Buying Vintage, and Thrifting: Combating Consumerism, and Looking Good! (cont.)

is an inevitable component of not only economics, but human nature, uncontained and unchecked competition engulfs and closes the doors of smaller players (i.e. local mom-and-pop shops), which still possess a distinctive value. Monopolization of industry and exclusive control thus prevents any meaningful growth for any party not already sizable in any particular economic sector. Due to this, global socioeconomic conditions remain imperfect.

In order to realize purposeful change, workers need to be paid livable wages, and afforded suitable places of work. Greater restrictions must be placed upon the wealthy, and their ability expand, and smaller spaces must be granted sufficient space for growth, without being overrun by the aforementioned wealthy. In doing so, I believe that a more equitable society can be created for all, not just a lopsided one for some. Why must some people have so much, while most have so little — when will enough, be enough?

On a lighter note, I have come to the concepts of buying vintage and thrifting! Buying vintage and going thrifting are amazing ways to not only support local businesses, but to be sustainable, save money, and dress awesome! I am guilty of envisioning a version of myself that lived in the past, and daydreaming about what it would have been like to grow up in a John Hughes classic. In comparison to reality, the fictional realm, and the very real past that it may have been associated with, seems more inviting. Life in the past, though no stranger to adversity, appears carefree and simple, rife with possibility and freedom. Perhaps it’s my rosecoloured glasses speaking, or the hint of cynicism that comes with age, but I feel that life today just doesn’t feel or look like it did in the past; by this, I largely refer to the 1950s-1990s, and even extending into the early 2000s. Nevertheless, while the past has surely come and gone, a certain part of it has begun to make a comeback — the popularity of vintage/retro clothing.

Vintage/retro clothing styles have a degree of eccentricity about them. Unconventional by today’s standards, clothing from the mid-late twentieth-century was marked by unique designs, logos, colour schemes, cuts, fits, and durability, which simulate and embody a much different era. Far fewer vintage pieces were produced in their time, compared to today’s fashion industry, and many pieces did not stand the test of time, becoming lost, thrown away, destroyed, or inordinately blemished. Hence, the remaining vintage pieces entail a sense of individuality and history, as though you are inheriting the fabric in all its glory. Vintage clothing also offers individualism in a different way, enabling people to better display their personality. In life, a person’s body is perhaps one of the few things, if not the only one, that is ever truly their own. Thus, how people choose to carry and present themselves to the world speaks volumes about the kind of person that they are, and the kind of person they aspire to be.

The vast array of remarkable vintage pieces encourages people to stray from the ordinary, and define themselves as distinctive from the rest. While vintage commerce still remains niche in nature, I urge you to broaden your horizons, and try something new! The beauty of shopping vintage is that you never know what you might find, and you never know if you might find it again. Vintage shopping in Toronto has never been easier, as there are more and more vintage stores popping up around the city, with an ever-growing vintage scene to explore. Some of my favourites include Throwback Vault (with locations on Queen St West, and Bloor St West), The Clarendon Trading Company (with locations in Markham, Scarborough, and Yorkdale Mall), and Plato’s Closet (with locations across the GTA). These vintage stores offer high quality, unique items, but may be more on the expensive side (yet, on the whole, still affordable). Other places to find vintage, or previously-loved, clothing, are thrift stores. Thrift stores like the Salvation Army, Value Village (including the boutique on Queen St West), and much of Kensington Market, offer great pieces for often much cheaper prices. Closer to Glendon, York University now has a new student-run thrifting initiative, selling pieces through their Instagram account (@thriftyyorku), and sporadic in-person pop-up shops at Keele campus! Vintage and thrift markets have thus never been more accessible and inviting than they are at this present moment.

In a corporate world that is centred on the mass production of commodities, there has been a turn to the idea of “fast fashion,” with the outsourced production of an abundance of cheaply-made clothing to underdeveloped countries. “Fast fashion,” with its profuse environmental and social output and impact, provides rapidly changing styles of clothing available quickly, and affordably. These pieces of clothing are produced in such immense quantities that excess garments often end up in landfills, and their toxic, colourful dyes, amongst many other devastating environmental concerns, seep through the stitches into global water supplies. When people buy vintage and thrift their clothing, contributing to the recycling of wearable material, they challenge the consumerist, capitalist, corporate mentality — investing their money not just in small businesses, but the environment, workers, and themselves. Thus, shopping vintage and thrifting are two seemingly miniscule ways in which people from all walks of life can be more sustainably-minded, support small enterprises, and, at the same time, look good. Happy shopping, Glendon!