My Personal Interest: Why Op Shopping?

My love of fashion began at a very young age. I remember when I was only 4 years old, as an attempt to escape the never-ending cycle of boredom experienced by many growing children (this was before iPad’s were a thing), I used to dress up in four, sometimes five different outfits a day and would try and gage my dogs facial expressions to see if he thought I was a different person each time. I was convinced that just because my clothes were different, that my dog thought he was being met with a different person each time. While the logic wasn’t quite airtight, I think there was some truth to what little me was thinking. While clothes don’t change who we are, fashion is the perfect way to express different parts of ourselves in unique ways.

Image taken by me at Vinnies Claremont

I’ve always been a firm believer in the art of experimenting, especially when it comes to fashion. Each outfit tells a different story, reflects a different mood or feeling. One day I’ll wake up and I’ll feel bold and courageous and I’ll put on a funky hat with some polka dot high heels. Another day, I’ll feel calm and low-key, so I’ll wear a comfy puffer jacket and some slouch jeans. I feel that as humans, we aren’t one dimensional, we are complex with many layers to us, and naturally this means we won’t always feel like wearing the same thing. We crave self-expression and we desire to show the world who we are, in all its forms. Fashion has always been such a powerful way to do this and as we grow and evolve, so does our style.

I didn’t start op shopping until I was a teenager. Mostly I did it because as a teenager, I had limited funds and most of the funds I did have went towards m&ms and skittles. Op shopping was not only an affordable choice, it also intrigued me. There was a story that went with each piece in the op shop. I once saw this beautiful lettuce-edge cut yellow vase in perfect condition. I wondered who it had belonged to, where did they first stumble upon this vase? what did they like so much about it that they just had to have it? and why did they decide to eventually part ways? It wasn’t until I got older that I really became aware of the environmental benefits of op shopping and how impactful it is to reuse and recycle our beautiful things. This is when my passion for op shopping really took off and thus was born ‘The Op Shop Objective’.