Why Shop Vintage?
A shoot from our Spring Look Book
Vintage clothing is a lot more than unique styles, beautiful prints, and well-worn denim (but let’s be honest, it’s all of those things too). For us, our passion for vintage runs deeper than that. It’s also the magic in the quality of every find, and what that quality allows us to achieve - sustainable, slow fashion. Good for Instagram, good for the Earth, good for small businesses. It’s really that simple.
We wanted to highlight all the reasons why we do what we do here at May’s Place - Why we strive for the best quality, fashion-forward vintage for our customers, and what it means to us and to the planet when you buy.
1. Vintage is Sustainable
In 2020, pretty much everyone has heard of fast fashion, A.K.A the second largest polluting industry next to oil production. The constant race to create the next best thing in fashion is paying a much larger price when you look at the big picture. Forever 21 and Zara produce one million garments PER DAY, sometimes with as little as 15 days from concept to sales floor. The amount of resources required for production of that scale is totally unfathomable. The industry’s most used material, cotton, is one of the most pesticide intensive crops on the planet, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
How does buying vintage combat this?
Vintage clothing gives garments a second life. Vintage clothing items can be upcycled and repurposed for decades to come, at zero cost to the environment. Plus, the old-school style of clothing is constantly trending so vintage style is literally timeless.
2. Quality Over Quantity
Fashion is cyclical. Modern brands pull influence from styles of the past. So, the question is, why not just own the original? And why not get them and keep them for longer? There was a time when clothes were made to last, unlike modern fast fashion and throw-away culture (the average American throws away 81 pounds of clothing per year). The clothes that were made to last is the heart of vintage clothing culture. It’s why we love the magic of the find so much.
How does this benefit you?
It saves you money, of course! The money you use to buy some vintage jeans will be actually worth it. The vintage garment you purchase will last (and get compliments) for years and years to come, not months.
3. Small Business Support
The handmade and vintage clothing industry is important based on everything we’ve mentioned so far, but there is a key piece to the puzzle that keeps us going - Community. Especially in COVID times, local community is a huge part of the small business retail space. Nothing brings people together like supporting each other through buying and selling.
The long-term effect?
Supporting small businesses helps the connection between you and your local community. If we all spent $100 more with small businesses it adds so many millions to the local economy in the long run. It’s relationship-based money that lasts.
Whether it be for the aesthetics, the quality or the environmental factors, we are always encouraging folks to #BEGREENBUYVINTAGE..