Hello and welcome back to Conversations with Karla! In case you missed it, last week we met with a student to talk about how she maintains her blog and how it has opened multiple doors to opportunities for her. This week, I met with Isabella Friedrich, a fourth-semester management major with a minor in women’s, gender and sexuality studies, to talk about how social media has affected thrifting culture.
The growth of social media has caused trends to rapidly circulate, “Classic” trends are no more, as micro-trends have taken over. As a result, thrifting has also become a trend. Debates are common on social media over whether the thrifting trend is positive or not. Some people argue that the resurgence of thrifting is justified because it protects the environment and deters shoppers from buying fast-fashion brands. Others argue that the trend is threatening the integrity of what thrifting was originally intended to accomplish. Friedrich dissected this dilemma by saying that it is far from a black-and-white issue.
“Social media is the reason why we’re having this resurgence of thrifting,” said Friedrich. While this is a positive — it is straying customers away from major fast fashion brands — some people are still being negatively affected.
Friedrich talked about the ongoing conflict on the topic of thrifting. While thrifting becoming a trend is helping the environment, it also produces “symptoms” such as a growth of resellers. “Thrift stores were meant to be places where people of a lower socioeconomic status could find clothing to clothe themselves and their families at an affordable price,” she said. However, she also recognized that many people make their livelihoods from reselling vintage clothing from thrift stores.
Friedrich touched on how this controversy can apply to any topic regarding social media. It’s impossible to make everyone happy online. “It’s just built into you to try to find the good and the bad in a situation. At the end of the day, everything is so complex and you can’t find a finite answer to something,” she said.
With the rise of thrifting, there has also been a rise of social media influencers and small businesses that curate a thrifted wardrobe for customers. They ask customers to send a Pinterest inspiration board or their general interests and they send out boxes filled with vintage finds that match the customer’s style. Friedrich sees this as the closest thing to a happy medium regarding this topic. Taking this route helps the environment, benefits a small business and buyers are almost guaranteed high-quality pieces.
Friedrich closed the conversation with reasons why she is drawn to thrifting. She said that she enjoys finding pieces that not many people have. While she doesn’t intentionally try to dress in opposition to trends, she described how she likes to be “a step removed” from what the general public is drawn to wear.
“I think clothes are a really cool way to articulate [her identity],” she said.
Friedrich urges people not to feel pressured to follow a trend in order to be considered “cool.” She emphasized the importance of finding high-quality pieces that can be worn and loved for years and that it’s important to have pieces that can outlive trend cycles.
That’s all for this week’s Conversations with Karla! See you next week when we meet another student to talk about a new social media topic!