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By Emily Mee, from the Money team

Attitudes are changing, and more and more of us are hitting charity shops and second hand clothing sites such as Vinted when we fancy some retail therapy. 

Lindsay Edwards, a personal stylist from Bedfordshire, has ditched her reliance on fast fashion – and even spent a year buying only second hand. 

Now, she’s encouraging others to do the same in her personal styling sessions. 

“I was very aware I was buying more clothes than I needed. I think we all have a bit of an emotional response to shopping. We get paid, we hit the shops, we feel good – they call it retail therapy for a reason,” she says. 

“It does feel like therapy – it gives us that dopamine buzz.

“The further I was getting into my styling journey, the more I realised you can still get that buzz from creating outfits from clothes you’ve already got. You can still get that buzz from hitting the charity shops or Vinted or pre-loved items. Things don’t have to be new to feel new.”

Ms Edwards says that after doing a sustainability course with the London College of Style, she realised the damaging impact fast fashion is having on the environment – and the psychological tricks retailers use to “give us this feeling of urgency and needing to keep up”. 

And there’s another problem with buying new. 

“If you’ve been into one shop, you’ve almost been into them all – they’re all working to one colour palette and it’s a lot of the same styles just ever so slightly different from brand to brand.

“If you go to a charity shop or you shop on Vinted, you’ve got almost decades’ worth of styles and choices and colour and pattern and fabrics.” 

So what are her tips on getting the most out of shopping second hand? 

Head to charity shops in the most affluent area local to you. Because of the local demographic, you’ll tend to get slightly higher quality items donated. 

Go on Saturday mornings. This is usually when the highest load of donations has been received and is starting to be placed on the shop floor – meaning you’ll get first dibs. 

Get friendly with the volunteers. They’re often more than happy to help and know where all the best items are, and if there’s anything in the back that hasn’t hit the shop floor yet. 

Be open-minded about what you might find. If you’re heading to a charity shop, you might not be able to go with a list of what you want. Ms Edwards says because she is 5’10 she rarely finds trousers that fit her in charity shops – but she’s more likely to find good tops. 

Continue to shop consciously. Make sure you’re not just being lured in by a low price and that it is actually something that will work with your wardrobe. 

Get over the ‘taboo’ of shopping second hand. Ms Edwards says attitudes towards charity shopping used to be worse, and she’d even heard someone say “I’d never shop in a charity shop because it’s dead people’s clothes”. But perceptions are changing and people are becoming more sustainability aware. Plus, it’s worth noting plenty of second hand items still have the tags on them and are unworn.