WELCOME!

Hello, I am Samantha and welcome to Time To Thrift! As a seeker of cheap thrills and a penchant for distinctive styles, thrifting has become a way for me to explore and express myself without breaking the bank as a university student. My thrifting adventures have expanded out of Singapore and into the local fashion scenes of Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia, exemplifying how what clothes can transcend any cultural or language barriers. Throughout my thrifting journey thus far, I have come to realise how the impact of thrifting has gone beyond just myself as an individual, and I seek to traverse the boundaries of thrifting in our world today.

MORE ABOUT ME

My love for shopping and fashion emerged from the numerous trips I have made to Bangkok, Thailand, as a young teenager with my family. Bangkok is often referred to as a “Shopping Paradise”, and with its myriad of colossal shopping malls and endless rows of wholesale night market stalls, it is an appellation more than befitting. On my most recent trip back to Bangkok this year, while meandering through the same aisles I had a decade prior, I noticed how my personal taste and shopping behaviour had transformed for the better, not only for myself but also for the people and the planet that we share.

Me at Chatuchak Market in Bangkok, Thailand.

WHY

do i thrift?

WHAT

is thrifting?

Thrifting materialised as a hobby for me over the recent years as an amalgamation of my various interests that appear seemingly alien to one another on the surface: fashion, climate change, a minimalistic lifestyle, and the need to be as economical as possible. For the years before I developed any of these interests, ballet was the one passion that had consumed my entire life. As much as I liked dancing, or perhaps because of my love for it, I ended up suffering from eating disorders and body dysmorphia growing up as I tried to keep up with the physical demands of constructing myself into a ballerina. My 17 years of dancing ended abruptly in 2021 after a lower back injury that dictated full rest and recovery.

Thus begun my healing journey in more ways than just a physical one. After having struggled with my confidence and losing autonomy over my own body, I committed myself to taking control. At that time, choosing what to wear was one of the few things I could govern over my broken body and fashion became my new creative outlet for self-expression. My inclination towards fashion was slow and steady as I realised the power that clothes had on my confidence and self-esteem. And before I knew it, my new mission was to re-construct my wardrobe, filling it with pieces and accoutrements of clothes and accessories that I felt showed off my personality best.

Very frankly, the main hindrance to immediate accomplishment of this mission was my quite tragic bank account as a university student. This meant I had to get creative with ways I could acquire new items in my wardrobe: accepting hand-me-downs from my sister, exchanging clothes with friends, and discovering the pleasure of thrifting. Thrifting instantaneously became a favourite sidekick of mine because it offered one-of-a-kind pieces that no one else had or unique vintage jewellery or items no longer on the market anymore, and these made the experience of thrifting all the more exhilarating for me. What compels me now to still pick thrifting over purchasing from regular retail stalls is my amateur attempt at sustainability to reduce my fashion footprint, knowing that as I evolve as a person my style would mature accordingly, making my mission of a perfect wardrobe a life-long one.

At its very core, thrifting refers to the act of buying pre-owned items or second-hand goods at flea markets, garage sales, or dedicated second-hand item stores. While thrifting includes other goods such as home appliances or furniture, clothes often make up the bulk of the items in second-hand stores. Thrifting has seen a rise in popularity over the recent years due to several differing factors ranging from affordability to sustainability to humanitarian reasons, in which each individual would have their own personal reasons for choosing to thrift over purchasing new goods.

Fast fashion has become a worldwide crisis that thrives on overconsumption, its impacts resulting in tonnes of pollution and environmental damage, the destruction of wildlife habitats, and above all, the exploitation of garment factory workers. The production of clothes uses up natural resources such as water and cotton whilst generating copious amounts of chemical waste and greenhouse gas emissions, and these irreparable devastations will be tremendous were fast fashion continue on its annihilation at its current rate. Another pressing concern in regards to fast fashion is the dangerous conditions that garment factory workers are put in. Large retail brands such as Zara and Forever 21 take advantage of loose labour laws in undeveloped countries to overwork and underpay their workers under extremely unsafe and unhygienic working conditions. The 2013 Rana Plaza collapse that killed 1,134 workers due to negligence and enforcement by management displays the humanitarian disaster of the fast fashion industry at its worst. On the surface thrifting may be a simple hobby for some, but it is a purposeful act from many others to counter the catastrophic effects of fast fashion.

Keeping in step with the digital era, the emergence of online thrift stores provide as a convenient and sustainable option for online shoppers. Yet, this may pose the irony of carbon emissions produced in an attempt to ship a second-hand dress across the globe. Further rises the dilemma of accessibility, while online and physical thrift stores provide as a commendable manner for those in the middle and upper class to shop, second-hand stores are the main source of necessities for those in poverty. The possibility of overconsumption at a thrift store by the affluent, driving up prices, and ultimately bringing the vicious cycle of fast fashion into thrifting may take away needs of the poor, accelerate environmental harm, and continue to desecrate the social injustices of workers. This is the paradoxical truth of thrifting.