Throughout my time in New York, I couldn't walk for more than a few minutes without seeing a thrift store, vintage store, consignment store, poster for a stoop sale, or have someone tell me about a swap event. Here's a variety of things I saw while wandering around.
The majority of this activity centres around textiles, shoes and accessories and it was amazing to see the obvious acceptability of second hand and the growth in the sector. One vintage store owner told me she had seen three others open up after her on the same street in the last few months.
These vintage stores (and by vintage they mean the year 2000!) are clearly driven by current trends and they buy in products that are in demand. I found them to be pretty expensive, but they are truly curated, in demand products in great looking stores rather than second hand finds in a thrown together setting like many of the thrift stores. Great to see stuff being so well valued though!
Consignment stores are more prevalent in student and lower income areas and are driven more by need to access affordable clothing. Because the pricing was lower, the stores were busier and there was a high throughput of items which oftem meant they could look stuffed full and a bit messy but that didn't seem to put people off and they were always full of people.
Monk Vintage - I really loved this place - it had a great atmosphere and so much stuff, all pretty well laid out. You could tell it was a go-to place and people were coming in with specific needs - it was huge so they were bound to find what they were looking for. It would be a fun place to hang out in for a few hours with pals and it really made me think about our lack of destination/experience spaces like this which would make second hand shopping so much more appealing.
Other types local reuse are creating microbusinesses. It felt like community wealth building in action - where reuse is supporting local people accessing what they need, reducing financial hardship, creating local networks and peer support, supporting business and economic regeneration and creating opportunities for innovation.
New York is renowned for developing 'underground' scenes borne out of necessity and a desire to support each other (we're back to Disco again, you should watch this documentary I saw on the plane, Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution ;-) ) and that culture is still very much here, with reuse.
The reuse textiles scene is just so normalised here - I went to a swap event in McCarren park on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. it looked to me that people were already bringing things to swap regardless if there was an event on or not, it seemed like a regular Saturday thing to do in Williamsburg, bring your things, lay them out, sell some things, swap some stuff, meet friends.
and yes, I came away from new york with new-to-me cardigan, sungalsses and trainers. This level of purchasing is not sustainable in my tiny luggage!
More NYC reuse pictures at this link
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