"Futurebird, everyone is going green these days." She said to me "But, I just can't find green furniture and clothes! I must redecorate!"
Happily, she had realized by now that simply buying green colored items was not quite enough. (Whew!) She had it in her had that everything needed to be recycled. I decided to break the news to her:
"Well, really, **not** buying brand new things is what's best for the environment. Even recycled goods still create a lot of carbon emissions. Your best bet is to decorate with items from the Goodwill or Thrift Store"
Her face crumpled a bit, this was not going well.
So here is the solution: The Designer Thrift Store.
Designer Prices! Designer Labels! (sewn on everything, or logos added to the furniture) Designer Approved! (Everything is trendy since some designer picked it.) Designer shopping experience! But it's all USED. (so it's green)-- futurebird, Sep 22 2008 BBC News: Oxfam boutique opens http://news.bbc.co..../london/7393684.stm [hippo, Sep 22 2008] If this does *not* happen within the next ten years, I will be very surprised. You could even have brand convergence. LVMH "luggage" AND "sofa" AND "mediocre drinks cabinet" range.
Its GREEN, Corbin, GREEN. ~ Chris Rock (Fifth Element, movie)-- 4whom, Sep 22 2008 Baked. There's one of these round the corner from where I live. It's an Oxfam shop (Oxfam is a chain of charity shops/ thrift stores) but is a 'boutique' Oxfam shop which sells used, expensive designer clothes and some stuff which designers have done specially for Oxfam ("for charideee"). See link.-- hippo, Sep 22 2008 I'm not talking about "used designer clothes" I'm talking about re-branding all manner of used items with a new designer brand.-- futurebird, Sep 22 2008 Bah, beat me to it, [hippo]. Oxfam also have a chain of shops called Oxfam Originals, in which designer brand clothing is sold (at a much higher price than regular charity shop tat).-- sambwiches, Sep 22 2008 Oh wait-- that *is* what Oxfam is doing. Can we get this in NYC already?-- futurebird, Sep 22 2008 If you can't, futurebird, you should set it up. A designer friend of mine has been buying and modifying used clothing for years, and she makes a pretty penny from the venture. New York seems like the ideal place to set one of these shops up.-- sambwiches, Sep 22 2008 So, consignment shops that sell things you see in nice department stores aren't good enough? There's certainly no shortage of them around these parts.-- ryokan, Sep 22 2008 "and it's this act of 'fuck fashion' seamstressing you're paying for which is what is branded."
I think this kind of seamstressing (is that a word?) could become extremely popular among those who like to impress - for example, on the Oscar red carpet, when asked 'who are you wearing?' you could reply 'XXXX, and modified by XXXX', adding an extra layer of pretension to the whole mess.
(In terms that can be understood by penis-owners such as myself, prestigious seamstresses would be like tuning companies for already high-end cars (such as Brabus, for instance)).-- sambwiches, Sep 22 2008 My parents live in Southern Connecticut and their thrift stores are already like this! Not that labels are sewed on once the item gets there, it's just there are so many wealthy people in that area, the quality of the items being donated ARE designer items. (I've gotten valuable antiques in the past from Goodwills and Salvation Army stores. So I've always been Green!)-- xandram, Sep 23 2008 random, halfbakery