In Gainesville, sustainable fashion is gaining momentum as second hand stores lead the charge in offering eco-conscious shoppers a chance to reduce waste, embrace unique styles and save money– all while supporting a greener future.
Gainesville has a series of secondary clothing stores, including Outreach, Flashbacks, The Repurpose Project, Plato’s Closet and Goodwill. Kaya Memori, an employee at Plato’s Closet for three years, has worked with secondary fashion for quite some time.
“My mom was the one to introduce me to Plato’s closet,” said Memori. “She knew I didn’t like spending $100 on two pieces of clothes, so when I went in there to shop for the first time, I asked if they were hiring.”
Plato’s Closet is a retail store that buys gently used items from customers for cash on the spot. It then sells those items at a lower price for other customers, contributing to “recycle” fashion.
“We sort them based on condition, brand style and stock,” said Memori. “From there, all the clothing we take from the person selling gets entered into our computer system where everything is priced 60-to-80-percent below original retail value. They [the trader] gets 30 percent of that cash back when they come back into the store to pick up their buy.”
She explained that she does not see a point in fast fashion, because of all the other options available.
“Truthfully, there are so many different options for second hand stores that it just doesn’t make sense to me,” she said.
Plato’s Closet’s mission is to reduce the amount of waste produced by donating anything they are unable to sell.
“We also give extra points in our rewards system for people who go without a plastic bag,” Memori said. “Plus, buying people’s used clothes instead of just throwing them away is attempting to reduce garbage.”
The University of Florida also has a thrift club, accessible to all students. The president of the club, Jessica Nolte, is a senior finance major at UF and advocates for secondary fashion throughout Gainesville.
“Our main event, and our most consistent event is a thrift swap in collaboration with Opus Coffee,” Nolte said. “We do those once every month, and you just have to bring at least one item and then you’re free to pick up whatever is there.”
She explained that the club will take anyone’s items and sort them, free of cost, to be put on a table for people to sift through.
“The rest gets donated to Peaceful Paths, which is a women’s shelter, so it promotes sustainable fashion in the way that you can swap for something new with no money involved,” Nolte said.
The club strives to keep the lives of clothing items cyclical, furthering its goal to have clothes become timeless to reduce filling up the landfills.
“It’s better when stuff is being recycled throughout and given a new life then just throwing it away,” she said. “People need to do some educating on how bad fast fashion is for the environment. It really clogs up the landfills.”
Nolte has noticed an increase in the number of items donated from fast-fashion companies such as Shein and Zara.
“I’m a frequent Goodwill bins-goer, so seeing the influx of clothing from when I was in highschool at the Goodwill bins to now...there's mountains of clothes in the bins,” she said.
“They’re clearly getting more and more clothes, and they’re just getting shipped off to the landfills. It’s literally the last stop.”
When Halloween season ended this fall, Nolte said costume pieces flooded the aisles of thrift stores around Gainesville. She said that this year’s signature Amazon corset top filled an entire row in every color imaginable. Why someone would want to purchase a clothing item and wear it once is something she and many secondary fashion supporters wonder.
The thrift club will be releasing a December newsletter, within the next few weeks, to talk about ways to remain sustainable during the upcoming holiday season.
“I’ve seen all over my TikTok how to wrap presents with Trader Joe’s bags, and even Goodwill has an entire section for holiday gifts and apparel,” Nolte said.
Even for the holidays, sustainable gift giving is attainable.
“The Repurpose Project in Gainesville has a series of items that can be used for crafting,” Nolte said. “Instead of going to Michael’s or Joann’s fabric, I get stuff from there. It also makes the gifts more personal when you thrift them because it shows you took the time to really sift through a bunch of items to find something the person will really enjoy.”
Nolte also referenced the fact that Goodwill has holiday apparel in stock year-round. She said there are always Christmas pajamas and wrapping paper left in the bins, something she says more people should take advantage of.
Emma Ciocon, a third-year advertising student at UF, thrifts often and seeks to find timeless pieces when she goes to the stores. She sometimes brings her friend Jenna Schwartz, a third-year business major, with her.
“I like finding things that nobody else has, and letting my friends borrow my clothes whenever they need something to wear,” Ciocon said.
Ciocon said that she thrifts because it’s cheaper, and she thinks it boosts her style.
“I want to give my future kids the clothes I thrift; I think the pieces I buy are timeless, and will still be in trend when they get older,” Ciocon said.
Though Schwartz does not often like to thrift because she said it takes a long time, when the weather changes in Gainesville, she goes and purchases items she needs.
“For a little while, it was getting colder here, and I needed a cheaper option of getting a sweater, so I called Emma and headed to Plato’s Closet to find a cool one,” Schwartz said.
Both Ciocon and Schwartz bond over going to find new clothes for a cheaper price together.
The president of the thrift club, Nolte, explained how fun it is when she walks around campus and recognizes her old clothing items being worn by someone new, and how it’s fun to spend hours in thrift stores with loved ones.
“It builds a sense of community,” Nolte said.