Here's How I Completely Gave Up Fast Fashion (and Transferred to Exclusively Secondhand)

Ever since I discovered Forever21 in the 6th grade, I've been hooked on disposable, trendy, and cheap fashion. It's natural, I mean every middle, and even high schooler has an instinct to wear what their friends are wearing and within the past decade, mall shops have made it the easiest to do so. Large companies such as H&M, Zara, and Forever21 are a phenomenon that isn't all that mysterious within essence, trends are able to drift through and consumers are able to own large, trendy, wardrobes at a seemingly low cost.
There are so many separate issues within shopping fast fashion, yet I also hate the condescending and classist way many influencers have talked about giving these stores up, and believe they're experts because they saw The True Cost once (not to knock this film, would highly recommend). A world without fast fashion is incredibly ideal to most people, but you also must look at the flip side of these buyers. Fast fashion is cheap and for majority of its followers, makes up most their wardrobe because it's affordable. Telling someone to give it up is much harder than it sounds, and in reality, will cost marginally more. Yet as I read more on ethical shopping, along with simply evaluating my wardrobe, found it not as big a sacrifice as I thought to gradually purge my habits.

one of my prized dresses from Urban Jungle in Brooklyn

Quitting was the hardest part. To do so, I first took a look at my wardrobe that was mainly filled with far too many shirts of the same variation of a black crop top, a collection of band shirts from Hot Topic I haven't worn since freshman year, and two pairs of ill fitting American Eagle boyfriend jeans. Not so appealing. How did I own so much clothing yet wore seemingly the same outfit everyday? The first step was the purge. I chucked the jeans, packed away the band tees (who knows if they'll seem "vintage" in twenty or so years?) and left the black crop tops be. You can never have too many of those. Before deciding this was it, I looked at my basics pile (spaghetti strap tops) which was more than full. There's no pressure to trash your fast fashion pieces, in fact one of the vices of supporting it is how much people dispose of the low quality clothing. In 2016, 12.8 million textiles ended up in landfills. 

My next step was replenishing. Winter was coming, and I had trashed all my cheap sweaters last year. This is where the actually fun part came in. For starters, I'd have to confirm thrift shopping is far from being a new concept for me (and tragically have these cringy 2014 posts to prove it), shopping solely from it a little less so. Four years ago, I actually made an incredibly embarrassing (and alright, kind of cute) post about how to actually thrift shop and my own tips (which I'm surprised are still extremely similar) which I'm hoping to make an updated version of soon. 

part of my piece for Mad Sounds featuring this awesome camo jacket and plaid mini skirt I thrifted

Not only have I become an ethical shopper from switching over to exclusively secondhand clothing, I've also witnessed a whole laundry list of benefits from my new shopping habits. For starters, and this is pretty obvious, almost everything I own is one of a kind, or at least not mass produced. I always used to hate seeing someone wearing the same top as me and now it's kind of off putting to see a million of the same shirt on a rack. Thrift shopping also makes all my clothing so much more sentimental, everything has a story behind it. I love varsity jackets with names stitched on and worn denim and broken in Doc Martens. I love imagining the past lives of the items in my drawers (one of the coolest being a denim jacket in which I found train tickets all throughout France in the pocket). 

For the past two years, I've been incredibly insecure when it comes to standing out and have missed the thirteen year old version of myself who just played dress up everyday. At the moment, my dressers are spilling with cheesy $2 graphic tees, grass grazing $5 skirts, and $1 slip tops, I don't think I've ever been so happy with the way I dress. Along with this, by supporting stores like Goodwill, you are creating jobs for disabled people who normally wouldn't be hired, and patronizing charity shops like Housing Works or Out of the Closet**, your cash is going to a worthy cause instead of some CEO's pocket. 

**there also most likely is a hospice or church thrift shop near you- one of my favorite places ever is a small secondhand shop in the basement of a church two towns over where all the proceeds go to helping the local women's shelter. I once got a vintage Christian Dior slip top there- incredible. 

for my upcoming piece on Mimp about 70s style- floral blouses are a recent obsession of mine

For reference, here's a list of my favorite thrift shops (in order of preference):

-Unique (unsure if its mainly a NY/NJ thing)

-Urban Jungle (Bushwick) 

-No Relation (LES)

-L Train Vintage (Williamsburg/Bed Stuy/East Village)

-Monk Vintage (Williamsburg/Greenwich/LES)

-Out of the Closet (Atlantic Ave) proceeds go to AIDS Healthcare Foundation

-Housing Works (all over the city- my favorite is in the Flatiron district) proceeds go to both stopping AIDS and homelessness 

-Junk (Williamsburg)

-Buffalo Exchange (my favorite location is in Chelsea) 

-Goodwill

*I also have a very condensed version of this list here

ALSO for further reading on fast fashion, my two favorites are The True Cost, Overdressed, this, this, this,  and this 

Hope this was a break from the classist talks on purging your $20 dresses. 

-Annie 

Ann Shows You Clothes and Books

This weekend, I went to Forever21, my favorite thrift shop, and Barnes and Noble for a bit of early summer shopping and here are things I bought!
Thrift

   My mom found this somewhere in the woman's blouses section (I never really go in there) and her reasoning for why I should try it on is for "it's a good shirt to play ukulele with" (it's also pretty fabulous). It looked awesome on and I can't wait to wear it with a pair of high waisted shorts.

   This was on a wrack by the dressing room and I instantly fell in love with the lace at the bottom. They're a little baggy at the bottom but I will probably grow into them. Other than that, they look awesome and will be great with a tight fitting top since they're so loose.

   At a thrift shop, my first stop is always the men's shirts section for I tend to find a large amount of band merch there. On Sunday though, I wasn't very lucky but did find this loose fitting, black, muscle tee that will look great with about anything.

   I found this beauty in the vintage section and fell in love. I plan on cutting the sleeves and turning it into a V-neck but other than that, this top is super cute and will look great with about anything.

   I really lucked out on finding high waisted shorts that day. I plan on wearing these light blue ones with a cropped top or tank. They are a bit long but look great rolled up!

Forever21

   I love the grunge feel of these American flag shorts and they will look great with about any tee (I tried it with my Nirvana one and it looked ace).

   I needed a pair of just plain black shorts and these looked super nice with all my band tees. I like how they are slightly high rise and have small pleats.

   As you may be able to tell, I have a thing for high rise shorts and couldn't pass these up. Since I am rubbish at sizes, they are a little big but I'm hoping I'll grow into them!

   I am in love with the edgy and formal feel of these shorts and they give about every top I pair them with a more put together look.

   Viv gave me a pair of overall shorts a couple weeks ago and I have fallen in love so I instantly had to buy these cute polka dot ones! I love how silky and light weight they are and give off such a preppy vibe.

   These tapestry shorts are probably my favorite thing I bought that day. They're so unique and pretty and make about everything look rather classic.

Barnes and Noble

   I began reading this the minute we got home and instantly fell in love. I go into more detail about Girls To The Front in my post about my favorite books.

   I can't really say much about Cameron and The Girls since I only just started but the main plot is that a teenager named Cameron who has schizophrenia has gone off of his medicine and begins to hear voices in his head. From what I have read so far, it is pretty interesting.

Sunday Diary: Jedward and Fears Of The Grinch

Dear Blurg,

This week has been what you call a hot mess. Three post ideas. One was published. Two are works in progress meaning, things that I have to stare at until I finally delete them for I can't stand seeing drafts in my post list. So before I begin to talk about this week, I have something MAGICAL to show you guys.
So I was bored at home and scrolling through DFTBA.com because I have no better things to do (how about those 2 posts?!) and began playing around with the little music thingy about the search box and then saw the writing above the search thing. The exact words: "Looking for something specific?" with the word "looking" and being on DFTBA.com (cough cough John Green) I typed in "Alaska" just for laughs. To my surprise, under my words was the sentence "Is that you Pudge?" a Looking For Alaska reference. I am proud of John and Hank for thinking up that one. Big thanks to the Green brothers for giving me that entertainment. 

Jedward

Onto relevant topics, this week has been the most frustrating music wise. My speakers were jacked up to the point where the instrumental was blasting yet the lyrics were basically a whisper. No no that it is not the worst part. The only song I could almost hear was Jedward's "Give It Up" OK OK back story about Jedward being on my Spotfiy... I have my Jedward moments... Was this God's punishment to me for being an awful new Jewish adult? Why couldn't P.O.V work? You might be asking "Why the hell did you just not listen to music if you hate the song that's playing?" well my little clueless friend, I CANNOT BLOG WITHOUT MUSIC. 
Thursday was a half day and you know what that means! Instead of being social, I spent those two extra hours watching Doctor Who and blogging. Go Ann. I then went to sewing in which I made multiple mistakes with the bodice of my shirt. Reasons why Ann's a fail (yay!). My family then went to school in action night at my middle school in which I dissected a frog for people to gag at including myself. We walked past the science fair where we saw some sixth grader with a robot. I'm not kidding a robot. Overachiever much? Compared to my project last year...(a mess of glitter). We then went back to the house with my sister's friend Carly and they watched "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" I found my new biggest fear. The TV is in the same room as the computer and I knew I had to work on a new post so I put my headphones and tried to get Jedward to drown out the Grinch. That things is freaking scary. I would include a picture of this terrifying creature but that would require googling it and then having to look through thousands of pictures. As Alex Day once wrote, "No one understands me." 
Friday was a day off for the middle school while my sister's school still had classes. TV to myself! I had exhausted all my Doctor Who episodes in my DVR and had to turn to MTV. Awkward and True Life marathon for about a couple hours... Being lame, I got bored quickly and spent the rest of the time laying in my bed hoping to fall asleep. My mom got home a couple hours and out of sympathy for how pathetic I was, she got me out of bed and my pajamas to go thrift shopping. Where I was a total idiot and wore heels. HEELS. Whose terrible idea was that? Oh yeah me. I ended up getting only "a bit" (a ton) of clothing and having to turn down a gorgeous, long, homemade dress for the reason that I seriously had nowhere to wear it. 

Stop it Frodo

Saturday my parents went to a bat mitzvah and left Rachel and I at home. We spent our time doing three things: making club penguin accounts, playing club penguin, and going on neopets (I haven't been on in years) which I was WAY more exited about. I ended up naming all of my pets after youtubers: Emma Blackery, Charlie McDonnell, Alex Day, and Kristina Horner. I actually put hard work into creating them. Slow clap for Ann. Once my parents got back, we went to the extremely fancy mall to spend a Pandora gift card I'd gotten for my bat mitzvah. After looking through a catalog of adorable charms, I got a party dress in honor of this very blog (fashion). I think Pandora needs to make a charm of a girl with giant hair sitting in front of a computer with headphones to TRULY describe my blogging but this was good enough. Once we got back, I curled up with my mom's laptop and watched "50 First Dates" on projectfreetv.com. I am embarrassed to say I actually enjoyed an Adam Sandler movie. I then FINALLY finished a couple posts and the whole no music thing was running my Patience thin. This lead to about ten minutes of me beating up my speakers to make it work. Later on, my parents and I ended up watching "The Hobbit". Pretty mush day. Anyways, I remember my dad reading me this book back in about third grade but once the movie started I barely remembered anything except for two things: there we tow dwarfs named Fili and Kili. Nice job Ann. I found the entire movie a little distracting to the fact that Frodo Baggins who had about six lines and two minutes in the first scene was absolutely gorgeous and I spent the entire duration of the film hoping appear out of nowhere. But Kili was a little attractive and I could almost deal with Frodo not being in every single scene.

Today I spent my time reading through different blogs and found one of my new favorites: Peppermint Whiskers. Then scavenged through Tumblr for a total fangirl moment in which I found Dan tackling Phil. Is this how I spend my time? I then freaked out when Dan and Phil interviewed (my girlfriend) Perrie Edwards. I just realize dhow thirteen year old girl that sounded... I then went sneaker shopping. Whoo hoo. God I hate sneakers. I then reevaluated All Time Low's "Come One Come All" and realized that I found the song that describes me when I listen to Z100. Seriously that song is about killing a DJ all for the reason that his play list sucks. 
Play list 
"So go on and lock me up you better throw away that key before I find out where you broadcast from cause your play list is killing me."
-ATL
This week's play list is a bit different than most of my other Sunday Diary ones with artists such as Taylor Swift, and Luke Cutforth being added to the mix because even though I myself have been listening to them for forever, I though you guys would enjoy them now. I also put Lex Croucher's "Taking Back The Covers" music and a couple songs from Disney's "Tangled". There are also songs by R5 and The Ready Set for they are my guilty pleasure bands. Then the Pokemon theme song is just for laughs...
Sunday Diary 2
Life Scout Badges
I am EXTREMELY proud to say that I earned every single badge this week for childhood month!
Ride A Bike
The first time I ever rode a bike was in the summer before fifth grade. Before, I used to ride my Razor scooter EVERYWHERE. I seriously could ride that scooter at full speed. Anyways, one boring summer day, I found an old bike in our garage and kind of taught myself to ride. I don't regularly ride bicycles but if you sat me down on one, the chances of me falling on my face would be slim.



Skip Rope
I don't exactly remember the first time I ever skipped rope, but I am able to do it extremely fast and I used to have some crazy goal to do 100 skips...









Tree Climbing
My family and I used to go to this park right by the train station when I was little and there were these trees that were perfect trees for climbing. They were low to the ground but got higher as you climbed around the branches. My sister and I used to have races up them!




Trampolining
Back in fifth grade, when my family was trying to sell our house, we had a trampoline right in our backyard and we had the same one in our new yard for the Summer but had to take it down due to insurance issues. Meh. I am rather proud to say, I am capable of flipping on a trampoline!

Yo-yo
When I was in fourth grade, my dad went through a Yo-Yo phase in which he collected tons of yo-yos and I think even went to a convention... with so many of these laying around I taught myself to properly spin a yo-yo. 

Thrift Haul #1: Camp Edition

Back

With camp in 28 days at the moment, I need to trade my dresses, skirts, and silk tops in for t-shirt, durable tops, and shorts. Don't take me wrong. I love camp more than anything I just HATE the clothing that I have to wear there! I decided on going to my favorite thrift store "Unique" for some durable clothing for the Summer! With having found a couple cute pieces, I made a haul blog for you guys!
My Blue Tank

Most of the stuff I found at "Unique" were cropped. I don't usually like short clothing for I believe some things are meant to be covered but even though this tank is shorter than most of my tops, it was unique and would look good with a pair of jean shorts. The back is also a fun and summery touch that I like.

Cropped Floral Top
I'm not sure about camp and this one but how could I resist? I am absolutely in love with the vintage look of the tiny green and blue flowers that decorate this halter top. It goes down to about my belly button and I will probably end up wearing a cami under this top.

Basket Ball Shirt
Is it weird that I have an obsession with clothing with other people name's? So far I own a bracelet that my cousin gave me that says "Claudia", have my eye on a cheerleader jacket that used to belong to someone named Lydia, and now have a basketball jersey of some guy with the last name "Cifuni" and played on the New England "Firebirds". This shirt is way more sporty than I usually wear but how could I resist? Perk of thrift shopping: TONS of clothing with random names. Now that I really think of it, maybe it IS a little strange... just a little...





Fringe Eagle Shirt
I like this shirt for even though it is durable and easy to pair up with a junkie pair of jean shorts and still is interesting enough. I like the fun touch the fringe at the bottom adds and has a careless summer look. The design is also cute. This Summer, I have decided on living in jean shorts for patterned and multicolored bottoms are WAY too hard to find tops to go with! I mean, what is worst that a patterned shirt and patterned shorts?

Mountain Dew Shirt
This top is a bit of an irony. I absolutely hate Mountain Dew more than anything in the world and am instantly grossed out whenever I see someone drinking it! So why the hell not wear it across my chest? This has to be the junkiest shirt I own and am pretty OK with that. It's a perfect camp shirt for when I seriously do not feel like trying.
Floral Tank
More floral prints! Even though the picture to the side says something else, I plan on wearing this tank top tucked into a pair of jean shorts!  The blue and white print is cute and looks like something I'd like to make more clothing out of!
Ivy Romper
Another piece of clothing that I'm questioning whether I should bring to camp and if I do, I will wear it for fancy occasions. This one's fabric is more durable than my silky black and white romper that I got a couple weeks ago. I am absolutely in love with the big frills that cover the front!

Pink Tie Up Top
I will have to wear a spaghetti strap with this top for it is a little cropped and shows a little bit of stuff. I like the picnic table pattern and the light pink and white remind me of cotton candy! Again, I will be wearing jean shorts with this one.

Pink Checker Board Shorts
So I may have broken the rules on this one but I can't resist anything pink and black. In addition, guess what brand these are? ABBEY DAWN! Oh god, I LIVED in my buffalo check pants and black and white checkered ones back in sixth grade! I was SO exited when I found these beauties in between two over-sized pairs of elastic banded capris.

Strapless Dress
This dress is PERFECT for Shabbat nights at camp! I love how patriotic the colors are and the fabric is light weight enough for a Summer night!



Hope you liked this first haul blog post!
-Ann

How To Survive Thrift Shopping

Thrift shopping is probably one of the most frustrating yet rewarding shopping experiences. Yes, most of the stuff you will see in a typical thrift shop isn't name brand. Yes, the shop is giant and seems overwhelming to some. Most importantly, yes you can walk out of the store with a collection of one of a kind items for cheap.
The typical thrift store doesn't look very glamorous once you walk in. You will probably be greeted by a pile of garbage bags full of donations and children's toys. It's what is between those racks where the magic happens. Most thrift stores are pretty big (bigger than most stores) and may seem overwhelming to look through. Trust me, you will survive this mess of random objects.
For the best thrifting experience, I suggest you go alone. Being by myself, I can concentrate better and focus on finding those hidden treasures behind the not as fabulous clothing. If you do choose to bring a friend make sure they are NOT either of two things things:
1) A person who usually shops at high end stores If this person is not willing to search through the un-wearable clothing clearly they're only going to hold you back .
2) An impatient person One of the biggest qualities you need when you go thrift shopping is patience and a person saying "when are we leaving?" isn't something that anyone could take for more then ten minutes.
Another perk of going alone is that you don't have another person watching over you judging your clothing choices.
In addition, you have to be patient. You will probably not find what you want in the first second. Just keep digging and searching. My technique of thrift shopping to just pull out whatever looks interesting. Patterns, fabrics, colors anything that I like I will take off the rack for examination. Nothing is un-wearable until proven.
If you are lucky enough that the thrift shop you are at has a changing room, then make sure to only go in once you've found all your treasures. Then, take your pile of clothing into your dressing room!
My biggest advice for a rookie thrift shopper is to seriously look at the piece you are wearing and think: Do I truly need this? Even though thrift shop prices are cheap, the last thing you need is more crap in your closet (I should not be talking)!
Just have fun and tear up those racks until you find that hidden treasure of your's!
Ann's Thrift Shopping Adventure

I was pretty freaking tempted on buying these Pokemon sheets. Like lets think this one of:
A) Think of how cool I'd look if i brought these to camp.
B) as fabulous as my hot pink sheets are, think about how cool it would be to wake up to pokeballs and Pikachu every morning.
C) THEY. ARE. POKEMON. SHEETS.
In the end, I decided there were more important things to spend 5 bucks on such as vintage skirts and an absolutely adorable romper. Besides, I already have glow in the dark dinosaur sheets for camp!

Again another tempting purchase. I mean look how nerdy and teacher-ous (made up a word) I could look in this vest! This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about with crap in my closet. Well, except for the fact that this is an apple, star, and striped patterned piece of crap.

After convincing my little sister, she FINALLY bought a pair of overalls. Let me tell you how hard it was not to buy a pair myself. Think of all the patches and alterations you could do with a nice pair of denim overalls.

If there is anything that I will always NEED to try on is a good corset. After finding a rather vintage grey and black corset that didn't fit (I don't even need to explain the sadness inside of me), I came across this ridiculous thing. I can't explain how regretful that I didn't try it on.


I feel as though this is the perfect dress for the wedding of  Perrie Edwards and I. Up close, there were jewels and rhinestones attached to the bodice. The sleeves were so cute and puffy that I couldn't help but aw. See you down the aisle in this gown Perrie.




I love looking through the old mugs, plates, and jugs while waiting in line for the dressing room. I ended up stumbling upon a Hello Kitty kitchen set including a plate, cup, and silverware. This will be mine someday.

My Purchases: 
After eliminating the crap that I didn't need I ended up walking out of the shop with these incredible finds:
I am in love with this skirt. As you look closer, around the waist there are little red dragons. DRAGONS. The pleats on the piece add an interesting part to the long skirt. The colors are also something I fell in love with. Even though they aren't very bright and cheery for Summer they are a little bit more toned down for the times that I don't want much attention. I am debating weather or not to just wear a plain white tank tucked into it for the skirt is already so amazing or to pair it up with a long cardigan.



These shorts are probably one of my favorites. They are extremely high which i absolutely love. I have two ideas for an outfit:
1) a tight white tank with combat boots and floppy hat
2) a flowy white top with brown boots
I am so extremely exited for the weather to get warmer so I can break out these beauties.





This dress has such a summer feel to it which puts a little smile on my face whenever I see it. One very vintage feature to this piece is that cute little collar (we all know how much I love collars)! In the back, the dress has a little part that ties up almost like a corset which of course what is not to love about that? I'm planning on wearing this with my floppy hat and a cute pair of sandals.







I have already shown you my floppy hat in a previous post but I am so exited about showing this one off! The thing I love most about this accessory is that you can wear it with basically anything and look summery!

Despite the fact that this looks like a dress from far away, I am euphoric to finally own a romper! Unlike most rompers, this one's bottoms are more flowing and I like that because it gives a more sophisticated and put together look than a short tight romper.




This dress gives off the feeling of Spring with cherries decorating that pattern. I will probably end up getting the most use of this piece for I am able to wear it dressy to bar and bat mitzvahs (yes I'm not THAT cut off from human beings that I don't get invited to them) and then also wear it casual with a pair of boots, sandals, or flats to school or to hang out with friends.


This flowing button down is perfect for tucking into a nice pair of shorts, putting a floppy hat over my messy locks, and going casual. I love the fun and bright pattern that gives off a friendly vibe.






Good Luck Thrift Shopping!
-Ann