One of my favourite things to do on a Saturday morning is leisurely read the paper over a long breakfast. Eventually, I make it to Maggie Alderson's fashion column in the Good Weekend. Most weeks, it doesn't leave me particularly enlightened. This is particularly so since I stepped off the fashion bandwagon, and can no longer empathise with rants about the latest trends. However, to Maggie's credit, there have been a couple of good articles which have drawn attention to the need to curb our overconsumption - most notably the one which tracked her commitment to not buying any new clothes.
Today's article (28/7) highlights Jane Shepherdson, until last year the brand director of Topshop (UK shop that I imagine is similar to ValleyGirl/Tempt - perhaps a little better?), and who now intends to advise Oxfam on develop their chain of op shops - in an unpaid capacity. I'm impressed, and Maggie's conclusion that consumers are now looking for alternative clothing options which don't have the same kind of social and environmentally impacts definitely resounded with me.
This is only the latest one in a string of articles on clothes swapping, organic clothing and ethical fashion more generally, and each time I read them, I think how great it would be if I could blog about them - and after reading this article, I finally did!
Friday, July 27, 2007
Welcome!
I have been contemplating starting this blog for sometime now. So many people have commented that they can never find anything in opshops, or don't know where the 'good' opshops are. To me, that's rubbish, as I almost always walk out of any opshop with at least one item, and have a firm belief that there is no such thing as a 'bad' opshop - it's possible to find something if you look hard enough, or just apply your imagination.
However, there are certainly some opshops which consistently produce gold, and others which are particularly good for finding specific items. That's why I thought it would be fun to create a space where people could share their tips on the 'better' opshops, and what treasures they have found.
Although opshopping is one of my stable supplies of recycled clothing, there are numerous other sources out there such as going to markets (Camberwell market being my favourite), restyling old clothes discovered at the back of your wardrobe, and foraging through your Mum's and Grandma's old clothing collections. So please don't limit discussion to just opshops - it would be interesting to hear of other creative ways of recyling clothes!
So what prompted me to finally get this going? You'll have to read the first 'real' post to find out!
However, there are certainly some opshops which consistently produce gold, and others which are particularly good for finding specific items. That's why I thought it would be fun to create a space where people could share their tips on the 'better' opshops, and what treasures they have found.
Although opshopping is one of my stable supplies of recycled clothing, there are numerous other sources out there such as going to markets (Camberwell market being my favourite), restyling old clothes discovered at the back of your wardrobe, and foraging through your Mum's and Grandma's old clothing collections. So please don't limit discussion to just opshops - it would be interesting to hear of other creative ways of recyling clothes!
So what prompted me to finally get this going? You'll have to read the first 'real' post to find out!
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