Thrift Twirls to Empower Girls
Mission
To use upcycled fashion to empower young women and girls in underprivileged communities.
Purpose
Throughout my life, I’ve always been very passionate about female empowerment. It’s been incredibly exciting to see how far women have come after spending so long in the shadows. The female icons of today have shown the world how strong and successful empowered women can be, and all I can hope is that more and more women will feel empowered enough to continue this momentum.
While many may see it as a low priority in a day and age where we’re not supposed to be judging women based on their looks, I do think that fashion can play a large role in empowering women. I have always believed that fashion has the ability to change peoples’ lives. Feeling comfortable and confident in your wardrobe goes a long way. For me, personally, finding myself as a person came with finding my style and what made me feel good about myself. For a while, I shrunk myself as a person because I was uncomfortable and unhappy with how I looked. It was only when I started to really focus on what I was wearing that I was able to come out of my shell and discover my true potential. Once I stopped spending so much of my energy worrying about how I looked and what other people thought of me, I was able to devote myself to the things in life that brought me purpose. I now feel almost unstoppable, and I want other women and young girls to feel the same. I want to help others find themselves in the way that I did so they can focus on themselves and become the people they want to be.
Uniqueness
There are so many organizations out there that collect donated clothing and either re-sell them or give them directly to people in need. There are also a large amount of physical and online thrift shops and consignment stores. But we want to do more than just pass on the same clothes. We want to create unique, trendy items that will help young women and girls feel special, stylish, and beautiful. We want to create pieces that they will be proud to wear, and that will help them build their own sense of self.
Business Model
Like any other second-hand/thrift store, we will collect second-hand clothing and textiles through donation drives and a regularly operated open donation center. But instead of turning around and selling those clothes as they are, we will have a team of designers and seamstresses that will flip/upcycle them to create new, unique, trendy pieces. We’ll then sell those new pieces to young women and girls in underprivileged communities that do not have as much access to independent retailers. We plan to donate all profits from our sales to female-owned small clothing businesses.
Sustainability
Fast fashion is a growing sector of the fashion industry that treats clothes as disposable. To create clothing large quantities of clothing each season that they can sell at very low prices, fast fashion companies cycle through large amounts of water, dye, oil, and chemicals which harms the environment. Additionally, many fast fashion companies rely on cheap labor in countries where workers’ rights are extremely limited and sometimes nonexistent. These factories exploit workers and subject them to excessive hours and nominal pay in very poor and even dangerous working conditions.
Slow fashion refers to mindful shopping that prioritizes the planet, whether it be through second-hand purchases, minimal purchases, and/or prioritizing clothing made from natural fabrics. Thrift flipping is a newly popular form of slow fashion that encourages both environmental responsibility and individual creativity. It allows people to create new pieces that align with current trends out of existing clothing rather than newly produced fabrics. In essence, thrift flipping upcycles old clothes to make new ones.
Throwing out old clothing is also very bad for the environment. Most fabrics and textiles that are thrown out end up in landfills that create greenhouse gases and harm the environment. And on top of that, it encourages further production of new fabrics and textiles. Donating clothes for resale or distribution keeps them out of landfills and in circulation. Textile recycling is also important in keeping textiles out of landfills, which is why we will make sure that any fabric scraps are brought to a recycling center that will properly recycling them.
In these ways, Thrift Twirls for Empowered Girls not only supports female empowerment, but it also supports environmental sustainability.
Why Invest?
We are looking for investments to help us hire a team of seamstresses that will make these flips and their resulting impacts possible. Without investors, Thrift Twirls will not be able to flourish and reach its full potential.
Thrift Twirls is devoted to using sustainable fashion to empower young women and girls and help build their confidence. We also believe in giving back and paying it forward, which is why all of our profits will be donated to female-owned small clothing businesses.
An investment in Thrift Twirls is an investment in bettering the environment and the lives of the female leaders of the future.
Sources
“Fashion Forward: Use Fashion to Feel Empowered.” Syracuse Woman Magazine, 7 Mar. 2020, www.syracusewomanmag.com/2020/03/07/fashion-forward-use-fashion-to-feel-empowered/.
Loewe, Emma. “So, What Does ‘Slow Fashion’ Actually Mean & Why Is It Important?”, MBGPlanet, MindBodyGreen, 4 Aug. 2020, www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/what-does-slow-fashion-mean-and-why-is-it-important.
Mers, Tony. “7 Important Reasons to Recycle Your Clothes.” GreenDrop Official Blog, GreenDrop, LLC, 4 Mar. 2020, www.gogreendrop.com/blog/7-important-reasons-to-recycle-your-clothes/.
Schipani, Sam. “The Impact of Textiles and the Clothing Industry on the Environment.” Hello Homestead, 15 Jan. 2019, hellohomestead.com/the-impact-of-textiles-and-clothing-industry-on-the-environment/#:~:text=The%20impact%20of%20textiles%20and%20clothing%20industry%20on%20the%20environment,and%20viscose%20contributes%20to%20deforestation.
“Working Conditions in the Fashion Industry.” Sustain Your Style, www.sustainyourstyle.org/old-working-conditions.
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