Clothing has always been a hot topic no matter the generation; in the present, more and more people find their inspiration in vintage-looking clothes. However, acquiring these fashionable outfits might do more harm than good. 

Content creators constantly post about how they’re participating in this clothing trend: thrift shopping. Many influencers go to thrift stores and buy bundles of clothes just to show their viewers how often they love to thrift. Yet, people who solely rely on thrift stores can be heavily affected by this excessive spending.

With large amounts of affordable clothing constantly leaving the racks, low-income consumers have fewer available pieces of clothing to choose from. Consumption like this robs consumers of the experience of shopping for quality and budget, while affluent buyers can experience this leisurely. 

Another concern is the price of thrifting items increasing with the sudden popularity and high demand for them. With the high cost of garments, struggling buyers find it even harder to afford their clothes. 

Even though thrifters are buying used clothing, those who are less fond of thrifting have started creating their own vintage style. People online show viewers how to mimic the vintage style by creating tutorials, but the materials involved could hurt the environment.  While some people learn to sew to create these pieces of clothing, others use harmful materials such as bleach, to create an old, worn texture. Using these chemicals defeats the purpose of thrifting, which is originally to help the environment by recycling clothing. 

Thrifting helps lessen the number of clothes thrown away. However, with social media content creators creating new pieces of clothing, sometimes they make mistakes. These novice mistakes make fabric unusable, leading to the materials being thrown out and further harming the environment. 

Creating vintage clothes has even become popular among well-known brands such as SHEIN. The company started to make their own kind of vintage clothing like dresses, pants and t-shirts, all to keep up with the trends. And with more brands creating “vintage” clothes, materials are polluting the environment on a grander scale. 

Textile industries harm all three components of the environment: water, air and land. After fabrics are washed, bleached, dyed and cleaned, the contaminated water is then dumped into fresh water. Especially because of trending clothes, factories will use even more water to make their products, leading to greater contamination. 

With so many industries causing air pollution, the textile industry is the second highest polluter, greenofchange.com states. As bleach and dyes are being used, the vapor that is emitted off the fabrics carries chlorine that damages air quality. 

Solid waste is commonly produced as food waste or disposable waste, and now, clothing waste too. Pieces of the garments and debris are carried off by the wind just to end up in the ocean and pollute large bodies of water. Packaging and containers that are used for bleach and dye are also thrown out, contributing to plastic waste. 

With thrifting becoming more popular, more harm will continue to disrupt the environment and low-income consumers. The environment would go back to being damaged all over again like in the past with factories polluting the air and water with toxic chemicals causing harm to our bodies. Polluting the environment with toxins that are caused by many industries, the planet won’t be able to heal if more damage is added on. With the environment already polluted, adding on to the damage wouldn’t allow the planet to heal.