Holly Warren: Five things shopping secondhand has taught me about clothes

Buying secondhand offered me a different pace. No seasonal edits, no TikTok algorithm dictating my taste, just clothes

Holly Warren: "Shopping secondhand trains your eye. You begin to notice details: the weight of wool, the feel of natural fibres, the difference between hand-stitching and factory hems."

There is something unassuming yet quietly powerful about shopping secondhand. It doesn’t just change the way I buy clothes; it changes the way I see myself in them. Shopping secondhand cuts through the noise: the branding, the trends, the pressure to keep up. 

I didn’t turn to it out of a desire to be ‘quirky.’ I turned to it because I was worn out by disposable fashion, by silhouettes that flattered mannequins but never me, and by clothes that promised transformation but delivered only repetition.