Transcript

Fashion is such a personal thing. Everyone has their own style, influences and values. But the inescapable truth is that clothing has consequences. From the moment it is woven to the moment it is thrown away, every individual article has a massive global impact. From the water and energy used to produce the clothes to the human labor required, the clothing industry has a dark influence. However, within the last ten years, thrifting has become on trend again. In nearly every downtown, you can find a used clothing store giving life to clothes that may have otherwise been thrown out. Molly Schonert, assistant manager of Rumors Chapel Hill, said that the store avoids throwing clothes out, offering everyone a chance to sell or donate their clothes instead.

Molly Shonert: “We buy from the community. We also do have a section of the store where the items are new that we buy online via wholesale as a way to kind of help people who are hesitant to thrift for their clothes, as a way to kind of open that secondhand gate.”

Even then, Schonert says that managers research brands that the community will be interested in and that have ethical and sustainable practices.

Molly Shonert: “We never really get rid of an item. We do things like grab bags or dollar sales on special occasions, where we take items that haven’t been selling and we offer them for a discounted price. We always kind of use the item. We never just throw it away or anything like that. We’ll give it some worth of life somehow.”

However, not everyone is into buying and reselling. Most consumers still shop for new clothes from department store or outlets.

Candida Settle, manager of the Chico’s outlet store in Mebane, knows the formula for selling clothes and rotating them out depending on the seasons. Based on which items the store is selling well, Settle may be told to discount them or not. Similarly, whenever an item must be removed from inventory, it is sent to corporate and  may be donated for a company write-off.

Candida Settle: “In retail in general, they’re always gonna try to be one season ahead within the fashion aspect of it. So it depends on how quickly the product’s moving, how much product we have within the company, whether they go straight from a temp sale down to markdown. We don’t really resell our damaged products.”

The individual stores are largely left out of decision making. According to Chico’s FAS disclosure, the clothes are made and shipped from nations like China, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, and shipping clothes is a huge source of carbon emissions.

While a single consumer may not be able to change the whole industry overnight, they can start with shopping smarter. The same way one might research when buying a new car or shopping for produce, they should also check the practices and standards of the brands they shop from. Businesses should be held accountable for their decisions because no action is without consequences.

This is Em, Chapel Hill.