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I’ve never been what I would call a fashion victim. I’ve always cared too much about cost, practicality and comfort to become enslaved by the latest trend. In fact, I now have two questions about everything I try on:-

1. Am I too fat for this?

2. Am I too old for this?

I have to admit a percentage of my wardrobe is made up of other people’s cast offs, at least last year’s fashion at a guess…. but full marks go to me for the ethical art of re-using, don’t you agree?

I had a really interesting chat with my niece the other week. She has given it a go in the fashion industry in Paris as a journalist and now works in a trendy retro boutique. She has amazing strength of character and a real sense of adventure..only she could spend a year as part of her French degree in Martinique! But now in her mid-twenties, she’s ready to turn her back on the industry. She had to find out for herself.

“The Devil wears Prada” and “Ugly Betty” have more than a grain of truth in them, it seems. The victims of fashion are diverse and numerous - from the emaciated models to the uber-ambitious designers; from the enslaved teenagers on our high streets to the sweatshop slaves in the developing world.

My niece wants out so I’m sending her an article I found about the highly successful retro Oxfam shop in Nottingham. Fashion with a conscience no less. Maybe just what she’s looking for. It’s a great idea on the part of Oxfam - value added secondhand clothes and accessories forming a vintage range. It makes the task of the secondhand fashionista easier if less exciting - no more hours of rooting around through racks of grannies’ cardigans to find the one priceless gem.

But it still feeds the greedy fashion monster, doesn’t it? It still gives the fashion industry credence and supremacy. It still encourages the throwing out of perfectly good clothes for this season’s latest. It still gives greater importance to outward appearance than inner beauty (“Beauty and the Beast” and “Shrek” have the right idea - and “Ugly Betty“ possibly although I’m reserving judgement until the end of the series).

I do think it’s worth celebrating Oxfam’s engagement in a creative way with the fashion industry. It’s good to win the small battles along the way, as long as we never forget that the war is still raging.

Filed under: fashion, recycling on June 2nd, 2007