Buy a new season of clothes? Resist, and take Oxfam’s lead

As this sublime sunny September slips away, it’s time to pack away the summer dresses and shorts (which barely got an outing this year) and start thinking about taking down chunky knits and winter coats from the attic.

The algorithms on social media and the ads on TV have already started feeding me videos of new winter coats and leather boots, suggesting I need to buy new clothes for the season ahead. I don’t, and most likely, neither do you!

The majority of people have a decent collection of clothes for all seasons, but we are constantly lured by marketing and advertising that encourages us to “treat ourselves”, “splurge”, or “snap up” something new for our wardrobe. Resist!

Oxfam’s Secondhand September campaign has been in full swing for a few weeks, and its tagline, ‘Dress for the world you want’, is a great call to action against over-consumption and fast fashion.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock with your fingers in your ears, you’ve likely heard that cheap clothes from fast fashion outlets are bad for the planet.

The environmental footprint of producing a simple fast fashion T-shirt is mind-boggling. It takes 2,700 litres of water to produce just one T-shirt, and it would take 13 years for one person to drink the amount of water needed to make a T-shirt and a pair of jeans.

The pesticides used to grow cotton have major impacts on water quality, and when clothes are produced cheaply, it often means low wages and poor working conditions for garment workers in low-income countries.

Everything from the raw material production, manufacturing, transportation, and disposal of fast fashion has a negative impact.

Fast fashion emphasises quick trends and cheap materials, creating clothes that degrade quickly after just a few wears or washes.

Many garments are worn only a handful of times before being discarded, contributing to over-consumption and the constant demand for more resources.

And what happens when that €3.75 cheap T-shirt is tossed? It doesn’t magically disappear.

‘Fast Fashion, Slow Poison’, a new report published by Greenpeace this month, exposed the toxic impact of global textile waste in Ghana. 

Every week, approximately 15 million items of clothing are received in the country, but nearly half of these are unsellable and end up in polluting informal dump sites, piled up on beaches or in the middle of communities, or burned in public washhouses.

This has led to severe contamination of air, soil, and water, putting the health of the people of Ghana’s capital of Accra at severe risk.

Greenpeace is calling for a ban on the importation of unusable clothes to Ghana and for fashion brands to be held accountable for the full lifecycle of their products, including waste disposal and recycling.

Cork actress Siobhán McSweeney is this year’s face of Oxfam’s Second Hand September campaign, and she is very aware of the environmental and human impact of fast fashion.

“My favourite element of buying second-hand is that I am not contributing to the mess and landfill… by buying a really cool item of clothing that’s pre-loved, knowing you could be helping rather than adding to the negativity is a really amazing feeling,” she said.

The Derry Girls star loves finding a special vintage item with a back-story - “you’re not only buying the garment, you are also buying the whole scéal behind it,” she said.

In 2022, Oxfam Ireland diverted more than 2.5 million items away from landfill and incineration, generating cash for the charity and easing the burden on the planet.

It’s hard to resist the desire for new things in our capitalistic, consumerist culture. Multi-million-euro marketing strategies use influencers to show off their new ‘hauls’ of clothes, convincing us that a new outfit is the route to happiness.

Not everyone has the cash reserves to buy a more expensive, high-quality garment that will last a lifetime, and some argue that fast fashion brands allow people on low incomes to buy new clothes they can afford.

But if that item is going to be in the recycling bin in six months, can it still be considered cheap? (Plus, fewer than 1% of global textiles are recycled!)

This is the beauty of Second Hand September, encouraging people to think differently about how they buy and dispose of clothes.

The campaign is drawing to a close, but see if you can keep saying no to fast fashion throughout the year. My top tips are:

Repeat outfits - You don’t need a new outfit for every occasion. The headspace of not having to think, ‘What should I wear?’ is liberating.

Repair damaged items - A darning needle. Anyone remember those? I feel like a hero when I sew on a new button or stitch an unravelling seam. Learning a few rudimentary sewing skills (thanks, YouTube!) can extend the life of a garment considerably.

Shop pre-loved online - There are plenty of apps like Depop, Vinted, and Facebook Marketplace to source pre-loved clothing. Depop is my favourite, and whenever I receive a compliment, I say, “Thanks, Depop!” in the same way people say, “Thanks, Penneys!”

Take clothes to a tailor - Found something fabulous in a second-hand store, but it doesn’t quite fit? A tailor will make it look like it was made for you.

Normalise hand-me-downs - Children of the 1980s were almost exclusively dressed in hand-me-downs (or at least me and the kids I hung out with). It was a big treat to get something brand new. My mother would invest in a wool jumper from Benetton but buy it a size or two bigger than I needed, so I had to go around with the sleeves rolled up for a year until it actually fit. And I turned out fine!

Unfollow people who encourage overconsumption - I recommend removing anyone who wears a different outfit daily and encourages you to buy lots of clothes and products from your social media feed - it’s a relief. Instead, get your fashion fix by following stylish people who show ways to repeat outfits and style their wardrobe staples.

None of these steps are a hardship. You often end up with the most original and beautiful pieces of clothing and homewares that are unique and cool.

The thrill of buying a new item of clothing fades after three or four wears, but the thrill of finding something you love that’s second-hand (and a bargain!) lasts much longer.

Let’s fight the climate crisis in style.