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Woman Vows To Wear Only Secondhand Clothes For One Year

365 Days Of Secondhand Clothes
ReDressed/Instagram

Talk about eco-chic!

Christina Dean, the founder of ReDress, an organization whose goal is to promote environmental sustainability in the fashion industry, is only wearing secondhand clothes (except for underwear and shoes) for all 365 days of 2013.

Dean, who is chronicling her fashionable journey on the ReDress Instagram page, is wearing "100% dumped, discarded or donated secondhand clothes" which will be donated to charity after being worn.

Story continues after slideshow:

Christina Dean

Christina Dean Wears Secondhand Clothes For A Year

The clothes are sourced with the help of Friends of the Earth and Dean's ensembles (she picks out about 30 outfits from a recycling centre in Hong Kong once a month) are put together by 12 stylists to show that fashionable looks can be created everyday out of worn clothing which helps prevent landfill waste.

Fashion consumption has increased approximately 60% over the past 10 years. As a result, we have witnessed a general increase in clothing waste rates entering landfill. In Hong Kong in 2011, 217 tonnes of textiles were dumped into our three landfills – every day. In the UK almost 10,000 garments were dumped into landfill – every five minutes.

Meanwhile, almost 100% of textiles are recyclable. They can be restyled, reconstructed and repaired in a multitude of creative and cost-saving ways. Finally, clothes can be recycled, upcycled or downcycled to give them a ‘new’ life – reducing pressure on virgin resources and landfill.

So what kind of looks does the chic environmentalist help put together?

A white dress with a strip of sari fashioned into a belt for a splash of colour; harem pants paired with a sexy swimsuit; bright blue skinny trousers and a trendy sheer top and adorable denim dungarees with a white button-up.

Dean told the Guardian what she hopes comes out of the project:

"This daily dressing up in other people's trash has shed professional light on the fashion industry's problem – consumers. We thoughtlessly yearn for new clothes to keep us within just a few pages of the current fashion magazines' trends. The fashion industry responds (if not yelps for joy) at our willingness to cough up cash for clothes designed for premature cardiac arrest. As a result, consumers are driving a creative, cultural and skilful industry into a cheap, chuck-away unvalued cesspit.

Put plainly, even if fashion does clean up its act, unless consumers do the same with their wardrobe habits then we're still in the same stinking situation."

Anna Wintour would be proud!

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