Recently someone asked me what percentage of my wardrobe is thrifted. The person who asked me this question really sparked my interest because this is something I had never really thought about. Over the past few years, after deciding to quit shopping fast-fashion, I have made a conscious decision to buy my clothes from thrift stores. Meaning, anytime I want to buy something, I try to find it secondhand first. Because of this and because I am a thrift-a-holic, I assumed that approximately 90% of my wardrobe was thrifted.
Now I must admit, this was a not-so-educated guess and I was genuinely curious to find out what percent of my closet was actually thrifted. So, like a crazy person, I counted all of the items in my wardrobe and broke them down into 6 categories:
- items bought secondhand
- items that were gifted
- items picked up from clothing swaps
- items bought ethically
- items bought unethically
- items bought before I cared about shopping ethically
Apparently, my not-so-educated guess was very off! Although I was off, the overall results reflected what I assumed; the majority of the clothes in my wardrobe are thrifted. Seeing that 72% off my wardrobe is secondhand (from thrift stores and clothing swaps) makes me want to happy dance.
What does not make me want to happy dance is the fact the 9% off my wardrobe consists of unethical purchases. I wanted to determine why this number was so high, so I broke my clothes down into categories. It turns out, I have bought all of my panties and mostly all of my socks from unethical companies. I do not feel comfortable thrifting these items, so instead, I should consider buying these from ethical companies such as (Naja or Lara Intimates) in the future.
Although I felt crazy doing it, sitting down and evaluating my wardrobe was a very eye-opening project. I’m a visual person who loves a good infographic, so seeing my wardrobe broken down this way was helpful. I would definitely suggest doing a breakdown of your own closet.
