Win-Win for pocket and planet

If you've ever heard someone say they're going to go thrifting, you might be wondering what they mean. Thrifting is a way of shopping for the coolest clothes while also being environmentally conscious.

Thrifted items include clothes, accessories, bags and other items that are already used by a person but are in a great condition that can be used by another person. Every year thousands of clothes reaches the landfills. Several clothing brands and manufacturers discard the clothes which go unsold due to various reasons like size issues and colour of the clothes.

However, in order to get rid of the wastage of so many clothes, thrift stores have started gaining importance, round the globe. Meanwhile, Hyderabad has also seen many people coming forward and increasing the demand of thrift stores in the city.

One amongst them is Nikita, a 25-year-old who started her own 'thethriftedcloset_hyd', an Instagram page for thrifted clothes in June this year. Her journey with thrift stores started with the 2013 hit song, 'Thrift Shop by Macklemore'.

She shares, "The song played a major role in changing my outlook because until then I had the mentality that pre-owned or second-hand clothes were just not cool. But there's a lyric in the song which goes like 'one man's trash is another man's treasure' which just stuck with me over the years. Later, I started coming across YouTube videos where these girls would go to thrift stores and would find beautiful clothing at such great prices. The middle-class Indian in me would get so excited watching them get such great deals. Slowly, I started coming across the term sustainable fashion and when I went and read up about it more, I understood not only how wasteful but how awful the fashion industry can be to the environment, it was eye opening."

Last year, she visited her sister in the US and visited a thrift store in her neighbourhood.

"Once we finally got there, I was beyond fascinated. I couldn't help but wonder what the story of each clothing item I picked up was. Where was it made? How many people's closets have it been in? How many good memories were made? How many bad? Going back to a normal store for shopping just seemed so bland after this experience. When I came back to Hyderabad, I'd always complain to my friends about how Hyderabad needed its own thrift store. In November, my friend started sending me links to a few Instagram thrift stores that opened up in the country. We'd spend hours going through some of the pages and even managed to score some great items. I had very little guilt when I thrifted something versus when I bought something new. Thrifting is almost guilt free fashion," adds Nikita.

Due to COVID-19, she had to push her page launch to June and since then, there's been no looking back for her.

According to Nikita, the major task for her while the start of her store was being able to source good quality clothing which people would be interested in buying. With the current situation it was very important for her to sanitize the clothes and send cleaned and washed clothes to the customers.

She adds, "The customers sometimes have a lot of questions on the clothing from the material to measurements. It is important to be able to answer all their questions correctly and patiently. Finally, being able to pack the clothing without using plastic is very important for me. Trying to find plastic free alternatives in the beginning was a challenge for me. I strongly believe that thrifting is the future of fashion. If you go and read about the amount of resources that are taken to produce one small cotton shirt, one woul'd have been shocked. I suggest watching The Patriot Act's episode "The Ugly Truth of Fast Fashion" on Netflix if you're curious for a quick insight into it.

Now imagine, how many cotton shirts already exist that are lying in people's closets unused." The Thrifted Closet works as a bridge between one's selected closet to another's, thereby, giving a new home for unused clothing which would have otherwise probably ended up in a landfill somewhere.

"We're hopeful about our future and would someday like to open up a physical store so people can experience the joys of thrifting in real life," ends Nikita.