Thrifty Business

Godess of style and patroness of british fashion, Alexa Chung, is currently in New York filming a series called “Thrift America”. The program will explore the influence of thrift stores, flea markets and garage sales in certain American states and, hopefully, force them to the forefront of the shopping experience.

I’m quite excited about the potential of “Thrift America” and i hope that it has something interesting to offer; at least something different from the generic style of fashion tv programming. I like Alexa Chung; not only is she beautiful to look at, but she has a modern and intelligent approach to presenting. I’m also strongly intrigued by the concept of the show

Charity shops and thrift stores are much more important to fashion than high-street or mass marketed brands of clothing. Fashion is expression. That’s all it is. Clothing is there to create a style and speak for your personality. It is a medium through which you express your creativity and, moreover, your individuality. No-one wants to look like everyone else and for this reason it totally confuses me as to why we are so obsessed with popular high-street chains. When you purchase an item in Topshop or River Island, you can be sure that thousands of people have walked to the check-out with that exact piece in their hand and thousands more will do the same after you. There is NO exclusivity in the high-street and that is why thrift store shopping should be made use of.

The certainty of an individual look is not the only benefit; personally, i love the thrill of finding an absolute gem of a bargain that i know will be worn over and over again in countless ways.

I expect that this series will help thrift store lose their old dusty granny stigma and hopefully it will urge shoppers to turn to a thrift-store in confidence and help them choose individuality over popularity. I hope the public come to realise that, on the high-street, they are paying for items that are profanely overpriced when there is a cheaper and more advantageous option readily available.