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fabulous!

I wish I could find an equivalent to Give Your Best where I live in Canada.

background info: I'm not a fashion girlie, i don't watch fashion influencers like those featured here, i don't know much about scandi fashion trending or any of this business -- I'm here because i respect your takes on sustainability and rational consumption. however, having said that I know nothing about this side of tiktok and am an outsider: all the influencers mentioned here LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME. it's the same human woman copy pasted four times over. it's hilarious.

So informative and I agree, I need to hold myself accountable more with this issue

The ugly reality is that this is almost entirely female driven issue, were buying the majority of the clothes. We judge eachother based on our clothing, harshly, all the time. That doesn't leave people the space to wear the clothes they already own and have visible mending and still be treated with respect and dignity in their day to day lives. That treatment worsens if youre also older, queer, a person of colour, disabled, fat etc. If you get consistently preferential treatment when you dress on trend as opposed to rudeness and people laughing at you wearing clothes that arent in fashion but are clean and functional, then its not gonna be those with the most privilege who lose the most when we call for the end of fast fashion, it will be again the poor people, the working poor who are forced to use their very small salaries to try to keep up to look presentable or they lose their work opportunities despite the quality of their work. I dont think most people like you understand that many people can afford one pair of shoes and when those break they are gonna go hungry for that month to get new ones, and if they turn out not to be what you thought you were getting, youre stuck with them because you can't just not have shoes and you cant afford to get them at any of the stores where you would get to try them on. And even that is no guarantee anymore, even more expensive shoes can break in a month of wear now. If theres no pressure on companies to stop making horrible quality clothes and theres no pressure on companies to pay livable wages then people are between a rock and a hard place.

Now this is why my friends and family “donate” any clothing items they’re unsure of donating to me, they know I’ll chop it up and turn it into something else! Also, all of a sudden, the people I know don’t donate things with crooked or unfinished hems, bad fabric quality, or holes.

But how do they stop resellers from going there and clearing out the shelves for free inventory...?

Throw away anything with holes(even small ones) or with any stains. They don’t want it even in Africa. All the junk donations have destroyed the local clothing businesses all over Africa and other developing parts of the world. Clothing is part of culture, and cheap, worn out clothes from the West destroy the culture of those places too.

this is such a brilliant video, essential points made !! subscribed :)

paperi t

Yeah, work in a charity shop. At least 2/3rds is ragged for money. Not being able to wash clothes means many go to rag. Please don’t use donation to appease overconsumption guilt. Look at you purchases like an adoption. Most clothes we get in people would not take for free.

It's especially such a UK thing. My friend lived there like 20 yrs ago, and already then she said people are crazy with shopping and changing their wardrobe every couple of months, dumping/donating their clothes. The entire secondhand business in my country in Central Europe was probably built on this fact, and still alive. What I observe around me is that people don't do this so extremely. E.g I get rid of clothing that are too small on me, or recently I took 2-3 pieces to the bin that I've owned for 10+ years, have worn a lot but not so much the past 3 years. Then again, I don't succumb to every lousy fashion wave and buy pieces that will look ridiculous in 3 months. And that's what I observe around me as well.

Such good work with this video, Katie. Thanks for this! ❤

a big part of the paradox of too much clothing vs. people in clothing poverty is just how bad quality the 'clothing abundance' generally is. After working in charity stores, you realise just how low quality the majority of donated clothes are - and that was before the time of Shein! If people who have the means buy better quality clothes (and fewer), and then still wanted to pass that on, it would be likely in still good condition and able to be sold and worn by someone else who couldn't afford full-price clothing. But all the polyester clothing often is useless after a couple of washes and looks disgusting in big heaps. Natural fiber clothes that aren't in good enough condition to be passed on can also often be composted or some such system.

Full time fashion girly here! I design + rework clothes using salvaged & vintage materials. That way I can provide sustainable options for styles that people are looking for. The pieces I source + sew bridge the gap between trends & timelessness because of my emphasis on quality, fit, and artistic expression. I cringe so hard when I see aliexpress knockoffs of pieces from small designers on depop, or fast fashion pieces made to mimic specific vintage garments. Even though I could be making more profit, I’d never sacrifice my ethics.

Love this! I wish there was something like it in my area. At our local Goodwill, they throw out more than is put on the shelves. Then they lock the garbage dumpster so desperately needy people can’t get into it!

I think Give Your Best sounds like a wonderful organization! I’m still a little confused about how they differ from other secondhand clothing shops. I kind of thought all of them sorted through their donations to make sure they were only selling good quality clothes. I assume they try to give the bad quality clothes to a textile recycler, but they throw them away if they cannot. I thought they generally resold the items at low prices, but I have heard in recent years since the popularity of thrifting has increased that some thrift stores are significantly increasing their prices. I recently volunteered at a thrift shop and I see some of the negative behavior others have described in the comments here: volunteers who help themselves to anything they like, often the highest quality items instead of reselling it. I get that they are volunteering, but most of them are not poor and do not desperately need free things. I have tried in recent years to sort my donations and take my worn and stained items to clothing recycling. I really try not to get rid of old clothes that don’t love, but I have changed sizes in recent years, so it no longer makes sense for me to keep certain things, regardless of their quality.

I go by the principle of if I would not purchase this myself I will not donate it to someone for free

i get the most off putting ick when watching those massive declutter videos that have a sell pile and donate pile and you could obviously see the difference in the two in terms of usability. And also, I live in one of the global south countries that receive the imported secondhand clothes and they sell it in thrift stores here. There's so much unusable shit like 60-70% of the time like company apparel, fun run t shirts, damaged clothing etc etc...I really dislike the notion of donation to some people as a free pass of disposing clothes without confronting the consequences of their purchasing habits and how they take care of clothes.

a lot of thrift shops in poland get their stock from the uk and with the overall drop of quality of clothes (rise of shein and polyester) it's become so difficult to buy sth that won't end up getting thrown away after a year... i was so lucky that about 4 years ago i thrifted a pair of jeans originally from c&a and they still look amazing, it's sad that this is no longer the case with new clothing

Thank you for sharing this, Give Your Best sound great and I’m going to check out their website. Unfortunately the government in this country simply cannot be relied on to make any of the steps in the right direction, not whilst Labour or the Tories are in power 🙈 it’s time we all vote green!

"corporate responsibility committees" are so funny because it's like -- the company investigated itself and found no wrongdoing.

I think toward the end of this video there were some pretty disparaging things said about charity shops. For context: I’m speaking about UK shops, I know US Goodwills etc are a very different beast. First: yes there’s too much fast fashion everywhere, but it’s not true that there’s little good vintage (or other good quality 2ndhand) left. The quality of clothes in a charity shop depends in part on the area - rich residents have nicer stuff to donate! Even then, I’m in a relatively affordable part of southeast London, and I’ve found beautiful things by Aquascutum, Sonia Rykiel and Biba in my local charity shop, among others. Second: no, it’s NOT on charity shops to get all the clothes onto the shop floor instead of the appalling landfill pipeline. They are not equipped to stem this tide. They don’t have the staff or the space. (And they do already distribute around their own chains first.) First responsibility lies with companies who overproduce it (& pay/treat their workers badly). Second responsibility is with all of us who buy and discard all this stuff. We have a massive overconsumption problem, fuelled by massive overproduction. And we are not helpless. Finally, I prefer to shop in charity shops than online (tho I do both) bc I can see the quality for myself! Currently in a dispute with a Vinted seller who misrepresented the condition of something I bought, which I’ll now have to pay to repair. In among all the honest sellers there’s a lot of unscrupulousness online.

Charity shops are too expensive, they are under the misapprehension that they are chic vintage boutiques. There are now only a few I donate to.

i’m so happy i’ve found your videos, my mindset has completely changed since finding you and watching some incredible fast fashion documentaries. i’ve started sewing all my own clothes, aswell as making new more “stylish” clothes out of thrifted clothes.

To comment on waste colonialism - it absolutely is a real thing. I live in Malaysia and thrift regularly. We get tons of ugly Christmas sweaters and one-time use T-shirts with stuff like "Kaleigh's 8th Birthday 2022" printed on them. Most of this stuff comes from Canada, the USA, and I believe American troops stationed in Korea.

I decided to visit a number of "branded" clothing places recently including Zara and H&M. It's astonishing what they're charging for - I'm hardly exaggerating here - GARBAGE. Everything was just so poorly made - all from cheap, uncomfortable fabrics. It's all unwearable to me - and most of it's probably going to be thrown away or steeply discounted because they're already falling apart on the hangers.

I think part of the problem is that young people don't have enough children or don't have them at all. With kids you can't throw money by the window, you count everything literally.

we’re all just collectively going through an identity crisis tbh

YES YES YES! All companies should have to address the end-of-life of their products (whether it is clothing or electronics). I love the idea of Give Your Best. We don't have something like that in the United States, though we do have a bunch of charities that put clothing into the hands of people who need it--various clothing closets/banks and organizations like Dress for Success.

Clothing donations can be useful to some extent and detrimental to another. Similar to the LA fires, lots of clothes were donated to western NC after hurricane Helene. It was great until there was so much that it became burdensome and people had to manage a ton of outdated clothing, finding other places to send it or upcycle it somehow. The thrift stores stopped accepting things for a while to avoid getting molded items and overburden of stuff

spread the words!

I'm sorry, THIRTY FIVE GARMENTS???????

The quality of authentic bags is always worrying, and the high price does not allow them to be used for a long time. *regbags* perfectly solves these problems, and is inexpensive and of reliable quality under the premise of being authentic .

gorgeous video, wish more of youtube was this well made, and well thought

That's such a great idea. I have a few items I can add to the store right away!

Just saw someone selling “vintage” poly blend Hanes sweatshirts for $75 lol like sorry what?! $13 from like Walmart, but you washed it and styled it with pushed up sleeves and it’s 6 times more money? No Honey.

"social media" isn't the problem, it's the deliberate strategic monetisation of social media content which is baked into the way social media platforms manage it. Massive social media platforms are BUSINESS they're not fun little communities that are neutral and owned/operated by everyone (even though it can feel that way). That's why content so often feels like an advert these days. Cos it is. Someone is being paid to make that content. It's literally the output of waged labour. Which means making money is the ends and means of the content. Reflect on the aggressive ways in which gigantic media companies squash, buy out, overpower and overshadow smaller independent platforms that stand in opposition to their hegemony/hogging the attention of smartphone users. None of this is a coincidence. None of this is organic. It's deliberate and forced through based on aggressive financial governance

i used to volunteer at a charity shop and i was tasked with sorting through the donated clothes .. a lot the clothes that people donated weren’t able to be resold. mostly because of food stained fabric, sweat stains and the stench of smoke. I think a lot of people have the mentality that “someone will wear it if they can’t afford anything else to wear” and they think they’re doing people a favour, but i definitely think we need to break that kind of thinking in this country and i’m glad GYB are doing something so positive, i’ll definitely be supporting them!

This video including the interviews is so brilliant!

Wow. This initiative is amazing!

Emmas video really bothered me. She claimed to downsize to a “capsule” wardrobe when in reality she ended up still owning a large amount of clothing. It just struck me very much as out of touch and entitled.

I work with people who work in NGOs, and one that supports homeless people mentioned that donations rarely meet their needs. Most homeless people in my city are men, yet the majority of donations are women's clothing. This reflects a broader issue: women are constantly pressured to consume more, stay on trend, and conform to beauty standards, a mentality ingrained in us from a young age. This cycle not only affects women but also perpetuates inefficiencies in aid systems

This is such a general global issue, and I fear that it is going to get worse in my country. In Germany there is a new law now that prohibits throwing away articles of clothing. That sounds like a giod thing, right? But what do I do with the things that are genuinly not wearable anymore? For many people, just chucking them in a donation bin will be the solution. That will bring down the quality of donations so much more...

A lot of clothes that are donated to charity shops are not fit for resale as they are so damaged etc.