According to the data of the Directorate for Indirect Taxation, five thousand tons of used textiles were imported into our country last year. The trend of buying second-hand, worn clothes, known as thrifting, is on the rise due to cheaper prices, but now more and more often among young people, due to environmental protection and uniqueness of clothing.
Ilhana from Zenica, student of mechanical engineering, is a regular visitor to second-hand clothing stores. By shopping here, that is, thrifting, in addition to building your own unique style and saving money, you also greatly protect the environment.
“Big clothing companies are responsible for emitting more CO2 into the air than all the air traffic in the whole world, so I’m glad that young people are turning more and more to this thrifting. I can find very unique pieces with which I build my own style, which again they look quite expensive, even though they were paid much, much less than in fast fashion stores,” says Ilhana Bakunić, a student.
According to data from the European Parliament, with the advent of the one-season fashion trend, Europeans buy almost 26 kg of textiles annually, while throwing away around 11 kg. On the other hand, the fact that the production of one cotton T-shirt requires approximately 2,700 liters of drinking water makes this industry one of the main polluters of water. For this reason, thrifting is more and more acceptable to the younger generation as a rebellion against the consumer society.
“That greed, greed for money where you can say ‘I’m going to buy Nina Ricci or Gucci’ and so on, and let that be my social status, they already have enough social statuses on Twitter, on Tik-Tok and so on, that they don’t need that objective social status. They build their social status, personal, intellectual, artistic, on social networks,” says sociologist Sead Pašić.
“I would rather go second hand and buy a t-shirt that costs less, and is probably more unique compared to some t-shirts in other shops, where the girls come out all dressed the same,” points out Amina Šišić.
According to data from the BiH Indirect Tax Administration, five thousand tons of second-hand textiles, worth 13 million marks, were imported into BiH last year alone. As the number increases year after year, it speaks volumes for how big this market has become.
The humanitarian association from Zenica uses the thrifting trend to help others. Through an online platform, they now sell donated clothes and thus raise money for the treatment of others.
“A lot of people want to help, but they have extremely low incomes. In this way, they get a super jacket for a minimal amount. Lives are extremely popular, hundreds of women know the essence, that is, men too, but most of them are women, many of them book , takes over, someone pays into the account… It often happens that these are much higher figures than what the goods are actually worth,” points out Džemila Telalović, coordinator of the “Hrabro Srce” Association, Zenica.
Although many people still have prejudices against this trend, Ilhana points out that in this way, when the ideal piece has to be found among many others, the clothes are more appreciated, as well as the work of those who make the clothes.
