In America, all the cool kids buy their clothes from vintage stores or second-hand shops. I should know; I've seen them do it.
But in Britain, charity shops seem to be the haven of either very old or very unfashionable people. I've never understood why. As a developed country with a great sense of eco-consciousness, you would think that recycling goods, including clothing, books, dishes, DVDs and home decor would be a big priority.
But when I mentioned recently to a bunch of bright orange fashonistas that I'd bought my "adooooorable" little black handbag from St Giles Hospice charity shop, I was greeted with astonished stares. "Really??", one girl exclaimed, "that's so enterprising!". Oh dear.
Enterprising I am not. Supportive of St Giles work in the community and looking for a bargain, I am, young paduan.
St Giles does great work, and provides an essential service. They are a hospice in the Staffordshire area that provide end of life care for the terminally ill. They have a 30-bed in-patient unit, and also a day hospice for people who need to be seen outside the home, but don't need the day-to-day care of overnight stays.
They are unique in that they provide the only pediatric lymphodoema clinic outside of Great Ormond St. They provide palliative care for children suffering with this disease.
They also run a home-visit service, just like MacMillan, except St Giles is part of the community in which their patients live.
The shop is great. As Lichfield is a very moneyed area full of couth folk, the shop gets a lot of really high quality items. I have a Kandinsky print, some handmade jewelry, a tea set and metres of clothes from there.
My best find so far was a white button up winter jacket from Selfridge's -- £120 new, purchased for £8.50!
If you're into fashion, love the environment and want to keep it around, and also want to make life easier for terminally-ill people (including children), there's not a much better way to tick all boxes than shopping at St Giles charity shops. read more
