Finding a new piece of clothing to add to your wardrobe is always exciting, but it isn’t always easy to remember that new clothing doesn’t actually have to be brand new from a retail store. When one is consistently exposed to ads on our phones for the newest trends, hearing about celebrities endorsing big brands, and trying to keep up with the current tiktok fads, it’s hard to think about the alternatives first. 

You may be familiar with the idea of hand-me-downs, second-hand stores, or simply being more frugal, but the younger generation has been reclaiming this idea under a newer, more positive name: thrifting. Ironically, one of the biggest trends in fashion at the moment is heading to the local second-hand store and buying both unique and essential items for cheaper than retail prices, rather than buying brand new. With this has come a resurgence of fashion trends spanning multiple decades: vintage band t-shirts, authentic denim jeans, and even gaudily patterned sweaters you would have thought only your grandparents would wear. 

While this has led to some unfortunate consequences, such as people buying vintage clothing for cheap and reselling it for absurd prices, it has also been a large part of a rising trend in valuing sustainability and recycling in recent years. As it turns out, people seem to be getting sick of the relatively expensive and ever changing cycle of fast fashion. (You can’t help but dress trendy if everything from the past fifty years is trendy, right?) Rather than seeing clothing that has been owned once or twice as a sign of frugality or cheapness, it has almost turned into a new status symbol, stating “Not only did I take the time to find these cool items without them being advertised to me, but I am also helping the environment.” 

For someone who works at a library, this is a really positive shift to see. No, not because people will think I look cool when I wear my thrifted grandpa sweaters to work, but because it shows that there is starting to be a more positive connotation towards reusability and sustainability. Fortunately, the public library just so happens to be the undefeated champion of reusability and sustainability! (Better yet, the library is also essentially free, unlike thrifting…) 

Even if you don’t love that you can only rent items from the library and are dead set on heading back home with something you get to keep, the good news is the library works with a “thrift store” down in its basement called the Friends of the Library Bookstore. They sell gently used books, both from donations that the library can’t circulate and books that have aged out of the library’s collection, at relatively low prices. The best part is that not only does supporting the Friends of the Library help promote reusability and sustainability, just like thrifting for clothes or going to the library itself, but it also tends to be less expensive than other second-hand book sellers. 

Although the Friends of the Library admittedly probably won’t carry much that was recently published, it could be the beginning of a revival of older literary trends or finding lesser known hidden gems; who’s to say that this isn’t the time for a literary revival of decades old “classics”? Even though high school may have given you the impression that non-contemporary books aren’t worth your time, thrifting for clothing has already taught us that there are always items that make the time spent searching worthwhile.