Move on from the sale rack.
Online resale retailer thredUP has joined forces with “Stranger Things” star Priah Ferguson to launch a new phone service designed to deter fast fashion lovers from impulsively snapping up cheap clothing — much of which quickly lands in landfills.
ThredUP created the initiative after a survey of 2,000 Gen Z Americans found that a third of them felt “addicted” to fast fashion — which includes affordable, trendy clothes sold at some of the country’s most popular retailers, including Zara and Forever 21.
“Hey Priah here, you’ve reached the ‘Fast Fashion Confessional Hotline,’ which means you want to break up with fast fashion,” Ferguson, 15, states in a recorded message that plays after a US caller dials 1-855-THREDUP.
“You and the planet deserve better,” the actress continues, before giving callers three different options.
“If you’re on the verge of a splurge, girl no. Press 1,” Ferguson demands, with the number leading to a lecture from the star on why fast fashion is bad.
If a caller presses 2, they’ll be able to hear Ferguson explain why thrift shopping is a superior alternative for the environment.
The starlet shares her fast fashion horror story to try to convince the caller to get their clothes back.
“We were surprised by the number of people who said they were perfectly aware of their individual consumption habits and that they had an impact on the planet, but were doing it anyway,” thredUP’s VP of Integrated Marketing Erin Wallace told Vogue Business this week.
Many young people are buying clothes for their social media accounts. They then throw the clothes away after a few uses. The clothes are often thrown in the garbage, where they can take many decades to decay.
The Post published a survey of 2,000 Brits in 2018 and found that most were buying twice as many clothing items as they were a decade ago.
One in 10 respondents also reported that they had thrown out their clothes after only wearing them three times in photos on Instagram or Facebook.
Unwanted couture was admitted by one fifth of respondents to be thrown away rather than being donated or recycled.
Read the full article here
