
‘Because Secondhand Is Feckin’ Grand’: How Clothes Swapping Became Huge in Ireland
October 03, 2024 | Source: The Guardian | byRory Carroll
Mary Fleming was on holiday in Kenya when she saw it: a mound of secondhand clothes heaped by a river, the pile so vast and unruly it was spilling into the water.
The sight shocked her. At home in Ireland she was a passionate shopper and bought a new outfit almost every weekend. Now in east Africa she was seeing the consequence of fast fashion and mass consumption.
A decade later Fleming, now 34, is leading a campaign to prevent waste by swapping, reusing, repairing and repurposing clothes under the inimitable exhortation: “Because secondhand is feckin’ grand”.
She is the founder of Change Clothes, a non-profit that hosts a swap shop in Dublin and runs pop-up outlets and workshops across Ireland. It lets people rent, exchange and buy used clothes and gives tutorials in mending and upcycling frayed garments.