Crazy Timing to Open Online: COVID-19, Kids at Home and the Plight to Slow Down Fast Fashion with Second-Hand Shopping!
We're in the middle of unprecedented and peculiar COVID-19 times, the kids are at home and while many people are wondering how to fill their time and perhaps even enjoying a slower lifestyle, I, rather madly, decided to attempt building a website and launching my business online whilst home schooling three kids. There have been a lot of late nights, frustration and unsuccessful juggling but it just felt like the right time...
Monkey Threads Preloved started small with a few pop up shops in Bath and as time has passed and children have arrived, I’ve had breaks from it. A few events recently kickstarted me back into action. I watched the alarming Stacey Dooley documentary on the huge impact of fast fashion on our precious planet. It’s now the 2nd biggest polluting industry, cotton production uses so much water that it’s dried up an ocean with huge consequences on the climate. Forests are cleared, wiping out wildlife and the stinking, toxic, chemical waste is being pumped into the rivers that locals wash in. I had no idea. Then, my daughter took part in the fabulous Bath Fashion & Fairytale competition and she was really moved by the short BBC World Video on Fast Fashion. We all were, we’ve really started to shop more responsibly, searching out sustainable clothing.
It can be hard to make the right choice though, as it’s generally more expensive and kids, especially babies, get through mountains of clothes. It’s just so easy to pop into cheap high street chains like H&M or Primark for their everyday stuff. Second-hand seemed to me, to be the perfect answer - recycling, reusing and reducing! You can find fancy, high quality, designer brands like Petit Bateau, IKKS and Bonpoint at affordable prices and pick up some fabulous, vintage and unique pieces no longer available on the high street.
It was the right time to get my preloved business back up and running and help make shopping sustainably easier for others, in turn, hopefully, slowing down fast fashion a little. And there really are some glorious, secondhand and vintage treasures out there, not just on my website - charity shops are a fun place to rummage, we're all used to eBay and loads of mums are now setting up some cool, preloved shops on Instagram and Facebook.
The searching for beautiful baby and children's clothes is definitely the best part of the job, I'm looking forward to getting back to France for some more slow fashion (kids clothes of course) shopping soon (there are usually a few accidental purchases for me along the way)!
My challenge now is getting the message out there. I’ve put a link to the short BBC World video about Fast Fashion on www.monkeythreadspreloved.co.uk which is great for children to watch and my kids are midst poster making to help spread the word. This is the first step, and my first attempt at blogging - thank you for reading and visiting Monkey Threads Preloved. x