At graduation, fast fashion gradually bows out

March 29, 2024

This article was initially published by and appears in this engagement.

On a Saturday in February, high school senior Kaylee Lemmien sifted through racks of clothes at Tinker Tailor, a little shop in downtown Elk Rapids, a community of about 1, 500 people in northern Michigan.

” I’d visit this a fairy, sequins, light blue dress with a tulle trousers. It’s got a ribbons- up again, sort of open”, Lemmien said. ” Very pretty”.

Tinker Tailor often alters garments, but on this day it was selling them — prom dresses, to be exact. Dresses in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors — short and long, neons and colors, silk and glitter — lined the containers. People in the area donated the clothing and consigned them to the Elk Rapids High School graduation in May in an effort to give them a fresh life. Called, the refurbished shopping program takes aim at quick fashion.

When a local charity party approached her with the thought, she “immediately locked onto it,” according to Zoe Macaluso, president of the Elk Rapids High School. The Eco Club hopes to inspire other local schools to follow their own culture projects by using the job as an example.

Kaylee Lemmien, left, frequents used evening dresses at the Green Model event in Elk Rapids, Mich., on Feb. 17. Photo by Grist / Izzy Ross

High school students around the country are making one of many efforts to promote strong clothing, clothing produced cheaply and quickly enough to stay on top of fast-moving pattern phases, both in their own life and through campaigning. Although these efforts are smaller, experts claim that they can change how customers view their choices, especially for young people. That’s particularly important in the era of quick fashion when an online dealer like Shein is involved.

” Quick style is a pattern driven by newness”, said Shipra Gupta, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Illinois Springfield. It typically treats its goods like fast-deflated meal.

The increased emphasis on conservation and thrifting may seem counter to the rise of speedy style. It’s been, specifically. On the other hand, express a wish for sustainably produced items and enjoy thrifting, according to a McKinsey article from last year. On the other hand, on cultural media”.

A high school in Michigan illustrates how #style and #sustainability may be combined at graduation. # PromDresses# SustainableStyle# Fashion Industry# CarbonNeutralProm# FastFashion

High school students can combat that by raising awareness in their communities about the impact of clothing on the environment. Next year, for instance, a high school in New York put on a. A clothing push to give used clothes to people who are homeless is organized by a club in New Hampshire. And a catalogue in Athens, Ga., often hosts a”” vintage formal wear occasion with an eye toward sustainability.

Strong style encourages individuals to cycle through clothes fast, with. However, getting trustworthy information on how much harm the fashion industry causes to the environment is difficult. One explanation for that is that it lacks some. Less than half of companies ‘ complex supply chains are accessible at all levels. Some have vows to the environment, but they have consistently failed to meet their goals. And while important legislation to address the issue is still pending in some areas of the and, plan advancement has been delayed.

According to Gupta, continually being given new products you make people want to purchase more. The students in Michigan are harnessing that enthusiasm and turning it toward more environmentally aware shopping, she said, by organizing an event like Green Fashion in the community.

She said that community involvement does help us launch that local activity and influence how the members of the community view what it means to be a concerned consumer.

Events like Sustainable Style can reduce consumption geographically, allowing attendees to purchase used evening attire. That is crucial, especially in small cities where choices are constrained.

In the past, Elk Rapids students typically placed online orders for clothes or traveled to destinations like Grand Rapids, which is a two-hour drive north.

” You kind of have to travel to Grand Rapids, and you have to go to a store, and you have to buy a novel dress”, said Macaluso. This only gives me another chance to say,” Oh, I have a chance here to help the environment a little bit,” and it’s just another option. So I’m going to consider it.'”

Activities like these can, perhaps most importantly, inspire others to consider how style and the environment interact with the environment outside of high school graduation.

” I think it’s very important because it starts to employ customers, especially the young technology”, said Sheng Lu, an associate professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware.

Modern, and in recent years, big brands to work out the quirks of reselling used clothing.

Although the Elk Rapids work is fairly small, Lu said, it can help encourage local behavior.

” I was actually a little nervous when I first entered,” said sophomore Addison Looney, who was shopping with her mother. ” But there were a lot of great selections… I had a lot of sway with it. But I picked ]one ] out”.

The front of the dress has beading and is soft lavender. Addison’s mom, Sara, said she was excited to buy her daughter a secondhand dress.

” Knowing this is just a great opportunity to shop local, and to obviously save money”, she said. ” But also just the resale aspect of it,” she says,” to kind of keep dresses going because they’re typically only used once.”

Macaluso claimed that they have been able to pique people’s interest in purchasing secondhand clothing. The prom event even led Tinker Tailor, which had primarily been in the business of altering clothes and had stopped selling them, to set up a”” in the store so that people could continue consigning, donating, and shopping for secondhand items.

” I think it really just builds off that idea of,’ Hey, these dresses did n’t go bad, they have n’t expired,'” she said. ” And they can find a new home”.

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