We've all felt that pressure. Pressure to be pretty. Pressure to be fashionable. Pressure to look effortlessly stylish. Fitting in, while standing out. It's a juggling act. But the implications of the clothes hanging on our racks and warming our backs extend far beyond our own self-image.
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The modern clothing industry has detrimental impacts on our planet. But there's no need to panic, because the vintage industry has us covered. Literally.
The vintage vibe in Newcastle is stronger than ever, and founder of local vintage label Chinchen St, Bonnie Lee Tipper, says there's a huge vintage community in Newcastle.
It's a varied, something-for-everyone style that has led people to make the change to pre-loved fashion and kickstart the vintage revolution.
Bonnie is a designer at heart. Creating clothes from old materials her mum used to bring home led her to study design at university and inspired her love for vintage clothing and handmade goods. For the past two-and-a-half years, Bonnie has been managing her flourishing brand Chinchen St.
She describes the label as "handpicked vintage" - items personally picked out by Bonnie from op-shops, collections, donated goods and deceased estates. She also releases her own handmade collections once a year, styled off the "fantasy characters" she envisions.
Bonnie says her favourite collection - "It was just nuts" - came from a '90s European model. "It was so beautiful and so varied. You can see their travels, you can see their body getting bigger and smaller." It's an experience the shopping centres just can't provide.
Although fashion is her passion, environmental considerations are "at the complete core of everything" Chinchen St does. "Everything that's handmade is also made out of recycled materials and I make it all myself ... I even try to get secondhand buttons and zippers where I can."
The environmental impacts of the "fast fashion" industry, the world-wide machine churning out hundreds of thousands of cheap, mass-produced goods, are extensive. According to a recent industry report, Measuring Fashion by Quantis International ClimateWorks, apparel and footwear industries account for 8 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
To put that in perspective, the world's entire international and domestic transport system accounts for 14 per cent.
The average Australian purchases 27 kilograms of new clothes each year and, on average, discards 23 kilograms each year. The majority of these cannot be recycled because the modern fast-fashion industry is making "really, really bad quality products", Bonnie says.
The life cycle of clothes is something that "designers have to consider". According to Quantis International ClimateWorks, even just 2 million tonnes of clothing being recycled globally each year would be the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the street.
It is "scary" statistics like these that 21-year-old University of Newcastle student Andra Derrick wishes "people were talking about to the public more".
Like many people, Andra had to overcome the stigma surrounding second-hand clothing: "It was only when I found a few amazing things at op-shops that I was like 'wow, these places are unreal!'."
One of Andra's favourite items is a pre-loved coat, picked up for $8 at an op-shop. "I love that pink corduroy jacket ... and I've really worn it. It just seamlessly goes from day to night," she says.
I love that pink corduroy jacket . . . and I've really worn it. It just seamlessly goes from day to night.
- Andra Derrick
Understandably, it can be hard and time-consuming sorting through an op-shop's stock, trying to pick out the diamonds in the rough. Especially if there's "somebody who fashion and style doesn't come naturally to them, or is a bit nervous, like 'Am I wearing the right thing this season? Is this trendy? Is this fashionable?' Whatever it is, this is us picking it out for you. We're saying it is. It is. We've got you sorted. This is stylish. I promise", says Bonnie.
Cream is another local vintage store based in Newcastle and Sydney.
In line with their name-sake idiom "cream of the crop", their guarantee is vintage-style clothes that are on trend.
One of Cream's biggest attractions is "up-cycling". Fashion changes so quickly that an industry struggle, and personal struggle, is keeping up. Andra says this means people often buy clothes where "they've just seen it on television, they've just seen it on a model, so they want to go and buy it straight away".
"People just don't think before they buy," she says.
Ellie Smith, manager of Cream on Hunter, Newcastle, says that's the benefit of shopping vintage.
"The clothes are there and the materials are there and you can just manipulate them in certain ways to move with what the people want."
And this is exactly what Cream and Bonnie aim for.
"We're giving it a new life. It's reworked as something new. It's not the same basic thing," Ellie says.
Up-cycling at Cream includes men's Ralph Lauren shirts becoming dresses, women's shirts and backpacks. There's something for the boys, too, with vintage surf and graphic T-shirts popular.
Bonnie also nurtures sustainability by reducing waste, turning scraps into scrunchies. And when someone says to her "This looks like it's made of old curtains", she embraces it, replying "Yes, because it is made out of old curtains".
"An oxymoronic thing is that vintage is the way of the future," Ellie says. But one tragic effect of this trend is that fake vintage is becoming a huge part of fast fashion.
"It's ironic that vintage is becoming so mainstream that people are now buying fake vintage which is actually worse for the environment. It's a vintage rock T-shirt? Well no it's not, it was made last year and washed in some bleach," Bonnie says.
"Why buy reproduction '70s faded jeans when you could just get the actual ones for the same price? It's crazy. You could get some that have been worn in."
And that's exactly what Andra did. Tired of spending money on goods that perish, Andra bought a pair of Levi jeans from Cream that "were probably 20 years old" which have been an absolute staple in her wardrobe since.
Michelle Gearin, who also works at Cream, taunted Ellie about a new item in-store.
"There's something in someone's bag out there, it's this amazing sloppy joe, no, it's like an incredible sloppy joe. You might have to fight over it."
It's one-of-a-kind pieces like these that Bonnie loves most.
"I honestly get the most broad range of customers," she says, "It's so interesting."
She tries not to get railroaded into sticking to one trend.
"It's about individualism. Everybody's one in a million, so everybody's going to pick something different, so our stuff isn't for just one type of girl or guy. It's for everybody."
But it isn't for everybody, according to Fiona Forde, a 22-year old university student.
"You can't force everyone to shop vintage. Some people, it just isn't their style," she says.
Although fast fashion can be cheap, Bonnie says people need to consider the future.
Andra believes there needs to be more transparency from apparel companies: "If people want to shop there, that's great, but we need to make sure that what is sold there is more environmentally friendly."
Bonnie says the worst thing you can do is buy 10 fast-fashion tops and then only wear one of them.
"If you put that money together, you could buy one that you really like. Then, wear it hundreds and hundreds of times," she says.
Ellie said we should be consciously looking for things that last, "things that you can pass onto somebody else without it falling apart". And this is where the primary benefit of shopping vintage comes in, she says: it has an "old quality that you just can't get in clothes today".
The fast-fashion industry sickens professionals like Bonnie and Michelle. Bonnie calls it "terrifying" and "infuriating", while Michelle describes it as "repulsive". Even consumers like Fiona, who loves a bargain, can't shake a guilty conscience.
"When clothes are that cheap, it's usually too good to be true," she says.
Donating old clothes to the op-shop is beneficial, as it stops more chemicals and artificial particles going into landfill. However, the problem is op-shops are so overstocked with poor quality clothes that many don't even reach the racks.
In cases like this, "you're just shifting the blame onto someone else", Bonnie says. "Op-shops have really clever ways of reusing things like that, like using them as rags, but it's a burden on them."
Authentic vintage and op-shopping is the easiest way to shop sustainably. Bonnie encourages customers to bring their own bags to her pop-up shops and Cream exclusively use paper bags.
"You can find some really amazing things. It's worth giving it a try," Andra says.
According to Michelle, if you do give it a try, you won't regret it.
"I mean, it just promotes itself because it's f - - king cool."
Bonnie says having a sustainable mindset is so important when searching for clothes.
"Other nations are pretty much copping it, and the planet is copping it."
But you can, and will, be saving our planet while feeling stylish and effortlessly "you" wearing the "weird and wacky, one-in-a-million" clothes anyone can find at a vintage store.
They promise.