Secondhand Matters by Sydney Farris
Hey Gals, welcome to the Aline Consignment Blog, Secondhand First! We are excited to announce that we will be beginning this forum as a way to engage and educate our community by posting a new blog each Monday. We plan to cover many topics like new ways to start practicing sustainable fashion, upcoming fashion trends, brand highlights, and more! If you're new to our brand there's a couple things we want you to know about us. Aline is a female owned and operated small business dedicated to extending the lifespan of our community's clothing and reducing the impacts that discarded fashion has on the environment. One of our business’s goals is to help educate our customers and our clients on equitable ways to join the secondhand clothing movement.
The fashion industry uses around 79 billion cubic meters of water per year, which is frightening when around 2.7 billion people are currently experiencing water scarcity. When you sit down and actually analyze the lasting effects of the fashion industry, the damage that is happening to our planet is something that can’t just be ignored. Not only does the fashion industry affect our environment, it affects the people around us. Fast fashion is something that has the potential to ruin people’s lives. We encourage everyone to watch the documentary The True Cost, which voices the real issues of those employed by the fast fashion industry. This documentary tells stories of families who can no longer support their families because of the poor wages they earn working for these types of high volume, low cost companies. This issue is something we as a company are moved by, and hope to draw attention to in an effort to encourage everyone around us to help inspire change. Aline believes every action has a ripple effect and that it starts in small communities. When one fifth of industrial water pollution is caused by the fashion industry, it is understandably a daunting thought to try and combat a system built on a 'More Mindset.'
Throughout our future blog posts, we’ll provide an easy to follow guide on what we as a community can do to better the world around us for future generations. One tip is to implement a 70:30 rule to your closet. This rule means that when you look at your closet, 70% of it should be basics. The goal of the more basic styles is to be able to keep them for many years and to elevate your looks with the other 30%. While this portion of your closet might not be in style for more than a couple years, the 30% is where you can stay up to date and on trend. This rule is easy to follow to start creating a more sustainable wardrobe.
Second hand shopping and consigning are also impactful ways to help extend the life cycle of clothing. Giving new life to preloved clothes is a passion for everyone at A-Line! A huge trend in the fashion industry currently is cycle-up fashion. This means that trends are starting at second hand stores and filtering up the “fashion food chain” to become big trends. Plus thrifting is in! Second hand shopping is also a perfect way to show individualized personal style because most pieces you’ll find are unique and make for great conversation pieces. Shopping secondhand is a great opportunity to single handedly mold your own personal style that is unmatched by any other. Aline’s collection of preloved styles are filtered through with an emphasis on knowledge of trends, high quality brands and top selling styles to keep your closet up to date.
We want everyone to know that we’re not just a clothing boutique, but we are also deeply rooted in the community around us. We live for the customers who come in just to say hello and chat because we truly value and thrive on building a connection with anyone who walks through our front door. We want every person that comes to our store to feel welcome and valued. Our main goal is to empower every woman we meet and help them find confidence in a preloved style. We plan to update this blog each Monday, so check back next week for our first brand highlight story on… Coach!