By Sherin Samuel
Why fast fashion?
In need of bathing suits, Lombardi decided to shop at Shein, a cheaper alternative than those from Victoria’s Secret, she says.
“​​In 2018, I randomly came across Shein, before it was even known,” Lombardi said.
Lombardi claims that her friends would ask her where she got her bathing suits from when she wore them. When she replied that it was from Shein, those same people would skeptically ask whether it was a reliable website to order from.
“I said the material feels good and it's so cheap… I honestly understood that it was from overseas, so if I needed to return it I probably wouldn't have, I would just get rid of them anyway, or donate them to somebody,” she said.
Today, most of Lombardi's wardrobe is made up of Shein clothing. As trends come and go, clothes go out of style and the desire to wear them more than once declines while the desire to buy new ones online only grows. Pieces that were once claimed as fashionable are left behind, only to wither away in the back of closets never to be worn again.
On top of that, purchasing clothes online can be a gamble, as the chances that purchasers will fit or like the appearance of their item is a risk that they seem to take in return for the accessibility and efficiency of online shopping.
Lombardi has two full bags set aside in the corner of her bed. She doesn't wear the clothes in the bags anymore and she's trying to figure out what to do with them. As she sorts through piece after piece, some are new and some have only been worn once.
“This is brand new, I haven't worn it yet because it doesn't really fit me well…This is from Pink, I never wore it. I bought it because it was an impulse decision.”
Stony Brook Student, Isabella Lombardi, explains where some of her clothes are from.
Usually Lombardi will try to give away any clothes that she doesn't wear anymore as hand me downs. She’ll pass them down to her little sister or to the children of her mother’s coworkers. If no one she knows will take the items as their own, she’ll put them into donation bins. She tries to avoid throwing clothes away at all costs.
“I try to avoid throwing stuff out, especially if they're in good condition. And they could be gifted in a way. I throw them out when either there's rips in them or if there's stains in them that just won't come out. You don't really want to give them away to somebody when it's like that. But sometimes my mom will actually use it as a dishrag,” says Lombardi.
Not everyone has the same mindset when throwing out clothes. Some assume that there will be at least one person who will wear clothes with stains or tears in them. Thrift stores like Goodwill provide a valuable, affordable service to customers. But they also receive items which are not fit for sale.
Ronald Smith, the manager of the Northport Goodwill, has been working at the location for three years. He claims that people donate because it’s the most efficient way to get rid of unwanted clothes.
"It’s easy to donate, you don't need to pack it all up, you pretty much just put it all in a bag and drop it off at a donation stop, it’s easy to just pack it up and go."
- Ronald Smith, Manager of Northport Goodwill
Section Title
In theory, donating clothes to thrift stores seems simple: you drop the clothes you don't want off to a donation bin, it either all gets sold for a cheaper price or is given to the less fortunate who can't spend money on clothes, right? Not exactly.
Take for example Stony Brook student Rebecca Ramkaran, who donates clothes on average about one or two times a year. She assumes that her clothes are going to end up for good purposes, be sold for a lower price, or even given away for nothing, since she gave it to them for free. She doesn't really think about where the clothes truly end up after she sells them.
“We've donated to churches before, those big donation boxes. That's usually where our go to is. Where do they end up after that? I'm hoping with someone who needs it,” Ramkaran said.
Unbeknownst to many frequent shoppers like Ramkaran, the idea of clothes ending up in a country half a world away is “crazy”. Worse still, many of these clothes will be of low quality.
Smith says when they receive clothes they have to sort through what’s feasible to sell versus what’s not.
“If we see they're good, we spray them down with sanitizer,” Smith said. “Those that are found with rips and stains are sent out to a salvage in New Jersey. Goodwill has an operations center in Bellmawr, NJ where the salvage is and clothes are sold by the pound there. “
There’s a 4 week timeframe for clothes that don't get sold on the retail floors of Goodwill locations before they're sent to outlet stores in Hackensack, New Jersey for clearance.
Smith gives credit to the pandemic as a cause for the increase of clothes being brought into the store for the past year and a half.
“Definitely from the shutdown you see more of it compared to before,” Smith says.