‘Fit Check! Top from ukay, jeans from ukay, and shoes from ukay!’

When you think of places like Cubao, Quiapo, and Baguio, what goes into your mind? These cities in the Philippines always remind me of thrift stores or ukay-ukay in the Filipino language. Shopping in ukay-ukay stores and purchasing items whether it be for fashion, decoration, or education, is such a steal!

Annually, World Thrift Day is celebrated on the 31st of October all throughout the world to promote the habit and significance of saving, thrifting, and reusing items. We can relate this important day to sustainable fashion.

A recent story published in ABS-CBN news that our ‘Ukay Queen’ Shaira Luna shared this August caused a sensation among the netizens with her hundred peso vintage wedding dress. If you don’t know Shaira Luna, she is a photographer who is famous for her amazing works as well as for supporting sustainable fashion. With her low-budget wedding dress, she proved that sustainability can still be one’s best friend on everything, even weddings. She is the moment and she is truly an icon. Shaira Luna has also collaborated with several content creators like Mimiyuuh, multiple times on videos about thrift shopping in different cities here in the Philippines.

On the contrary, there is a term we call fast fashion. Fast fashion can be defined as inexpensive, trendy clothing that multiple businesses produce to give their customers stylish and trendy clothing. Given the benefits it could give consumers, it’s the opposite when it comes to the environment. Some factors contribute to textile waste because of fast fashion. For example, the cost of a clothing item can cause a consumer to dispose of it eventually because we tend to see it as less valuable. There are more problems fast fashion contributes to the environment such as water pollution and carbon dioxide emission.

Being sustainable through thrifting could help people and the environment. Not only that, but it provides us with the essence of saving and reusing items on a daily basis, which is important to embrace and empower.