Secondhand Style — rethink your wardrobe
Fast fashion is filling our landfills — the team set out to change the trend by making secondhand the easy, appealing choice.
A staggering 180,000 tonnes of clothing go to landfill in NZ every year. The Secondhand Clothing team ran a campaign to reduce clothing waste by encouraging more people to choose secondhand, upcycled, and swapped clothing instead of buying new — supported by a secondhand fashion show and clothing-swap experiments.
Why secondhand?
The fashion industry produces around 10% of global carbon emissions and is the second-largest consumer of water. Fast fashion generates enormous waste, uses harmful chemicals, and often relies on exploitative labour.
💡 Smart
Save up to 80% versus retail, and find unique pieces with character mass-produced items lack.
♻️ Sustainable
Extending a garment's life by just 9 months cuts its carbon, water, and waste footprints by 20–30% each.
✨ Stylish
Curate a truly individual wardrobe with vintage gems that show your personality better than fast fashion.
"We've learned how much pressure and stigma still exist around secondhand clothes."
"It's not just op shops — it's swaps, repairs, upcycling, online finds, and more."
The pledges
Pledge 1
Make at least half your clothing purchases secondhand or upcycled for the next 6 months.
Pledge 2
Make your next 3 clothing purchases secondhand — unless you truly can't find what you need.
Clothing swaps
Alongside the pledges, the team ran clothing swaps and a secondhand fashion show to prove how much life is left in pre-loved clothing. To keep swaps going they looked for volunteers to set up and run events, clothing racks to display items, and venues to host — every contribution helping build a more sustainable fashion community.
Part of the Earthminds Nelson pilot
This was one of six youth-led projects in the 2025 pilot.