Secondhand shopping provides a sustainable option for costumes this season
By EMME DUNNING — features@theaggie.org
As we near the end of October, Halloween is at the top of many people’s minds. In the coming weeks, students and community members will enjoy the festivities of the holiday, including pumpkin carving, watching scary movies and — perhaps most importantly — picking their costumes.
In a college town like Davis, the opportunity to wear a Halloween costume goes far beyond Oct. 31. Falling on a Thursday in 2024, Halloween will coincide with the many social events that take place over the weekend through school clubs, Greek Life, sports and more. With all of these events, it’s no surprise that many college students are looking for affordable and easy ways to fulfill their costume needs. In order to find these deals, many turn to fast fashion websites.
Although sites like Amazon and Shein provide cheap and accessible options for Halloween costumes, this convenience doesn’t come without extreme cost. Each year in the United States, over 5.4 million kilograms of clothing waste are created from Halloween costumes. This waste is in large part due to the fast-paced nature of the fast fashion clothing industry, which prioritizes convenience and rampant consumption over quality and sustainability. Clothes are thrown away as quickly as they arrive, ending up in thrift stores and landfills. These clothes are often made out of synthetic materials, which deteriorate far slower than natural fibers like cotton or linen, and will be making their mark on the environment far beyond Halloween night.
Despite these frightening statistics, a Halloween without waste is not a hopeless cause. Yesterday Vintage, a secondhand clothing store in Davis, is working to change this narrative. Located in the heart of downtown, Yesterday provides shoppers with an opportunity to explore their personal style in a sustainable way through a wide array of unique secondhand clothing.
Donbi Kim, a co-owner of Yesterday, believes that sourcing a Halloween costume secondhand is not only better for the environment but also for your closet.
“I really enjoy the unique quality of vintage clothing and secondhand clothing,” Kim said. “It’s not very often that you’ll find multiple of a particular piece.”
For Halloween specifically, Kim noted that the sustainability of vintage costume shopping simply can’t be matched by major fast fashion retailers.
“If you’re getting your costume from Shein or Amazon, it’s most likely not sustainably made, and it’s most likely made from child labor,” Kim said.
She also asserted that the pieces bought for Halloween costumes don’t have to be only worn on the holiday.
“You don’t need to necessarily use pieces that are so crazy and out there to create an entire costume,” Kim said. “With a lot of the pieces, you can rewear them and just integrate them into your closet. There’s potential to wear it beyond just that one time.”
This re-wearability may entice consumers to spend the extra few dollars on a sustainable garment over a cheaply made costume.
Yesterday’s business model of giving new life to vintage clothing is gaining popularity, particularly among younger generations. This trend has been reflected on social media, with the rise of “thrift hauls” and secondhand-focused fashion.
Clara LaRock, a Davis resident and avid thrifter, has taken full advantage of what secondhand fashion has to offer. LaRock not only appreciates the fashion aspect of thrifting but also recognizes the important role it plays in keeping clothes out of the landfill.
“So much of fast fashion is mass produced, ends up in landfills and is made of really cheap materials,” LaRock said. “Giving used clothes a new home means slower consumption and getting the most out of the piece that’s been loved by you and maybe a really fashionable stranger.”
She continued to express some of the benefits of secondhand shopping for developing a sense of style.
“Shopping secondhand opens your perspective and helps you develop a personal style,” LaRock said. “The purchases I’ve made while thrifting have always been more thoughtful and with a clearer vision for styling than if I found something at the mall.”
This philosophy can be easily translated to thrifting for Halloween costumes — a task that Naya Spencer, a fourth-year design major at UC Davis, has already taken to heart.
“My junior year [of high school], I stopped buying from fast fashion,” Spencer said.
Spencer said she appreciates the quality and unique aspect of thrifted pieces and is confident that students can create memorable and cohesive Halloween costumes solely through secondhand clothing.
“Go to a thrift store with your friends,” Spencer said. “You can make a whole day out of it.”
For clothing that doesn’t perfectly match the vision of the costume, Spencer recommends for students to alter their thrifted clothing to achieve their desired look.
“It’s not that hard to learn, and you get a cooler costume out of it,” Spencer said.
For those who are wary of the unpredictable nature of in-person thrifting, online secondhand shopping may provide another solution. Websites like Depop, eBay and ThredUp give shoppers the ability to search for exactly what they’re looking for, from size to color to brand to style.
Overall, secondhand shopping, whether through vintage stores, online or even your own closet, can provide sustainable options for creating a memorable Halloween costume that’s sure to spook your peers.
Written by: Emme Dunning — features@theaggie.org
