Thrifting, upcycling and repurposing....I was doing those things before they had au courant names and before every blogger and his dog was doing it.
In the eighties, when I lived in a small city in western Canada, I deplored the waste of clothing and household items set out as 'garbage'. Usually I left such items where they sat as someone's trash was sacrosanct and who would risk the humiliation of being caught garbage-picking.
Recycling my own clothing was a safer way to reuse, but the intent was to make the refashioned garment appear new. I certainly didn't make known the source of my textiles.
Move ahead three decades and I live in Toronto, where curb shopping is a major source for home-furnishings in many neighbourhoods. Enter any Value Village or Goodwill and you will see men and women from many economic classes strolling the aisles, scooping up finds.
So, change can be good, but is this trend reactive, a collective effort to be unique in a brand-conscious era? Or is it a new attitude toward using our resources that will last?
