Thursday, 5 August 2021

My Love Affair With Old Clothes

One of the biggest shifts in my thinking since I started making efforts to change the way I shop has been in the way I view clothes. Previously, like many people, I bought new clothes unthinkingly. I worked in a charity shop, so often bought secondhand, but I also trawled Topshop (RIP) in my lunch breaks, and as regular readers will know, shopped online on a daily (if not hourly) basis. Clothes came into my house and went out again to the charity shop like flotsam borne on the tides.

This last year, I've stopped buying fast fashion. It's something I'd considered before - and tried before - but I failed to resist the siren song of New Look, Zara and H&M. This year, for whatever reason, it just suddenly clicked, and all of a sudden fast fashion holds no more interest for me than a dictionary would for a bumblebee. 

Old clothes are just so much more interesting! Whether from charity shops, online resellers, or passed on from friends, you never know what you might find. I'm currently wearing a pair of mauve, navy and emerald brushed cotton trousers - St Michael - which I got in a charity shop for just £2. They are so unusual, and comfortable too.

I have a tendency to rescue the weird and unwanted from charity shops - a moth-eaten cardigan with a Fair Isle-ish pattern in an ugly colourway gets a few punk patches added and becomes a wardrobe favourite, warm and versatile. 

Charity shop cardigans mended with patches

Another source of old clothes is my own wardrobe. I have clothes that are coming up ten years old - most notably an orange Star Wars t-shirt with a pun about coffee (May the Froth Be With You), which I originally bought for 94p in a charity shop when I was about 21. It's been worn on pretty much a weekly basis for all those years and has become attractively weathered. It still goes with everything.

The longer I go without buying new, the more grateful I feel for what I have. I expected to feel bored with my older items, and sometimes I do 'rest' items for a bit, but at the moment every time I open my wardrobe I feel delighted!

I regret getting rid of an old favourite t-shirt of mine - it had a beautiful Ganesha design on it and was just the right length - when it became peppered with holes. It didn't occur to me then that I could mend the holes, or put a different coloured fabric underneath and make a feature of them. 


Customising clothes was an idea I first really became aware of in my goth years. As the goth scene developed out of punk in the late 70s and 80s, it came with a strong DIY ethic. Or perhaps it was more deconstruct-it-yourself, as rips, patches and safety pins were often strongly featured. Sadly, over the last few decades this handmade, creative ethos has been seen less in alternative fashion, with the rise of goth brands selling ready-made items to the black-clad masses (as seen particularly in the 90s with Hot Topic chain stores in the USA). Whilst more expensive than conventional fast fashion, the majority of these brands  - in my day some of the big names were the likes of Dead Threads, Hell Bunny, Poizen Industries, Phaze, Banned - are no more transparent about their supply chains and manufacturing processes than any of the stores on your local high street.

Whilst I certainly availed myself of these brands as a young gothling, I was always aware of a faction within the goth scene who sourced their clothes secondhand, customised and altered prosaic items of black clothing into something unique, or even made their own clothing from scratch. I didn't have the commitment then to adopt this ethos, although even I got handy with some black dye and safety pins from time to time.

Since moving on from the goth look, customising hadn't really had a place in my life. I was a bit wary about being judged for things looking 'handmade'. Funny - now I embrace it. I love that visible mending is becoming more popular, and as well as darning, patching and replacing buttons I'm looking to tackle bigger challenges. I have a much-loved dress that doesn't fit any more that I'm intending to make into a skirt. 


I don't worry much any more about whether I'm suitably alternative, or how to define my look, but I do love having a wardrobe that is totally unique. The only possible downside is that my growing tendency towards making things work means that I'm keeping things I would have previously let go of. This is better for the environment, but not brilliant for keeping my wardrobe under control! Especially since I'm working in a charity shop now - I'm trying really hard to keep my acquisition in check, but gosh, I really couldn't resist those checked trousers. I'm spending wayyyyy less on clothes these days, but not necessarily buying less!


I am away next week - normal service will be resumed upon my return!

14 comments:

  1. Isnt it fun though to find something lovely that nobody else is going to be wearing! It's always an investment in my opinion to buy preloved as clothes used to be made far better than they are now for a start, nobody else is going to clone you with their outfit and if you get tired of it you can pass it on and do your bit for recycling. Having said that I do buy new sometimes, if it's something I really want. Must be fun working in chazza and getting first dibs.

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    1. Yes absolutely! I can't always resist buying new either, I'm a sucker for those weird little hippie shops that smell of nag champa incense and patchouli, you can always find something different in there 😂 I definitely don't like to be a high street clone.
      First dibs and a discount! I have to be careful not to fill up the house with bargains...

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  2. I have been personalizing my clothing for many years. I love to add beads, trim or pretty buttons to make something my own. I love your patches on the sweater. You took something and made it your own.

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    1. Thank you! I'm definitely getting more into personalizing things - I think I missed a trick when I was a teenager desperate to stand out, it's the best way to end up with something original.

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  3. Hi via Going Gently.
    Nothing wrong in unique clothes...You are unique!

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    1. Hello! Thanks for taking the time to stop by :) and definitely - I'm glad I'm growing in confidence as I get older.

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  4. I've always worn second-hand clothes, even as a child. My parents weren't short of money but Mum (and Grandma) had a horror of looking the same as anyone else and it's something I've inherited. We were all born as individuals, why dress like everyone else?
    I have no interest in going into a shop where there are racks and racks of the same clothes, I've never been into a Primark or an H&M and visited Zara once. Clothes are intensely personal, I love feeling my heart lurch and my palms sweat when I spot something in a charity shop.
    Have a fabulous break! x

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    1. I think that's brilliant, I was very much the same way as a child and most distinctly in my early teens but I lost my way a bit as I got older. I feel like I'm finding my way back to myself now, especially very recently - I must admit that seeing your style really made a lightbulb go off in my head, it was a reminder that it's GOOD to be different and not something to be afraid of!
      Thank you! :) x

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  5. So much more reasonable sand practical to purchase second hand. As a child I had mostly hand be downs, and nothing like so much. Only really new stuff was school uniform, shoes and Sunday best. Sounds archaic now but it was so much less wasteful. No shame in it now thankfully. Unless you belong to the group which must hhave the latest advertized thing or risk being bullied. What a mess we’re brewing . You’re doing good so far so well done 😊

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    1. I do remember when I was in secondary school one did one's best not to be seen in Oxfam! Now it seems to be considered a bit more trendy, which is nice.

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  6. I had the realization during the pandemic: I know how to sew! I learned very young, when I was a Girl Guide, to do embroidery and easy hand-sewing, so I've been able to do things like take up a hem or move buttons - I even sewed snap fasteners onto a new-to-me jacket recently.

    Hooray for rocking your own style! I am appalled by the amount of fast fashion out there already, never mind all the new things that are still being made! I would 100% rather look like me than be wearing something everyone else is. I never go to an event and see someone in the same outfit as me.

    I see you have Vix as a fan. :) I've always regarded clothing as my "art" and love creating personas to baffle the public, lol. I love the Goth aesthetic, although I do more of a "soft Goth" look at times (being a grand lady of 54, haha).

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    1. Oh yes! I took up a bit of darning during the pandemic (results were decidedly mixed, I must admit) and I've got an ongoing mending/adjusting pile that I tinker about with when I get half a chance.

      I'm sure I read somewhere that there are enough clothes already in existence to clothe the entire planet's population for the next ten years, which is a bit startling.

      I've turned up at events in the past and seen someone in the same outfit. Awful! Hopefully something that will never happen again now I'm moving away from fast fashion!

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  7. Hello Katrina, thank you so much for your comment on my blog.
    Although I bought my fair share of fast fashion when I was in my twenties and thirties, I had a sea change in my forties and now I buy almost exclusively second hand. I love the thrill of visiting a charity shop or a flea market (although it's been a while since we had the latter) and I spend many a lunch break in a very affordable vintage shop in Antwerp called Think Twice. Although officially I can't sew, I often customize clothes by changing the buttons, and I've turned tunics into blouses on more than one occasion. In my punk years back in the mists of time I did try my hand at remaking things, never mind the result. I just wore it anyway, I think we all did back then. xxx

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    1. Hello! Thank you for visiting :)
      Haha, I am also an official non-sewer. I've recently been given a sewing machine but haven't had the courage to do anything with it yet! Hopefully when I do I can be punk enough to wear the results. Xx

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