Are British people fashionable? Imagine a typical street scene in Manchester,
or Edinburgh, or Cardiff. It is a sunny
day and pedestrians are passing on the high street. How do you picture them dressed – in dowdy
colours and worn t-shirts, or trendy fashions and chic designs?
Apparently, if you are reading this in
Hungary then the chances are good that you are imagining the latter.
I listened to a documentary recently which
explained what happens to the mountains of second-hand clothes donated
in Britain to charity shops. The charity
shops don’t have the expertise to sell the clothes individually for the maximum
profit, so they sell the clothes in bulk to a private company. The clothes then go on an amazing journey and
process of sorting. This private company
moves the clothes to Hungary. According
to the documentary, 100 tons of second-hand clothes are imported into Hungary
from Britain every day. Then the items
are laid out on a conveyor belt and local fashion experts pick out the
best 5 to 10 per cent of the items for re-sale in Hungary. The remaining clothes are sent on to less discriminating
markets in Africa or Pakistan. Material
which cannot be worn but which can be burned is shredded and turned into
energy, and a small per centage (about 1 per cent) ends up as land-fill.
From this mass of donated clothes, a large
industry has thus been created in Hungary.
You can find dozens of these second-hand shops, identifiable by a
British flag outside the store. The
stores receive a fresh stock of clothes each month, and on days when the new
stock is revealed, long queues of eager shoppers form.
One of these shoppers was interviewed and
asked why they were buying discarded clothes from the UK. The woman excitedly praised British
fashion. “They’re so stylish!” She went on to explain the British clothing
brands that she loved, such as Marks and Spencer.
Now I was glad to hear that these clothes
were being put to good use. It’s great
that waste is being minimised. But I
can’t get my head around the idea that Britain is either stylish or produces
high quality clothes.
I tend to buy reasonably simple clothes. I often buy trousers and shirts at Gap, and
t-shirts at Japanese discount retailer Uniqlo.
The t-shirts usually last at least a couple of years before the material
wears out. When it looks too shabby to
be worn outside it goes into my pyjama pile.
In contrast, every t-shirt I buy from Britain is made of super cheap
material and wears out within 6 months.
I bought a t-shirt, the design of which was created by Edwyn Collins, a
singer-songwriter and artist. It was a
lovely design of a salmon that he had painted.
But the t-shirt was pyjama material before the year was out. I could have bought 4 Uniqlo t-shirts for the
price I paid, and they would have each lasted 4 times as long.
My parents once sent me a cheap shirt that
they had picked up in Britain in Primark.
It’s a discount clothing store, something like an Irish/British
equivalent of Uniqlo. But when I tried
to put on the shirt, I found that I couldn’t close the buttons. It had buttons, but the manufacturers had
somehow stitched shut all the button holes.
That was straight into the pyjama pile.
Maybe I just have an unfair prejudice
against British fashion. After all, I’m
British and I’m not fashionable. So how
can anyone else be? But the story of
Britain’s second-hand clothes shows that beauty, and junk, are in the
eyes of the beholder.
Vocabulary:
dowdy – of clothes, styles etc., boring or
unexciting
worn – As an adjective, damaged by repeated
use
chic - stylish
to donate – to give as a gift to charity or
the needy
the latter – When listing two options, the
second one
in bulk – of merchandise, large amounts
taken together
a conveyor belt – in factories, a moving
belt or platform to transport goods automatically
discriminating – selective, choosy or picky
land-fill – rubbish which is buried
underground
a prejudice – an unfair dislike
junk – rubbish or used items of little
value
a beholder – someone who beholds, or sees
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” – An
English idiom, meaning that each person sees beauty in their own way
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