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I spend a lot of time looking at secondhand clothes online. Whenever I’m tired, or bored, or too drained to read the news – I simply go on Vinted, or Depop, or any other online secondhand marketplace, and stare at the pretty colourful blurs. I scroll through the clothes with an almost Pinterest-like detachment: no purpose, no real intention to buy… until suddenly it’s two hours later, and I’m knee-deep in someone’s closet, trying to decide whether to get two boas (it’s cheaper) or stick with just one (I have no use for boas in any amounts).
My online thrift shopping started off nobly enough: in an attempt to limit my consumption, I vowed to shift all of my shopping from high street retailers to vintage shops – but it hasn’t really transformed me into the shopping-indifferent being I hoped it would. In fact, I think it has made my impulse control even worse.
Thrift shopping takes a page out of fast fashion’s book to drive consumption
Fast fashion uses a number of tricks to push us into purchasing more: the quick turnaround cycles and intentionally limited stocks work to convince our brains there’s a shortage of valuable goods that will run out imminently, so we need to act fast!1 But, while fast fashion brands have to artificially manufacture this urgency, secondhand shopping comes with it built in.
Fast fashion retail giant Zara might update their stock twice a week — but vintage platforms follow no schedule. The most beautiful designer bag from the 90s might be posted on Depop at midnight and get snapped up before you’ve even opened your eyes the next morning. Plus, with vintage shopping, you know there’s no duplicates: if you don’t get the piece now, there’s a real chance you might never see it again.
And, as the mainstream media are increasingly advertising secondhand shopping as the solution to fast fashion’s climate problem, the question now becomes: is simply shifting to secondhand shopping enough to cure us from overconsumption? Or are we going to have to fundamentally change the way we think about clothes?
Caring about the climate does not stop overconsumption
Recent research says that despite the growing popularity of resale shopping, the fast fashion market shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, projections predict the global fast fashion market nearly doubling from 151 billion dollars in 2024 to 291 billion by 2032.2 Researchers Meital Mizrachi from Yale University and Ori Sharon from Bar Ilan University, set out to discover the reason behind this apparent paradox.
The scientists surveyed over a thousand consumers in the US and uncovered an unpleasant reality: secondhand shopping did not replace fast fashion consumption, rather it supplemented it. People who reported spending more money in the secondhand sector also spent more on high street clothes. Additionally, while secondhand shoppers said they cared about the environment and reported knowing more about the climate crisis overall, they also bought clothes more often, exhibiting higher volume and frequency of purchases than other groups.
These trends were especially true for younger people. While 79% of the respondents aged 18-24 said they shopped secondhand, this group also showed the most fast-fashion-like behaviors when doing it: their consumption was largely characterised by frequent, low-cost purchases that did not stay in their closet for long. Within a month, 14% of the new clothes were discarded.
What drives overconsumption?
While these statistics sound rather grim, the scientists believe the behaviour is not driven by ignorance or malintention, but rooted in the way our brains process information. Mizrachi and Sharon suggest that the ‘rebound effect’ and ‘moral licensing’ – two behavioural patterns in psychology – are to blame.
In moral licensing, a person starts to feel like they’ve earned ‘moral credit’ to do something bad after they’ve done something right.3 Normally, if I buy an H&M shirt I know I don’t need, I’ll agonise over it for the next week. But, if I resist the fast-fashion urge and get the shirt secondhand, I’ll go home with glee instead of guilt. That glee from having made the more ethical choice might then whisper in my ear, telling me to get a skirt too, and a bag, and a neck scarf too. Don’t I deserve a treat for all the ethical decisions I’m making?
The rebound effect exacerbates that feeling. With the rebound effect, you make the more environmentally and financially responsible choice, and then immediately blow all those gained savings and benefits on something you did not even plan for when making that first decision.4 For example, get a more eco-friendly car, and decide to test-drive it to Scotland. Thrift one pair of Lulu Lemon pants, and then buy another five to celebrate. The rebound effect drives up consumption by lowering the perceived cost of an action. Because, in a roundabout way, the less guilt we feel about a purchase, the more likely we are to go back and buy more.
How to fight the monkey brain impulse
Now, I am not claiming you need to quit thrift shopping cold-turkey, after all, I have about fifteen items saved on my Vinted account right now. But, I do think it is important we learn to recognise where these fast-fashion-esque impulses come from. That way, we can learn to control them. By being able to recognise the drivers of our behaviours, we can pull them out of the subconscious and strip them of the ability to puppeteer our choices without us even understanding why.
So, next time you score a beautiful piece at the charity shop, don’t let that joy blind you into a fast fashion purchase. Instead, reward yourself by enjoying something that will bring your day value: stop by your favourite art gallery, stroll through your favourite park, or simply go into that coffee place you have been meaning to try. And so maybe, with time, our brains can rewire to link those rewards to thoughtful experiences rather than meaningless things.
If you want to find out more about the resale market’s fast fashion problem, here are some resources:
In this article, Abigail Austin explains why secondhand shopping does not work for everyone https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/aug/17/say-less-to-the-dress-why-im-cutting-back-on-secondhand-clothes-shopping
In this article, Elsie McDowell talks about the reality of donated clothes:
https://www.varsity.co.uk/fashion/26290
Or, if you’d like a deep dive into the world of fast fashion and what it’s doing to our planet, here is a fantastic book by Dana Thomas: https://www.danathomas.com/fashionopolis.html
Article written by Dasha Sokol
References
Primary Paper:
Mizrachi, M. P., and Sharon, R. (2025). Secondhand fashion consumers exhibit fast fashion behaviors despite sustainability narratives. Scientific Reports, 15, 34968. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-19089-1
Other references:
- Lin, A. (2022). Driven to shop: The psychology of fast fashion. Earth Day. Available at: https://www.earthday.org/driven-to-shop-the-psychology-of-fast-fashion/
- Cardona, N. (2025). Fast fashion statistics (2025). Uniform Market. Available at: https://www.uniformmarket.com/statistics/fast-fashion-statistics
- Gholamzadehmir, M., et al. (2019). Moral licensing, moral cleansing and pro-environmental behavior: The moderating role of pro-environmental attitudes. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 65, 101334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.101334
- Alfredsson, E., and Malmaeus, M. (2025). Vocabulary for sustainable consumption and lifestyles: A language for our common future. Chapter 21: Rebound Effects. pp.109-112. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003584056
