Sustainable fashion is becoming increasingly popular in Dublin as shoppers become environmentally conscious.
The fashion industry is a major contributor to climate change, accounting for 8-10% of global carbon emissions and nearly 20% of wastewater.
Kilogarm is a Dublin-based company that sells vintage clothing and designer brands, encouraging Dublin consumers to steer clear of fast fashion while saving money.
Julia Walsh, Operations Manager at Kilogarm, spoke to Dublin Live ahead of their kilo pop-up sale at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel on Sunday February 20.
She said: “It’s a vintage/used clothing sale where everything is priced by weight. Our slogan is buy, weigh, pay.
“So you shop and look around, bring everything to the checkout and weigh it and the weight is how you determine how much you pay.
“You can get as little or as much as you want, you can get a t-shirt for five or less, we rarely have people coming to buy a thing because there are a lot of unique options, that’s awesome in terms of trying to find a bargain.
“Most of the time, heavier products are higher quality, like Levi’s denim jeans.
“A lot of people who come to our events think we’re like a charity shop, but we source clothes from suppliers who try to save clothes from landfill. It’s unwanted clothes that have been collected.
“We bring them in, categorize them, check the quality and preserve them as best we can from the landfill. We are focused on bringing new life to vintage and second-hand.
Julia explained how the clothes are in fantastic condition and how you can get a bargain.
“It’s only when you’ve actually gotten there that you realize ‘wow, that’s like the stuff I could literally find in a high street store,'” she added.
“Almost everything is in almost immaculate condition thanks to the quality control we have. You might have a little wear, but you can see that the material is really cool, different and of high quality.
“Even track jackets from the 80s and 90s, you can’t get that quality anymore, it’s fun too, you’re not walking into a store that’s geared towards specific trends. There’s such a variety of clothing.
“You’re not going to find the same thing twice in there, what we love is it’s fun, it’s unique and you can find something no one else will.”
By buying clothes from a kilo sale, it saves items in great condition from going to landfill.
Julia said: “You save tons of clothes from landfill. In January, we avoided the dumping of over a ton of clothing.
“People know how much their purchase costs before paying by weighing them, we can give another life to clothes and prevent them from ending up in the landfill.
“You can walk into our kilo sales and find lots of unbranded vintage pieces but again you can find Adidas, Nike, Umbro, Converse, any of those, a lot of brands come through here.
“There are even designer pieces, sometimes people can end up with a Burberry shirt and they cost a few hundred euros but you can get it for less than ten euros per kilo because everything is in question weight.
“A lot of our products were only worn once and then tossed aside.”
Julia thinks you can still have a passion for fashion and help save the planet at the same time.
“The owner, Ade, is passionate about sustainability and climate change. It came from both of us because of our interest in fashion too. We try to keep it trendy and fun while trying to help people,” she said.
“Events are a great way to get out and talk to people about climate awareness. We also have an online store, but it doesn’t get the message across in the same way. Selling by the kilo allows us to travel all over Ireland and meet many different age groups.
“We welcome young people who are learning how to sell by the kilo and older people who maybe find something they had when they were younger and think it’s great.”
You can check out Kilogarm’s website here.
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