In Honor of Secondhand September: My First Chair
Have you heard of #secondhandseptember? Sponsored by @oxfamgb, it’s a pledge to not buy new clothes for the month of September. To raise awareness of fashion’s environmental and social footprint (it’s pretty humongous), people are encouraged to tag images on Instagram and twitter of their fabulous second hand outfits. Cool!
Will this help normalize second hand goods, beyond fashion? The resale market of second hand apparel, according to a report from ThredUP (a large online clothing reseller), is expected to swell to $41 billion by 2022! That would double the size of the market in just five years: in 2017, it was $20 billion. Whoa, that’s a big pie.
Tech platforms have scaled the reach of commerce and activists. Data, tools, and megaphones proliferate. This campaign is a perfect example of all three (check out their pledge page to see what I mean). But, whether fashion is your thing or not, narratives are shifting around consumption, impact, and privilege. The treatment of laborers and protection of culture makers, worldwide, is under necessary examination. And, of course, markets are being transformed and winners and losers are being decided. (Just how equitably will that pie be divided up? A question for another day.)
Despite fast furniture being fast fashion’s cousin, awareness around what that means isn’t widespread. For now, second hand furniture proliferates on my city’s streets, is not readily accepted by local thrift stores, and is not celebrated as an action that: decreases waste, supports local craftspeople and businesses, increases community resilience, furthers corporate/municipal zero waste goals (yep, commercial furniture can be reupholstered too), and fosters creative transformations.
To nudge the conversation in that direction, here is my contribution to #secondhandseptember: In 2014, I bought this used chair @urbanore for $35 and reuphosltered it while taking reupholstery classes @OfficialCCSF; a fantastically difficult but beautiful endeavor.
It made me a believer: #lovedfurniturelasts.
