Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Fay Hulihan-Ripley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Fay, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry
Hello, my name is Fay and I own Red Leaf Vintage. I’ve been reselling vintage clothing for almost 10 years now and have seen many changes in just those 10 years with vintage/thrifted clothing. When COVID started a lot of people started reselling as a side hustle to make extra money and since then I’ve seen a massive increase in the amount of reseller’s! I’ve seen the changes myself just from people accepting vintage/thrifted clothing as more acceptable vs many who would never dream of wearing it or thought it was dirty or gross. Many more people are getting interested in trying to consume less clothing, switching from buying online to thrifting and vintage becoming a kind of luxury item to many.
In my personal wardrobe I would say it’s about 98% vintage/thrifted clothing, mostly because of quality and trying not to buy into the dozens of trends companies release every year. As much as I’ve seen an increase in the desire for vintage or thrifted clothing, in no way can that stop the over consumption of fast fashion, especially unethical fast fashion companies that make 3 dollar tops that end up in the landfill. Just going onto TikTok you will find modern clothing “haul” videos to buy cheap clothing for a cheap price. But at what cost? The people who make those clothes are not making a living wage while the company is making millions upon millions of dollars. That doesn’t sit right with me. Not to mention the pollution from shipping/flying from overseas, packaging material to water pollution from the dyes used and so much more.
After the birth of Amazon we saw this massive increase in buying products online, then we started the path of over-consuming at an alarming rate. 92 million tonnes of textile waster per year, that’s just one statistic! That in itself should be quite alarming, even more if you look at the textiles waste that we produce that is shipped to Africa and sits like big tentacles of ripped clothing on the beach and in the water. Is that worth buying every single trend? Fast fashion companies want you to over consume because they are thinking about one thing – money.
Sure, you can buy vintage/thrifted clothing but we can also buy quality clothing such as cottons or linens from small businesses and try to get out of this trend of buying trendy clothing that is pushed on us and consume less clothing.
It’s hard but we can do it! I would recommend reading – Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism by Aja Barber. This is a great way to start your journey!
Fay, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
It all started with a 1920’s collection. I was living in California going to school and I collected antique clothing/textiles to use in my photoshoots. When I moved to Spokane, Washington I decided that I needed to sell my collection and other vintage clothing I had accumulated and so I started my business of reselling called Red Leaf Vintage. I was born and raised in British Columbia, Canada so the name was a sort of nod to my country. I always had an interest in vintage clothing but when I moved to Spokane it quickly went from a sort of hobby to selling full time. I’m very grateful that I started before it boomed during covid, I feel like I have a good amount of back stock and got settled in where I was reselling.
This job is not for the weak hearted! It’s a lot of blood, sweat, tears and competition. I’ve seen it all! Hoarding houses, crawling through attics, barns untouched for decades, rare antique clothing to one of a kind pieces. I’ve met amazing people on my journey that I’ll never forget, plus many sad encounters.
I not only encourage people to buy vintage/thrifted clothing but also if you need to buy new to look in your own back yard and shop locally. Consuming less clothing and not falling into the fast fashion trend rut.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In the business of reselling came something unexpected – dealing with bullies. I never thought I would have to experience that ever again in adulthood honestly. I feel like when you’re good at what you do that creates jealousy in some people, especially resellers. I’ve had people try to intimidate me, get in my face, throw things at me and harass me. Unfortunately you have to have a thick skin in the reselling world because of competition and ego. If you do experience this type of behavior the best thing is to give them no power, say nothing and walk away, unless it’s assault then do speak up! In the reselling world there is no boss, co-workers or consequences really so that’s why it can get ugly out there so stay safe and let their negativity make you push harder for yourself and for your business.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Social media is very tricky! There’s always these videos on how you can do this and that to get followers, honestly I think most of it is ridiculous. I know people who buy followers to create the illusion of many followers but in the end it doesn’t get you anywhere. My best advice is to be authentic, collab with other businesses in your town. If you sell locally like I do I don’t care so much about getting followers outside of my area because they won’t be customers. I had a totally different outlook a couple months ago when I was just fooling around making a reel of Drew Barrymore in a dress she wore to an event in the 90’s – 162,000 views and over 10,000 likes. I was shocked because I was like why that one? I had a ton of other videos that I put effort into and thought were good but Instagram took a video that I put 2 seconds of thought into for fun and made it go viral? That’s when I was like wow this is nuts! So now I just create content that I like, try to work with others and have fun!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/redleafvintage
