Going Green In Style With Vintage Clothing

Posted by admin on March 9, 2010

Are you part of the green movement? Do you like to do well for the environment? Even if it isn’t intentional, do you realize that if you wear vintage clothing you are actually going green? Pat yourself on the back for this one.

Hippie or Goth, pairing up a vintage piece with something from your wardrobe means that is one less mass produced item you are buying. Do you have any idea of how much clothing ends up in a landfill each year? It is staggering. We dispose of 254 million tons of unwanted items each year in the United States. Statistics show that 7% of that is clothing, shoes and bedding. Do the math; that is 18 million tons every single year.

According to my research that means that if 1% of that is women’s clothing, we are talking about 40 outfits per year for every woman. (Admittedly this is a rough approximation, but still – it is staggering).
Sure, some of this has to be tossed because it has stopped being useful. But not all of it.

Why not scour your secondhand stores for hip vintage clothing? You will develop a personal style and feel good doing so. Not to mention saving a ton of cash! What could be better?

When someone pointed this out to me, I started to really think about it and when I glanced at my lovely vintage 60’s pink boucle coat I realized that it could have ended up in the landfill if I didn’t scoop it up at Goodwill last year. With eyes wide open I now celebrate every vintage purchase with a little more spring in my step knowing I am helping the earth, saving resources and obviously—adding to my vintage chic.

Happy vintage shopping!