Secondhand September

Whilst perusing Instagram the other day, I came across #SecondHandSeptember, a movement encouraging people to only shop secondhand for the month of September instead of buying anything new. I'm joining the challenge! Here are some rambles about it, plus photos featuring some of my secondhand items. (Except for that marvelous dress in the first pic, which was a bit too small, but it was a thrift find!)

(fun fact: I wore this yellow skirt to work the other day and my coworker looked at it so confused. "I had a skirt just like that," she said. I asked her if she donated it to Goodwill. She said she probably had. So there is a good possibility this was her skirt! ha! I thought it was cool.) This jacket was also a thrift find.

This year I've been making an effort to shop secondhand more than buying new things as a way to be more ethical in my clothing purchases. The little I've read about fast fashion is truly sad, but also fast fashion makes it tempting to shop more often, buying the new trend for every season. As I've gotten older, I've realized that I prefer to wear clothes that I love instead of what is specifically in style or trendy. I think this has also partly helped me decide to thrift more. Thrifting means that I can find unique pieces that no one else has!

I do, however, buy a few new things here and there, so I'm saying no to that this month. I'm excited to share my thrift hauls (if I even go thrifting or find anything - ha!) and even more so to share outfits that feature some of my secondhand pieces. I actually have a bunch. My friends know I love to dig through their piles of clothes they plan to donate, and my bestie Julianne often brings me a bag of secondhand goodies when she comes to visit. (I'm not-so-patiently waiting for cold weather so I can wear the hot pink and bright orange sweater she gave me!)

This flowy cardigan was secondhand from a friend.

When I first got into blogging around 2010, the fashion blogging world was completely different. It was just starting out and sponsored posts were the exception and not the standard. My favorite bloggers didn't wear outfits with links so you could buy the exact same pieces--rather they focused on how to take the clothing you already had and remix it to make new outfits.

That's a thing I really miss in the blogs I see today. So many posts, not only on blogs but especially on Instagram, feature gifted items with a link and a discount code so everyone else can buy the exact same thing. I'm not against sponsored posts or anything -- I did a few of those back in the day too -- but I wish that more people would focus on the idea of the outfits rather than how to copy it exactly. One of my favorite bloggers used to create an "inspiration calendar" each month using photos from bloggers with a "challenge" for the day that was inspired by the outfit. "Wear something blue." "Mix patterns." "Wear a hat." "Belt a cardigan." It was so fun to gather inspiration from outfits and create an outfit using pieces I already had that were inspired by my fave bloggers.

My grandmother gave me this cute dress when she didn't want it anymore!

I definitely just chased a rabbit there (can we call the rabbit Fred? Let's call him Fred.), but one thing I like about outfits involving thrifted pieces is that there is no way to link to the same piece. Rather, I hope, it inspires others. "I've never thought to wear my olive cardigan over my mustard dress." "I'm going to try layering a collared shirt under my favorite sweater." "I'm definitely going to wear my hair scarf as a neck scarf!" Honestly, I just browsed my "style board" on Pinterest for all those ideas.

Anyway, my blue is showing and I'm getting really wordy here, only to say I'm joining in on Secondhand September and can't wait to share more about it!

Jacket and skirt were both thrifted!