New Term? Make it 'second hand September'

New term can often mean shiny shoes, new clothes and getting prepped for cooler weather. Why not ring the changes this year and check out some pre-loved and vintage clothes?

My dear friend, Lorraine, has charity shopping down to a fine art. Take her anywhere, and she’ll immediately zoom in on the Vintage Ferragamo bag or the unpromising looking coat which turns out to be a 100% wool classic. I like to think I have an ‘eye’, but it’s not as trained or honed as Lorraine’s, so I was pleased to hear about a new business in Truro which will bring vintage pieces straight onto my instagram feed.

Meet @thirdhandstyle by friends Cassandra Murray and Clare Wells who met while volunteering at their local Red Cross charity shop. They bonded over a mutual love of charity shops, vintage and sustainable fashion. When the pandemic put a halt to normal trading they put their newfound spare time to good use and began hatching a plan for a new online business venture.

Second Hand September

Cass had been using instagram for some time to enthuse about bargain clothes finds, and Clare has long been a lover of vintage clothing and antiques, so having amassed a large collection of beautiful clothes over the years they decided to turn their passion into a business. It also times perfectly with ‘Second Hand September’, a chance to reflect on the disposable fashion we buy and ask ourselves ‘Do we really need to buy new ALL the time’

“There’s been a real movement towards sustainable shopping over the last few years,” explains Cass, “and with everything that’s happened over the last year it makes more sense than ever for people to think twice about what they buy, and look more at re-using and re-cycling their wardrobe. We all love buying new things but maybe we can all balance our shopping habits to cut down on waste. So much clothing ends up in landfill, it can be quite shocking when you look at the figures!”.

Clare agrees - “We get into a habit of buying new clothes whenever we want because they look nice and seem good value, but how many times do we wear something once or twice then it goes to the back of the drawer and we forget about it?”Or even worse, it just falls apart in the wash! We don’t expect people to stop buying new though, we just think people should see pre-loved clothing as an option to complement their style. For me, I love vintage because the quality of things was so much better then, and the bonus is you’ll almost certainly be wearing something you won’t see on anyone else!”

Preloved, Reloved and Loved Again

It’s not just clothes from their own bulging wardrobes they’re selling though - they put in long hours scouring in charity shops, boot sales, online traders, anywhere they can find beautiful items, which they then repair, launder and present for sale at affordable prices on their instagram site @thirdhandstyle. “The whole ‘Third Hand’ idea is to find things that deserve a new home, and make a virtual shop window for that to happen.” says Cass. “We take the work out of looking for people who don’t have the time or the inclination, make sure the items are in great condition and present them all spotlessly cleaned and ready to be loved again! In fact, that’s our motto - ‘Our clothes are preloved, reloved & ready to be loved again!’”.

It seems the online community certainly agree with that sentiment. “We put our very first item online just four weeks ago, and we already have over 500 followers, which is pretty reassuring.” says Clare. “To date, we’ve sold over 40 beautiful items, including abroad to the USA, Australia, Portugal & Finland. It’s been quite amazing really...we started it as a way of finding something to do, something we cared about, and it’s kind of snowballing!”

I might just have to tell Lorraine about it too!