The Jones Thrift Fashion Club encourages Jones students to think sustainably when it comes to their fashion in order to reduce a large amount of clothing and textile waste.
“We focus on fashion and sustainability. We do upcycling and clothing swaps, collages, zine making, and we go thrifting, so it’s pretty open. There are lots of things under the reusable fashion umbrella,” said co-president Megan Healy ‘25.
The club meets in the classroom and outside of Jones to give members a more hands-on experience with thrifting. The club members help each other to find pieces of clothing they can style in many different ways.
“On occasion, we go shopping as a club, we go to a separate meeting location and take everyone shopping,” said co-president Mars Kozubowski ‘25.
Most teens don’t have the funds to spend lots of money on smaller ethically made clothes, leaving thrifting and upcycling a sustainable and cost-effective method to combat clothing waste.
“The things you can buy that are sustainable are usually out of teens’ affordability range,” said Kozubowski.
The thrift fashion club gives students the opportunity to find clothes that fit their style and their price range.
“Having this club as an avenue to buy cheap clothes that aren’t fast fashion is a really good option for people at Jones,” said Healy.
Thrifting allows teens to sustainably keep up with rapid trend cycles.
“We want to make fashion more sustainable because you know how everyone wants to keep up with trends and stuff, but fast fashion is just so horrible,” said Kozubowski.
The club’s mission is to help students find ways to fit their personal styles and maintain a sustainable closet. Accessibility is a main part of this. The club works hard on getting the word out about sustainable fashion and is even working with the choir class to go thrifting for performance outfits. The choir team wears black formal clothing to their performances, something that not everyone has in their closet, and can’t afford to go out and buy on their own to only wear a few times.
“If I can make that more accessible and sustainable, that would be really great,” said Kozubowski.
On average, people wear a piece of clothing only 7 times. Thrifting gives new life to used clothes and helps reduce the amount of clothing waste that our country produces. The Jones Thrift Fashion Club has helped many students create cost-efficient and unique closets.
“Because you’re not needing to buy as much new stuff, and you know how to fix them and style them in more than one way, it gives you more options,” said Kozubowski.
