Venetia La Manna is a fair fashion campaigner and admits to being a reformed fast fashion fan. After a YouTube commenter prompted her to research the issues within fast fashion she now shops second hand. “Now I think much less about the brand when it comes to buying something secondhand and much more deeply about how long I’m going to have it in my wardrobe and how much I’m going to wear it.”
So fast fashion finds aren’t out of bounds?
“I think it’s more important when we’re consuming clothes to think about how much of a brilliant home I can give this? How much am I going to celebrate this item of clothing to honour the person who made it? That is what the focus should be on. I also look at fabrics and labels because I know that if I buy something secondhand that’s made from a natural fibre, it’s going to feel better, and it’s probably going to stand stand the test of time in my wardrobe.”
While La Manna often calls out wage thefts, greenwashing, waste colonialism and unsustainable energy use she discovers through her work with The OR Foundation and Clean Clothes Foundation, she is “not calling for a boycott of (fast fashion) brands. I’m not saying never buy these brands, never shop them secondhand, because that is not improving the lives of garment workers.”
La Manna also points out the very real difficulties the Plus Size community have with shopping second hand and sustainably, too. While we wait for brands to step up with truly inclusive sizing, the items that make it to charity shops and resale platforms are a tiny percentage of an already small product pool. “When we’re talking about secondhand shopping, we’re acknowledging that there is size privilege from being able to pick and choose which brands you support.”
Now can you see why our status is, “it’s complicated?”
Moving forward, commit to consuming less and cherish those second hand shopping gems – whether they’re fast fashion or not – to make sure every purchase is a sustainable, long-term buy for your wardrobe, whatever the label says…
Read more from Glamour UK Fashion Director at large Alex Fullerton here or follow her on Instagram @alexandrafullerton
