It’s time again, I bought ‘new’ secondhand clothing. A few weeks back I bought four secondhand pieces of clothing. My mom and I went to the thrift shop by coincidence. Since I got my driver’s license now, I wanted to practice driving in our car for the first time. The thrift shop in Enschede we went to is quite a long way and so we went by car. Not very sustainable actually, but the clothing is! Here’s more about the 4 secondhand clothing items I bought.
Why I share my purchases
I keep sharing all my secondhand finds. First of all, it’s because I want to show you what a secondhand wardrobe looks like. In my opinion it’s fun, unique, cheap, sustainable and stylish. This way I want to show that there doesn’t have to be a quality difference in secondhand or new clothing. Nobody has ever said to me: ‘Your clothing looks like it’s secondhand!’. In fact, people ask where I bought certain pieces quite often! And second, I show my purchases because in this blog I like to monitor my progress towards a fully sustainable wardrobe. I buy things and I get rid of things responsibly (by bringing it to the thrift shop or recycling it). And meanwhile my wardrobe keeps changing until I find the perfect stash of clothes.
What my perfect wardrobe looks like
I’ve written a post about why and how I buy secondhand clothing. But buying 99% secondhand isn’t the challenge for me any longer. It’s become a habit and so it’s easy to me. For me, the challenge is to eliminate plastic (polyester and nylon mostly). I tend to buy polyester when I like an item really bad and that is my struggle. I don’t want that any longer. It’s not sustainable and isn’t comfortable.
Also, I am still working towards a capsule wardrobe. A wardrobe with only items I love which are easy to combine and preferably not that many items. That sounds weird since I keep on buying stuff and so I will have more items each time. But I do get rid of a lot too. I sometimes buy something secondhand and later find out it’s not really my thing because I don’t wear it after all. And that’s okay! It’s a learning progress and hopefully this way I will end up with the perfect wardrobe just for me.
What did I buy?
So, what four items did I buy? I bought a dress, sunglasses, a sweater and a hat. Here’s more about the 4 secondhand clothing items I bought:
The Hat
I just love this item! When I saw it, I knew it was going home with me. I had been looking for such a hat for a long time! I like to switch my outfits up with hats and caps. It changes the whole outfit and I like variety. I am trying to do that with my hair too, doing different hairstyles. This hat makes it easier, I just put it on and tadaa, goodbye bad hair day. I had seen others before but I love that this one is black since it’s easy to combine. I don’t know what material it’s made out of (I think cotton) and it only cost me 1,95 at Het Goed in Enschede. All items in this list are from Het Goed in Enschede.
The Sweater
In the store I had a bit of doubt about this sweater because it’s very short. Sort of like a crop top. But now that I write this down, I’ve worn it I think more than 10 times already and I love it! It is very comfortable and I just love the high neck to it. The colors are good, since they’re not too flashy. I like color, just moderately. I also like high necks, I see that now since my favorite items mostly have high necks. It’s just so comfy! I have a lot of sweaters and I think now that I bought this one another one in my wardrobe is going out for this one.
This is an item that’s always good to have in The Netherlands, it’s mostly cold and rainy here. I need to adapt my wardrobe to that. I buy a lot of dresses, but I can barely wear those. This sweater is made out of cotton (60%) and polyester (40%) and cost 7,95 euros, my mom bought it for me (so sweet!). The polyester sucks, but as I said I sometimes can’t manage to avoid it.
The Dress
So, I was just talking about how I need more clothing for cold times and less for hot times. But here I am buying a summer dress. I just really loved the shape and color of it! I was comparing it to the dresses I have at home and I just loved this one more. So, it’s time to switch it up a bit. I am taking this one in and maybe I’ll let go of a few others. I don’t need that many dresses and so I need to have a few amazing ones and that’s it. For now, I really like this one and in my opinion it’s a bit cheeky too. Since I’m 20 years old these are the items I can wear right now and when I’ll be older this won’t suit me well any longer (or I won’t feel comfortable in it any longer). It cost me 5,95 and its one 100% cotton, yes!
Sunglasses
I have really bad news to tell you. My previous sunglasses are floating in the ocean right now. The worst-case scenario! It was a gift from my boyfriend too. I was wearing it in Albufeira in the sea (I really can’t stand sunlight very well) and all of a sudden there came a big wave which swept me away. I managed to get out of the water, but after I realized my sunglasses were gone.
Bummer, I really loved those. Now, I bought sunglasses for 1,50 euros. It’s a plain black one (it’s the one I’m wearing on the picture of the brown dress). It’s made out of plastic, but in this case I prefer secondhand plastic over new sustainable material. That is because polyester in clothes is very uncomfortable when wearing it, but these sunglasses aren’t. So with clothes I do choose to eliminate plastic, but with accessories it’s okay.
All in all I am very happy with these purchases. I can’t say I ‘needed’ all these things, only the sunglasses. But they were needed in my journey towards a sustainable capsule wardrobe and it’s all about process and progress here. Let’s see how long these items will stick with me, I hope years and years!
What do you think about these 4 secondhand clothing items I bought?
Yours sincerely,
Romee
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