Primrose Archer Wears An Oxfam Wedding Dress on the Final Cover of Our 20th Anniversary Issue – OUT NOW!

As the charity’s senior independent fashion advisor, Garnett styles shoots and fashion shows to raise awareness of the organisation and, this spring, will curate a pop-up Oxfam shop in Selfridges, Oxford Street, slap-bang in the middle of the designer floor, rubbing shoulders with the Prada and Balenciaga boutiques.

That pride-of-place adjacency says a lot about where second-hand, preloved and vintage sit in the grand scheme of fashion now. Whether it’s kids flipping trainers on Depop or fashion ladies clearing their closets on Vestiaire or scooping up #OldCeline on The RealReal, the audience for pre-owned clothes is growing way beyond the traditional charity shop. And with second-hand-clothes’ sales set to be worth $50 billion by 2023 (twice what it is now), this is not just a fad.

It’s good news for Oxfam, who expect to see revenues from their retail stores boom in the coming decade. “Over the past few years we’ve seen a huge growth in the interest and acceptability of wearing second-hand,” says Fee Gilfeather, head of audience and strategic planning at Oxfam. “Historically there’s been stigma around wearing second-hand clothing. Vintage has always been a more acceptable term for it because it makes it all feel slightly more unique and specialist. But now people are beginning to realise that all second-hand clothing is a good sustainable choice. You can get good outfits, you can create your own, individual look.”

Garnett would agree that times and attitudes are changing. Not since she shot Kate Moss in pre-owned looks for British Vogue in 2003 has she been asked to do a dedicated second-hand shoot. Prepping for her 10 commission, Garnett trawled the wedding-dress section of the Oxfam website and ran riot in the charity’s Kingston upon Thames store, one of the charity’s 12 dedicated bridal boutiques dotted around the country. “It’s thrilling, it really is. It’s really touching. It’s beautifully done. There were classic 1980s Laura Ashley dresses, Picnic at Hanging Rock 1970s-style ones, 1980s Patti Hansen frills, and then there are all the 1950s and ’60s ones.” And not just dresses – veils and gloves and shoes are also part of this treasure trove, as well as bridesmaid and mother-of-the-bride looks. “And it’s all in mint condition,” says Garnett.

Some of the best pieces in Garnett’s wardrobe come from Oxfam. “My favourite coat in the world is a 1970s Jaeger herringbone, made in Scotland. It’s the best-cut

thing ever.” On a recent shoot, she found a phone number in the pocket of a 1940s wedding dress that had been donated to Oxfam. Intrigued, she called and was put through to the original owner’s daughter. Her mother had been an avid Oxfam volunteer and would have been delighted to know her wedding dress was enjoying a second life with Garnett.

Garnett has also been out to Jordanian refugee camps to see Oxfam at work and says that shopping with the charity is not just a sustainable, stylistic choice – “It is giving back to the poorest people in the world.”

Gilfeather is keen to draw a direct link between climate emergency and fashion. She talks of unsustainable levels of waste, including the 11m garments going to landfill in the UK every week.

“The fast-fashion and textile industry globally accounts for more carbon emissions than international aviation and shipping combined. It’s a huge contributor to climate change,” she says. “At Oxfam we are working in the poorest countries at the front line of climate change. They are experiencing the climate emergency in the form of extreme weather, droughts, floods, and scarcity of food. We know they are experiencing the climate emergency now rather than it being something that’s going to happen in the future.”

As we head towards the UN’s 2030 deadline for sustainable development, it’s clear that second-hand will play an increasingly important role in fashion. Garnett is buoyed by a new generation who are recasting consumption and, with it, their relationship with fashion. “Do you remember when being a consumer was utterly celebrated?” says Garnett, who recalls her former magazine colleagues trotting off on shopping sprees every lunchtime. “That was happening. It was all about buying stuff, but that has changed.”

Bay Garnett sourced the clothes for this shoot from the wedding boutique at Oxfam, 17 High Street, Kingston upon Thames, and online. Oxfam fashion raises money to help the world’s poorest people access the basics in life, such as clean water, and fights for their right to be paid a fair wage and protected against climate change. Find gorgeous, sustainable, poverty-fighting fashion at Oxfam’s high-street shops and the Oxfam online shop.

@10magazine