来源：《卫报》
刊登日期：2020年5月7日
"Few articles change owners more frequently than clothes. They travel downwards from grade to grade in the social scale with remarkable regularity," wrote the journalist Adolphe Smith in 1877 as he traced a garment’s journey: cleaned, repaired and resold repeatedly; eventually cut down into a smaller item; finally, when it was beyond all wearability, the fibres recycled into new fabric for the wealthier classes.
1877年，记者阿道夫·史密斯在追踪一件衣服的历程时写道："没什么物品能比衣物更频繁易手了。明显的规律是，衣服随着社会阶层不断向下转手。"清洗，修补，再卖掉，反反复复。再被裁剪成更小的衣服。到最后，实在不能穿了，衣服的纤维又会被回收，做成新布料，再卖给富裕阶层。
That model is almost incomprehensible in the era of fast fashion. The average British customer buys four items a month, often at pocket-money prices; though the low cost is a godsend for the hard-up, many purchases are discarded after a few outings, or never worn at all. Clothes Aid reports that 350,000 tonnes of used but still wearable clothing goes to landfill in the UK each year.
在快销时尚时代，这种模式几乎是不可理解的。英国消费者平均每月购买四件衣服，而且通常都很便宜；虽然低廉的价格对于手头拮据的人来说是一种恩赐，但许多购买的衣服在几次外出后就被丢弃了，或者根本就没穿过。衣物援助组织报告称，英国每年有35万吨使用过但仍可穿戴的衣物被扔进垃圾填埋场。
Yet a gradual revival of the secondhand trade has gathered pace in the last year. Busy families sell cast-off items on eBay and teenagers trade on Depop. Strikingly, it has become big enough business that mainstream retailers want a slice of the action. Cos, owned by H&M, has launched a resale service on its website. Asda announced last week that it will sell secondhand clothing in 50 supermarkets, following a successful pilot project.
然而，去年，二手衣物交易逐渐复苏。忙碌的家庭在eBay上出售废弃衣物，青少年在Depop上交易。引人注目的是，二手衣物的市场规模已经足够大，主流零售商都想从中分一杯羹。H&M旗下的Cos在其网站上推出了一项转售服务。阿斯达上周宣布，在一个成功的试点项目之后，它将在50家超市出售二手服装。
For some buyers and sellers, the switch to secondhand is born of pandemic-induced financial need. Others have felt sorry for the impact of their shopping habit on the planet. For example, it takes 1,800 gallons of water to grow enough cotton for a pair of jeans. But the shift is only a partial solution. One concern is that mainstream brands may “greenwash” – using relatively small volumes of secondhand goods to improve their image, rather than engaging more seriously with sustainability. Another worry is that good causes are losing out as people trade rather than donate unwanted clothes. The biggest concern may be that people keep buying because they know they can resell goods, still chasing the next purchase but with an eased conscience and healthier bank balance.
对于一些买家和卖家来说，转向二手衣物的原因是新冠大流行导致的资金需求。其他人则为自己的购物习惯对地球的影响感到不好意思。例如，需要1800加仑的水才能长出足够制造一条牛仔裤所需的棉花。但这种转变只是部分解决方案。人们担心的一个问题是，主流品牌可能会“披上绿色外衣”——使用相对较少的二手商品来改善自己的形象，而不是更认真地致力于可持续发展。另一个令人担忧的问题是，由于人们不再捐赠不想要的衣服，而是进行交易，公益事业正在遭受损失。最令人担忧的可能是，人们会继续购买，因为他们知道自己可以转售衣物，继续追逐下一次购买，但他们的良心得到了放松，银行存款也更加健康。