By Caroline Stoaks
Nestled between Rocktown Kitchen and Drifters Cafe in downtown Harrisonburg lies a small second-hand shop that has found favor in the eyes of sustainable shoppers. As you walk in, racks of vibrant vintage clothing flood the room with color. A towering wooden shelf filled with well-loved shoes rests against the wall.
Mary Yoder-Anderson, who started Dart in October 2020, founded the store to encourage sustainable buying in the community. “There is so much clothing out in the world, it’s easy enough for people to shop sustainably and buy second-hand,” Yoder-Anderson said. “We have some great second-hand options in our community with vintage stores and buy-and-sell trade stores like Dart or Plato’s Closet, thrift stores or you can also buy online on Poshmark, eBay or Depop. It’s a great way to keep clothing out of the landfill.”
Dart is part of a thrifting and second-hand shopping scene that has been popular among college students in the community. “I just love how young people are buying second-hand,” Yoder-Anderson said. “It’s just the norm for people to thrift. When I was younger, that definitely wasn’t the trend, so I love that it’s more popular now and more common.”
The trend may be fueled in part by social media. Two JMU students, Hassan Ali and Bryce Kelso, who started a fashion Instagram account, @jmufits, have seen the growth, too. Ali and Kelso photograph students’ eye-catching outfits and what has caught their eye most is the trend of more and more students buying second-hand fashion.
Kelso said in high school, his youth pastor promoted the importance of second-hand shopping. “There are unfair labor practices that occur in third world countries that people aren’t aware of, how clothes get mass produced and shipped across the world coming from poor working conditions,” he said. “Sustainable fashion is definitely something that I could at least apply to my personal consumption practices, and be a little more aware of where I’m buying from.”
Ali is an advocate of knowing where your money is going before you spend it. “A lot of research goes into what I buy. I know a lot of people are still blindsided about Shein and fast fashion places like American Eagle and H&M and how cheaply everything is made,” he said. “You should research what you’re buying before you pull out your credit card.”
By purchasing fast fashion, Ali said, “You’re giving money to corporations who are ultimately treating their workers wrong and it’s cheaply made clothing for double the price just to have people follow trends. I think that’s very abusive of these corporations.”
In addition to shopping second-hand, another sustainable clothing consumption practice is clothing swaps. Ali and Kelso helped organize a clothing swap with radio station WXJM. Individuals brought worn clothing items to the event and the amount they brought in was the amount they could take out. Anything left over was donated to three Goodwill locations in the area.
Shenandoah Valley fashion designer Seth Downs offers a third solution, upcycling, for those passionate about making a difference in the environment and community.
“Fashion is a huge contributor to trash in landfills around the world and sustainability is important to me,” Downs said.
In the clothing design process, Downs said in practice you will fail and have to discard pieces, although instead of throwing away fabric, he encourages other designers to repurpose and upcycle fabrics and thrifted pieces.
Since the beginning of his fashion business, Downs has been promoting sustainable fashion. “I’d resell vintage and go thrift. I had a page where I curated the thrift I would find that I thought other people would enjoy” Downs said.
In his most recent line, “Caught Up,” Downs hand sews a black sweatshirt and bleaches it to create a spider web design. He then hand stitches an outline in violet, scarlet and green around the spider web producing a chilling look.
Kelso agrees with Downs and encourages upcycling clothing. “I am a big proponent of repairing, reusing and recycling old clothes that you have,” he said. “I bought my sewing machine when I was a junior in high school and it’s been the best thing I’ve ever had.” In addition to upcycling, Downs said promoting fashion at a small business scale is how we can do our part to encourage sustainability.
Downs is hosting Harrisonburg’s first-ever fashion show in September, called 540 Fashion Day Valley Vogue. Involving Downtown Harrisonburg, the show will feature resale and vintage shops such as Dart, Heartworn Vintage and fair trade shops including Green Hummingbird.
“Green Hummingbird is 100% Sustainable humanitarian-wise, as well as clothing-wise,” Downs said. “A big thing in fashion is sweatshops getting clothing manufactured from places that are not humane or they don’t pay their workers, so fair trade is getting clothing sourced from factories and craftsmen who are paid fairly for their work.”
Downs said it’s important to stay away from brands that contribute to fast fashion. He said “Not buying from Shein and huge brands that you don’t necessarily don’t know where it’s coming from” is paramount, “because sadly, if you don’t know where something’s been manufactured, most likely they are not letting you know for a reason.”
“Be responsible with your dollar,” Downs said by doing research to know where your clothing is coming from and about the individuals that manufacture the clothing.
Downs recognizes it isn’t as common to be hyper-aware of the manufacturer, although one known designer his show will feature is local curator, Leo Pacheco from Puerto Rico. “He finds second-hand items and sells them as a means to further the life of that individual piece and give it a new home,” said Downs.
Inspired by the 540 area, Downs is pulling from the fashion of the Shenandoah Valley and supporting local businesses. The show is scheduled for early September and will be located in downtown Harrisonburg.
Thrifting may be popular in the Valley because, according to those who follow local fashion trends, there’s an emphasis on casual wear which aids sustainable fashion consumption.
Kelso describes Valley fashion as a “hipster granola kind of vibe.” He said “When I look at the people in the community, I can tell that they don’t care too much about their appearance, but it’s very well put together at the same time. They got beanies, mustaches, sweaters and carabiners.”
The casual style of the Valley easily inspires sustainability. Ali encourages consumers to also be mindful of their consumption habits in thrifting which can become “dangerous” as its popularity rapidly increases.
“The main concern I have is that thrifting is not for the general consumers because it’s made for people who do not have access to funds for major clothing options,” Ali said. “The dangers of second-hand clothing is that if people thrift too much it’s taking away some of the clothing options for people who actually need it.”
Kelso also refrains from offering thrifting as the only sustainable solution. “Obviously at some point, if everyone’s thrifting there won’t be enough clothes around,” he said.
“Whenever I go, I limit myself,” Ali said. “I will see people leaving with a bag full of stuff but I will leave with one or two items. I don’t feel comfortable leaving with more than five items because I don’t feel like it’s right for me.”
Sustainable fashion is becoming more of a staple in the Shenandoah Valley. Shopping second-hand, fair trade and upcycling are noteworthy solutions to combat fast fashion consumption. From a stylistic approach, second-hand fashion trends tend to be one-of-a-kind. By dressing more sustainable you not only look better, but you will feel better about your consumption patterns knowing you took a small step to make a big difference. And who knows, maybe one day, you’ll even find yourself featured on @jmufits or walking in a Valley fashion show for your second-hand fashion finds.
As the fashion industry grows, fast fashion and the lack of sustainability is a problem that’s not going to get better unless people are making others aware, Downs said. “Anyone who is cutting out big corporations and promoting fashion at a small business scale is doing their part in sustainability.”
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@jmufits on Instagram
About The Author: Caroline Stoaks is the Editor-in-Chief of Curio. She is a SMAD Journalism major with Youth Justice and Family Studies minors. She works as a leadership coach in Student Leadership and Involvement. She has a passion for helping individuals become confident, kind and impactful leaders.