What is Vintage Clothing and Why is it Good fro the Environment?
When you love fashion, you may not be thinking of the environment but you probably should. Did you know that many clothing manufacturers create a lot of unsafe emmisions, and put pollutants into the air, that employee working conditions are often considered unsafe because of the number of toxins that are produced when creating certain fabrics? Did you know that synthetic fabrics like polyester, needs oil for its production? Today we have about 6 million tons a year, of textiles that are thrown away. So, short of wearing nothing, the most environmentally friendly thing you can do when shopping for fashionable clothing is to turn to vintage clothing.
I began wearing vintage clothing long before it was the fashionable thing to do, and I´m sorry to say my motivator was not the environment, but my pocketbook. Today, 20 years later, I am still vintage shopping, and mainly because it is fun, and it is good for the environment. In fact, anything we can recycle, re-use, or re-do, should be.
But, now you might be asking: "How do I sift through these piles of clothing, and how do I choose the right vintage clothing? The following are a few tips, that I had to learn the hard way.
• Determine whether the garment fits you or not. You will find that vintage clothing is often a very high quality garment and is often a unique and even hand sewn piece. So you need to make sure the garment fits, and that means you can breathe in it. Otherwise a vintage garment may tear more easily than others. If a garment is pre-60´s era, then you need to remember that women wore girdles to get that slim waist, so you may have to go up a size or two.
• Check all the buttons, zippers, seams, and everything. Make sure it all works. Check for stains or tears. You also want to check for mildew.
• Visiting a thrift shop or vintage clothing shop for the first time may seem overwhelming, and you might think that everything is at a great price, but you need to make sure you choose garments that you are actually going to wear. The trick to buying vintage and wearing it without it looking out of date is to tie it in with current trends. So, look at fashion magazines and figure out what the current trends are before heading off to the vintage shop
Buying vintage clothing can be exciting, and fun. You just need to be sure you have enough time while on your shopping trip, so that you can find things that will work with your wardrobe. Remember, using vintage clothing is not about being "cheap," but about being eco friendly.
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