It’s hard to pinpoint where my love for vintage textiles began.
When I began to realise that high street brands tend to take a rather ‘one size fits all' approach to clothes, I knew that I wanted something different for my wardrobe. Not only is there very little standardisation between brands, but there is almost nothing available if you don’t fit a rigid pattern of proportions, which I don’t. This led me to taking dressmaking and pattern cutting classes, so that I could tailor my vintage dress finds to better fit me, and so that I could make my own clothes.
WORDS BY RAYMOND BRIEN, PHOTOS BY HELENA COOK AND RAYMOND BRIEN
‘Musician after sheet music, furniture and new connections after a move during the pandemic’
Perhaps that’s closer to a Tinder bio than a Trash Nothing request. You’ll be pleased to know I decided to just scroll through the Trash Nothing app rather than posting a request sounding so desperate. But yes, I’m still single.
I’d decided to download the Trash Nothing app ‘just in case there’s actually anything good on there.’ In fact, I was sceptical as to whether it was only going to be offers of half-full jam jars. But I was very pleasantly surprised!
For me, Trash Nothing really took off when I gave away a wonky wicker basket. I’d stupidly crushed it against a wall and it now had a weird, permanent 17-degree slant.
Too wonky to sell, too good to throw away. Surely no one would want it, I thought. But the idea of this going to landfill was too much. Fairly new to Trash Nothing, I created a post, with a nice photo (important) and an explanation of the reason for the odd slant. Within a day, I’d had four messages. People loved my ‘leaning tower of Pisa.’
The wonky wicker basket, and a variety of things I given away since on Trash Nothing, has taught me a valuable lesson: whatever you don’t need, someone somewhere will be able to use.
