For the sustainability festival, I’ve done an other one of my “Me, Myself and my wardrobe”-posts. This time, I’ve interviewed my friend, Kathrine, what wardrobe almost only consists of thrift clothes, and she therefore has a minimal consumption of newly produced clothes.
So, tell me about yourself, Kathrine:
Well, my name’s Kathrine, I’m 23 years old, living in Aarhus where I study Culture and Aesthetics and play theater, sing in a choir and play the clarinet.
What does clothes mean to you?
It definitely means something to me! Making people think that you don’t think about what you’re wearing is silly, no one does that.
In the last years before continuation school, a friend and I lived in kind of a security bubble, which made us want to do something out of order. Therefore we dresses really weirdly every day. When I got into the continuation school, it turned around completely, because people wanted to dress in a hippy way, and I just finished doing that. I thought they all were a bunch of “posers”, even though, fact was, that I had just done the same, just without talking about it.
So clothes has meant a lot to me, but it has also meant a lot, pretending like it didn’t mean anything at all.
So what does clothes mean to you now?
I think finding clothes is a lot of fun and I still like dressing up.
But you don’t dress up as much as you used to? Or is it just in a different way?
I feel like I can’t say that I don’t dress up. Now I just do it differently. And the older I get, the more important comfort gets. I still like having things hat make people go “wow, what’s that?”. I really like having pretty things and having a cool piece of clothing is just like having a huge painting in your home, so when people visit you they go “Oh!” when they see it. So I dress up, just in a comfortable, but still fun way.
Do you have an item of clothing that has meant something to you, specifically?
The silliest clothes I wore, was when I was about 12 or 13 years, wearing tutus all the time. Some friends and I went all out at that point. It means something to my relation to other people, because everyone thought we looked silly, but we never talked about it. It just happened – poof, and we were wearing tutus. But something that has followed me a long tome , which means a lot to me as well, is a big brown sweater that my mom handed down to me. I love it, and I think it’s mostly the stories in the clothes that I’m fond of, just like in thrift clothes.
When you shop, where do you find your clothes?
I find it in thrift stores, where I spend a lot of my time. Every time I pass by a thrift store, I go in and look what they have. Shopping in thrift stores is a bit different from shopping elsewhere, you spend tons of time in there to find the right things, but you don’t spend a lot of money. Time is the biggest currency when thrift shopping.
How do you find the really good stuff, then?
When I’m thrift shopping, I usually sort out the things I don’t like. The colors, I don’t like, for example. And then I always try on the things I’m thinking about buying or the things that are just fun or have a silly detail. After I try it on, I find out what looks nice on me and sometimes I’m surprised by the things that I want, after I’ve tried it on. An other tip is thrift shopping in the small towns, there’s always good, cheap stuff to be found!
What does it mean to you, shopping in thrift stores?
It means a lot. it’s both about non-consumerism and money. Though, sometimes I find things, that might be more expensive in the thrift store than in ther stores, but they just have a history and uniqueness, which I really like. Shopping in thrift stores isn’t something I’m forced to do because I’m a student and don’t have tons of money – it’s a chance I’ve made.
For how long have you shopped in thrift stores?
Always, I think. My parent have shopped a bit in them when I was a kid, and in my teenage years when I wore all those silly clothes, I always shopped in thrift stores. Lately I’ve started doing it more and more – in the past two years, I haven’t bought anything not thrifted besides underwear and a pair of shoes.
How much of your wardrobe is thrifted?
I have a hard time throwing out clothes, so I still have some of my old “new” clothes. But in total, about 90-100% of my wardrobe is thrifted.
How much does sustainability mean to you in your shopping choices?
A lot. I thing that things like sustainability is important to remember in the things you do every day. Like wearing clothes and eating, for example. These things are possible to take into a more sustainable direction and then you’ll be doing something for the environment every day.
What are your thoughts on Kathrines approach to thrift shopping?