Customers are walking away from fast fashion and buying more pre-loved clothes, according to owners of local vintage and thrift shops.

“Not only are the clothes unique and irresistible. There are many who are not into fast fashion and looking for a sustainable option,” the owner of the Sliema TaylorMaid Vintage outlet said.

And the lack of options for unique clothing in Malta is also a driving factor, said Laura Taylor.

Her shop on the busy Sliema front opened in April and has caught the attention of customers of all ages.

“A lot of people say ‘thank you, we needed this’ when they enter the store. The thing with vintage clothing is that you will always find something unique.”

And it’s not only Taylor who has seen a growing interest in pre-loved and vintage shops.

The CEO of the Chamber of SMEs, Abigail Mamo, said the demand for local thrift and repair shops is growing.

It also reflects the concept of a circular economy, reusing and recycling what consumers already have.

While there are no statistics on how many thrift shops have opened, anecdotally, a number of businesses have taken on the concept of reducing and reusing goods.

“This is also linked to culture. There is more awareness of sustainability and reducing waste, and this reflects on the demand and growing interest from Maltese consumers for such businesses.”

As the island sees more thrift and swapping events popping up, and social media flooded with people thrifting clothes, Times of Malta spoke to the people who have made the motto “one man’s trash is another person’s treasure” their business.

Childhood memories of thrifting

Growing up, Taylor would spend hours with her mother in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, at car boot sales looking for treasure among piles of clothes.

Yet, the idea of setting up a vintage shop only came to her after her mother died in December 2020. Trying to cope with her mother’s loss, she began to clear out her wardrobe, and a friend suggested that she tries to sell some of her more unique pieces.

She went on to set up a website and build a strong online community that shared a love for unique vintage pieces. Now, she runs her colourful store in Sliema, selling a variety of clothes.

“It feels like a little gift from my mum. She would have the best time in my shop if she was here. I named it after her, Taylor is her maiden name and I picked the sunflower logo because it is her favourite flower.”

It takes years of knowledge to know what you are looking for

Taylor picks up every garment found on her clothing racks, sourced from different countries.

“It takes years of knowledge to know what you are looking for and where to find it and, to be honest, it’s not always easy finding great quality vintage.”

Searching for pieces, Taylor always looks out for quality and uniqueness, with a particular lookout for brands such as Gunne Sax, Laura Ashely and Yves Saint Laurent.

While it is a lengthy and costly process, she said it is worth it.

The ugly side of overconsumption

The brains and curator of thrift.mt, Christian Bartolo Burlò, was first introduced to the world of thrifting last year while studying in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“Copenhagen is known as the capital of thrifting and every Sunday I used to visit this massive warehouse which would have never-ending rows of rails full of second-hand clothes, people talking and socialising.”

When he returned to Malta earlier this year, he knew he wanted to create a community of people interested in thrifting and being “more unique”.

The 25-year-old computer science PhD student set up a website and began to reach out locally to swap and sell clothes. Three months ago, he opened Thrift.mt at The Mad Culture concept store in Żabbar.

Yet, Burlò began to see a large number of clothes hailing from fast-fashion brands.

Fast fashion can be defined as cheap clothes that copy ideas from recent catwalk trends and high-fashion designers and are produced at a low cost.

While customers may be allured by the low prices of high-street clothing, making them buy more frequently, research has shed light on the ugly side of the overconsumption of fast fashion.

“Our fashion culture revolves around big names like Zara, Bershka and Shein, and I didn’t want these brands in my shop, so I did my homework and started to search for suppliers abroad where I could find different clothing brands which are hard to find locally.”

Just like Taylor, Burlò takes the time, effort and expense to hunt for specific garments that end up hanging on his railings.

It’s become cool to buy sustainable

Apart from selling pre-owned clothes, Burlò is also working on an upcycling project that focuses on creating new clothes with previously used materials.

“It’s become cool to buy sustainable. People may not be realising they are doing a good thing for the environment by not buying new clothes,” he said, pointing out that the majority of clients are aged 16 to 20.

Both Taylor and Burlò said their outlets have been mistaken as charity shops.

“People would say ‘but it’s been worn before, so it’s secondhand’, it’s true but not all second-hand clothes are vintage,” Taylor said.

For a garment to be considered vintage, it must be over 20 years old.

“The age of the item and the rarity reflects the pricing. Clothing made 50 years ago is still around today because it was not mass-produced like many clothes today, and most likely it will last another 50 years if you treat it well.”

A play that weaves the real story behind your clothes

During the Science in the City festival last month, three theatremakers and practitioners produced What We Wear, a show exploring the story, use and origins of the clothes we wear.

The minds behind the play – Maria Agius Muscat, Zofia Stelmaszczyk and Alex Weenink – collaborated with Lorraine Portelli, a lecturer in fashion studies, and Tonya Lehtinen, the owner behind Gozitan second-hand shop Vogue Xchange, to fully understand what it means when we speak about sustainable fashion and how we can adopt small practices which can have a big impact on our environment.

“On a local scale, we see that tailors and seamstresses are still very popular, and we don’t give them enough credit,” Agius Muscat said.

“There are also loads of charity shops and thrift shops. The more we searched, the more we found. There are also many local initiatives on how to correctly dispose of textiles you no longer need. When you begin to search and look, you will find so many options.”

“Clothes are also a tool of expression, a tool of being fun and creative,” Weenink added.

“Clothes are special and have a history. Fast fashion makes us look at clothes as mere objects of consumption – we buy, we use and then we throw away.

When in reality they are objects that identify who we are and can also be very special when passed down through our family.”