This coverage is made possible through a partnership with Grist and Interlochen Public Radio in Northern Michigan.
On a Saturday in February, high school senior Kaylee Lemmien was sifting through racks of dresses at Tinker Tailor, a small shop in downtown Elk Rapids, a town of about 1,500 people in northern Michigan.
“I would call it a mermaid, sequined, light blue dress with a tulle skirt. It has a lace-up back, kind of open,” Lemmien said. “Very pretty.”
Tinker Tailor usually alters clothes, but on this day he was selling them – prom dresses, to be exact. Gowns in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors – short and long, neon and pastels, satin and sequins – lined the shelves. The items of clothing were donated and sent by people throughout the region, with the goal of giving them a new life at the Elk Rapids High School prom in May. Called Sustainable styleaims the second-hand shopping initiative at fast fashion.
Zoe Macaluso, the president of the eco club at Elk Rapids High School, said when a local volunteer group approached her with the idea, she was “immediately hooked.” The Eco Club wants to use the project to lead by example, and hopefully inspire other schools in the area to pursue their own climate projects.
Grist / Izzy Ross
It’s one of many efforts by high school students across the country to address fast fashion — clothing produced cheaply and quickly enough to keep up with fast-moving trend cycles — in their own lives and through advocacy. Such efforts are small, but experts say they can help people – especially young people – to think differently about their role as consumers. This is especially relevant in the era of fast fashion, when an online retailer like Shein dropping up to 10,000 new items per day.
“Fast fashion is a trend driven by novelty,” said Shipra Gupta, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Illinois Springfield. “It tends to treat its products like perishable food.”
The increased focus on sustainability and thrift may seem counter to the rise of fast fashion. That’s all described as a paradoxespecially for Gen Z. A McKinsey newsletter last year outlined the relationship as follows: “On the one hand, Gen Zers express a desire for sustainably produced items and love thrift. On the other side, clothing ‘takes’ … make up some of the most viewed and most produced content on social media.”
One way high school students are countering this offline is by raising awareness in their communities about how fashion affects the environment. Last year, for example, a high school in New York had a carbon neutral prom. A club in New Hampshire organized a clothing drive to redirect used clothing to people experiencing homelessness. And a library in Athens, Georgia, regularly offers a “Bling Your Prom” second-hand formal wear event with an eye on sustainability.
Fast fashion encourages people to quickly cycle through clothes, with serious consequences. But to get reliable information about how much damage the fashion industry is doing to the climate difficult. His lack of transparency is one reason for that; less than half of brands track all levels of their complex supply chains. Some have made climate pledges, but have consistently fallen short of their goals. And while key legislation that would help tackle the problem is pending in places in the USA and Europepolicy progress has been slow.
Being constantly exposed to new items can create a desire to buy more, Gupta said. By bringing an event like Sustainable Style to the community, she said, the students in Michigan are tapping into that excitement and channeling it into more environmentally conscious shopping.
“Community involvement is a way to do that grassroots movement, where we can actually create an awareness among the community members,” she said, and it can make them think about what it means to be a responsible consumer.
Events like Sustainable Style can cut down on consumption locally, which is a responsible place to donate and buy used evening wear. This is especially important in small towns where options may be limited.
In the past, students in Elk Rapids typically ordered dresses online or traveled to hubs like Grand Rapids, a two-hour drive south.
“You kind of have to drive to Grand Rapids, and you have to go to a mall, and you have to buy a new dress,” Macaluso said. “It just provides another option, another opportunity to say: ‘Oh, I have a chance here to help the environment a little bit. So I’m going to take it.’”
Perhaps most importantly, initiatives like these can help others think beyond the confines of high school prom about how fashion relates to the environment.
“I think it’s very significant because it’s starting to engage consumers, especially the young generation,” said Sheng Lu, an associate professor of fashion and clothing studies at the University of Delaware.
Innovative grassroots efforts have helped reduce fashion waste locally in other placesand in recent years, major brands tried to work out the intricacies of reselling used clothes.
Although the Elk Rapids effort is relatively small, Lu said, it could help inspire local action.
“I was honestly pretty nervous coming in here,” said sophomore Addison Looney, who was shopping with her mom. “But there were very good choices. … I was pretty undecided about it. But I chose [one] out.”
The dress is a soft lavender with beading in the front. Addison’s mother, Sara, said she was excited to buy her daughter a second-hand dress.
“Knowing that this is just a great opportunity to shop local and obviously save money,” she said. “But also just the resale aspect of it — just keeping dresses going because they’re usually a one-time use.”
Macaluso said they were able to generate interest in buying used clothing. The prom event even led Tinker Tailor—who was primarily in the business of altering clothes, not selling them—to create a “Dress Vault” in the store so people can continue to consign, donate and shop second-hand items.
“I think it really just builds on that idea of, hey, these dresses haven’t gone bad, they haven’t expired,” she said. “And they can find a new home.”
