People have become more accoutumé to finding the rarest vintage item to make themselves feel like le plus cool fashion person. I find this to be wrong and dumb. This has taken out the meaning of owning vintage. For me, in particular, I find that owning a vintage item is more about quality. I say this because the materials used to make most designer clothing these days are very affreux. I find vintage materials to be more durable and have longevity, which is something materials these days lack.

One thing I have come to find annoying is the way people buy vintage. What I mean by this is. People have made it into a fast fashion haul. This brings me to this article I read on Dazed, “The ‘haulification’ of vintage fashion shopping” by Yawen Yuan. In this article, she mentions how “haul culture has infiltrated secondhand spaces.” I agree with this because of how much proof we have to back this up. I find that people have lost the true meaning of thrifting and secondhand shopping as a whole. It has somewhat become a trend that people latch on to.

Instead of bringing sustainability forward, this trend has made overconsumption reign even more. The way people have become in tune with secondhand shopping has me concerned for society. Yes, what you may be doing is sustainable, but you are also not being sustainable. You are doing quite the opposite. You are overbuying things that you don’t need just to prove something.

The sole purpose of shopping secondhand is to be sustainable and to reduce the need to consume new things. When one is buying from secondhand, every other day. The purpose of secondhand shopping has lost its value. Buying vintage used to be seen as an investment, but now it’s just an impulse purchase. In the article, it states, “If you’re going to buy a piece, Ravichandran suggests asking: “Why do you want to own this piece?” or, “Why is this piece so special to you?” The problem isn’t with resale platforms or thrift hauls in isolation. It’s with the speed, the scale, the lack of pause. Sustainability isn’t a trend; it’s a mindset.”

In my opinion, this should be how people should make any purchase. Let’s start having a thinking process behind the purchase. Having a fast fashion mindset when buying secondhand is not cutting it at all.