The history of thrifting : the Victorian way to fight fast fashion!

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The history of thrift shopping goes back much further than the Victorian era. Victorian thrifting, the history of used clothes, and what happened to the second hand clothes market in the Victorian era can teach us so much about our modern fast fashion industry and its problems! Thrift shops have existed at least since the 17th century, if not before, and by the 18th century thrifting clothes was common in urban areas. Used clothes were less available outside of cities until the 19th century, because the second hand clothes business couldn't get well established there without trains. The industrial revolution changed the history of thrift shopping, causing well-made and long-lasting secondhand clothes to be replaced by newly made garments of "shoddy" manufacture and inferior quality. A Victorian thrift shop owner's complaints about the decline of the used clothes business could easily describe the fast fashion industry today, which is why it's so important we remember the role thrift stores played in fashion history. We can learn to be more eco-friendly and dress better by taking a few lessons from Victorian thrifting!

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Chapters :
0:00 Yes, historical thrift stores existed
1:17 Why we love thrifting
4:24 Throwing clothes away is wasteful!
5:30 Where used clothes came from
8:34 The secondhand clothes market
13:15 Who bought secondhand clothes?
19:06 What people thrift-shopped for
22:24 How the secondhand trade died
23:49 We need to bring it back!