®, where stories are told and new stories begin with clothes. We encourage Thrift Lovers to make carefully considered choices, investing in themselves and the wider world; championing transparency, accountability and ethical sourcing practices, where quality rules over quantity. Whilst we can’t always guarantee the ethical or environmental qualities of the products we sell, what we’re doing at ThriftVIP is championing slow fashion and to keep fashion items in circulation.

We want to innovate to encourage less waste by valuing clothes and looking after them to aid longevity in the product lifecycle. Giving clothes the value they deserve whilst encouraging individuality and style, offering a circular fashion product and ethos.

We like to inform our customers about important issues within the fashion industry, and I’m educating myself all the time too.

Here are some facts:

Nearly three-fifths of all clothing ends up in incinerators or landfills within a year of being produced.

More than 8 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions are produced by the apparel and footwear industries.

And, around 20 to 25 percent of globally produced chemical compounds are utilised in the textile-finishing industry.

SOURCE

Thats' enough to inspire us to do what we do and to keep on encouraging others to look after their clothes and make more investment purchases by purchasing pieces with provenance, of good quality and not always new. I like to see my customers as caring consumers with their own unique individual style.

So, what can you do?

“On an individual level, you can help contribute to encouraging circular fashion by buying secondhand and selling your unwanted clothes.

If you’re a dedicated lover of a certain brand, try shopping secondhand when you’re looking for something new to wear—and trade in your pieces when you’re tired of them instead of simply throwing them away. At the end of the day, shopping fast fashion stores with cheap price tags might seem desirable—but there are plenty of other ways to stay fashionable without compromising on sustainability.”

(Rebecca Piersol, stylist and fashion blogger)

Read my ARTICLE: THRIFT FUTURES, FASHION FUTURES, WHAT NEXT? with 5 ways To Live a More Fulfilling Life with Clothes & Avoid Dumping on the Environment

Get more tips here

If you need more facts, take a look at this article

RESPONSIBILITY

My contribution as a brand reseller of vintage and pre-loved fashion including some new in-house designs, is to encourage my customers to take action in a way which is easy and comes in the form of a postcard with every order.

My customers will easily be able to interact by way of being able to do something to encourage policy makers & brands to listen to consumers and to make changes within the fashion industry... all for the price of a stamp!

Inspired by ‘How to Write a Postcard to a Policy maker’ YouTube video by Katherine Hamnett:

When you get yours, tag us in with the pic of this postcard and who you sent it to, using the hashtags on the postcard too. We can all change the world of fashion and it’s damaging affects on people and planet if we show companies that we are aware and that we care.

PS: to fit the text on the back of the postcard in the Canva layout, it had to be quite small so apologies if you need a magnifying glass to read it but it is readable! The most important thing is that you send it to a fast fashion retailer and spread this awareness because it is us the consumers who can make changes. It is the customer that will be listened to because at the end of the day, profit often takes precedence over people and planet, and it is selling large volumes of clothing that drives fast fashion companies.

Plus, you still get one of our large ThriftVIP postcards with your order to send just for fun!

PACKAGING

It’s not just about the clothes themselves, but all the other elements which make up a product, which then gets it to your door. Prior to launch, I devoted a whole month to finding more eco-friendly point of sale and packaging solutions in an effort to minimise my carbon footprint. If you want to know all about this, I made a vlog about it so you can see the considerations I’ve made regarding this, and how you can help by re-using these resources to be a part of the circular fashion revolution & economy.

Other ways you can get involved

Go to the Fashion Revolution Site where you can find loads of information and latest news about the fashion industry, including courses via Future Learn, such as FASHION’S FUTURE - THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS which I’m doing and learning so much more. There are also other fun ways you can interact on social media, through campaigns such as the Slow Fashion Challenge (as indicated in the graphics below from 2018 & 2019)

See our dedicated SLOW FASHION REVOLUTION PAGE

Above: Day 4 of Slow Fashion Challenge 2020 - images taken at Nottingham Contemporary from the exhibition: Still Undead: Popular Culture in Britain Beyond The Bauhaus

see our dedicated slow FASHION REVOLUTION page