Second-hand clothes, first-hand mindset: A wardrobe study of higher-education student clothing practice

Abstract

The study explores motivations for second-hand clothing practices using wardrobe interviews with a limited sample of twelve higher-education students in Belgium. Three types of practices were identified: bargain hunters, uniqueness searchers and ethical and ecological buyers. The study reveals that despite the perceived sustainability of second-hand clothes, these practices often result in large volumes of clothing purchases, contradicting sustainability motivations. Ecological respondents experience ‘affective dissonance’ due to a disconnection between their sustainability beliefs and fashion practices. These uncomfortable emotions reveal an aspiration to engage in more sustainable fashion practices in the future. Despite this, all respondents evaluate their second-hand clothing practices by relying on the culturally prevalent discourses of the first-hand fashion industry. The study concludes by highlighting the implications for the development of alternative and more sustainable fashion practices when second-hand clothing practitioners reproduce the symbolic boundaries that govern the first-hand fashion industry, and the authors suggest pathways to address these implications in the future.

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