Loathing in Clothing: Episode 1: Thrifting in Pittsbrugh: Is it really sustainable?

 

Keira Leal · (Loathing in Clothing EP1) Thrifting in Pittsburgh: Is it really sustainable?

Description:

When trying to find a clothing store to buy a new pair of jeans as a freshman, Lovina discovered that a large number of clothing stores near CMU campus were small, personally-owned thrift shops. What’s more? On campus, student clubs host thrift pop-ups on the Cut, friends spend weekends browsing secondhand racks together, and casual conversations often turn to the longboards or tea sets someone recently thrifted. These adventures aren’t limited to Goodwill or the Salvation Army–they also lead to small, family-owned shops tucked across the city.

As someone from Beijing who’s lived in several U.S. states, Lovina had never encountered a thrift culture quite like Pittsburgh’s. Curious, she visited the Pittsburgh Neighborhood Flea at SouthSide Works to dig deeper. In this episode, Lovina joins hosts Dillon and Chloe to share what she discovered–from her conversations with Madison Hopkins, owner of Madzilla Art, to a fellow CMU shopper–and to explore why thrifting in Pittsburgh might be about more than just finding a good deal.

Bios: 

Dillon Rush (Host)

Dillon Rush is a sophomore at CMU studying Statistics and Data Science. He grew up in his hometown of Plum, Pennsylvania, located in the Pittsburgh area, where he was introduced to thrifting by his mother. She would take him to thrift stores near home as well as antique stores, where he was given an old telephone that looked like a car. Dillon has recently become more interested in the thrifting scene due to living in the more centralized part of the city. He hopes to put all of his past experience into making the Loathing in Clothing podcast a one for the books. 

Chloe Han (Host)

Chloe Han is a freshman at CMU and is currently undeclared under the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. She calls Seoul, South Korea her home, and it is there that she was first introduced to the world of thrifting through the numerous vintage stores that lined the streets of popular hangout places she enjoys frequenting with her friends. As a Pittsburgh newbie, Chloe hopes to learn more about the thrifting scene and the Pittsburgh area in general through Loathing in Clothing. 

Lovina Xiong (Producer): 

Lovina is a sophomore at CMU majoring in Statistics & Machine Learning. She became interested in investigating thrifting in Pittsburgh discovering that the majority of clothing stores near campus are small, personally-owned thrift stores. This is very different from where she is from, Beijing China, where many people still shop for clothing in large malls. Her personal experience with this stark cultural contrast was part of the inspiration behind this season of Loathing in Clothing.

Madison Hopkins (Interviewee)

Madison Hopkins from Greensburg, Pennsylvania. She is the founder and fine-line artist of the thrift shop MadzillaArt. MadzillaArt sells clothing on Depop, Instagram, and also holds stands at flea markets

CMU student (Interviewee)

A Chinese-American CMU student from California and Lovina’s friend.

Keira Leal (Editor):

Keira is a sophomore at CMU studying statistics and machine learning with an additional major in Decision Science. She grew up and loves her hometown of Austin, Texas. As lifetime hobby sewist and lover of thrifting, she was impressed by Pittsburgh’s pop up thrifting scene.

Relevant Links:

https://www.instagram.com/madzillaart_/?hl=en

https://www.neighborhoodflea.com/

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Loathing in Clothing Intro Music

[00:00:39] CMU Student: [Interview] Which Levi's is that one person have again?

[00:00:42] Lovina: 501. That says 501.

[00:00:44] CMU Student: Oh, it's 501.

[00:00:45] Lovina: Yeah.

[00:00:47] CMU Student: Why is there Chinese?

[00:00:48] Lovina: Can I see?

[00:00:49] CMU Student: It's Chinese. Is that Chinese?

[00:00:51] Lovina: I can't see. That’s Korean.

[00:01:00] Lovina: Hello. What do you observe? Actually, I should probably—They usually say that you should orient yourself. So, this is called the Neighborhood Flea Market. It's supposed to be here every second Sunday of the month.

[00:01:17] Chloe: Up until 2014, this area used to be the location of a steel mill, but now it's the vibrant, southside works of Pittsburgh—an outdoor flea market that's been modernized, upscaled, and redefined.

[00:01:29] Dillon: Welcome to Loathing and Clothing, where we discuss the culture of thrifting in our local Pittsburgh community. We're your hosts, Dillon and Chloe, and for our first episode of our podcast, we'll be talking about the Southside Neighborhood Flea Market.

[00:01:43] Chloe: So, Dillon, before we get started, should we give everyone a rundown of our outfits today?

[00:01:47] Dillon: I'm literally wearing red shorts and a Godzilla T shirt. That's it. What about you, Chloe?

[00:01:55] Chloe: Well, I'm wearing my green Adidas Gazelles, a pair of black baggy jeans from Zara, and, I didn't plan this by the way, a short sleeve shirt from a South Korean brand called Matin Kim, which I bought—are you ready?—at a thrift store in Seoul. 

[00:02:11] Dillon: Whoa!That aligns perfectly with our theme.

[00:02:17] Chloe: So this might already be obvious, but I personally do have my fair share of experience with thrifting at thrift stores. I'm definitely no expert, but my friends and I do like to check out the thrift stores around popular hangout areas in Seoul when we're out and about.

[00:02:31] Dillon: Yeah, I don't really thrift all that much, but when I do, it's usually just this pop up stands where, you know, I look at it and I'm like, oh, this is cool and then I buy it…or not.

[00:02:41] Chloe: Well, lucky for us, we do have someone that the two of us consider to be a thrift expert here with us today. Hi, Lovina.

[00:02:48] Lovina: I'm not sure if I'm qualified to be an expert, but hi everybody.

[00:02:55] Dillon: Would you like to introduce us to our thrifting experience?

[00:02:58] Chloe: Our thrifting experience?

[00:03:00] Dillon: Oops. To your thrifting experience.

[00:03:02] Lovina: So my personal experience with thrifting is that I tried pretty hard to do it. I considered it sustainable due to, I think, mostly online advertising. But unfortunately, it just did not work for me at all because a lot of brands—their sizes don't really fit me, as in the smallest size doesn't really fit me very well. It's really hard for me to find things that actually fit me well at a thrift store because the sizes are already pretty incomplete. And then also I think I am somebody who's extremely picky about my clothes because I don't actually have that many pieces of clothing. Like all of my clothes fit in a big suitcase that I brought to university. I don't have more clothes than that. So then I consider every piece really carefully and I'm very picky. So if something doesn't fit, kind of, exactly how I want it to, I just don't really have—I don't really buy it. And then since, I think thrift stores are more about eclectic clothing, it doesn't really match my personal style or my personal shopping habits. But what I find really interesting about it is that there's a dichotomy between people who consider it very sustainable and—but online I see these very popular videos which are called “massive thrift hauls,” which seems to kind of go against the idea of thrifting being anti-over consumption and sustainable. Which is what drew me to investigating this topic specifically in our local community of Pittsburgh.

[00:04:29] Chloe: Thank you. So last Sunday you went and visited the Southside Neighborhood Flea Market, is that right?

[00:04:34] Lovina: Yes.

[00:04:35] Dillon: That's actually really cool. Could you tell us a lot more the south side of Pittsburgh? You know, some people aren't from here and would like to know more.

[00:04:42] Lovina: Yeah. So the south side neighborhood in Pittsburgh, it became part of the city in 1872 and it became a hub for both the glass and steel industries, attracting German and Eastern European immigrants. Unfortunately, the decline of the steel industry in general in the 1970s led to a period of industrial demolition. For example, the south side works, the area that hosts this neighborhood flea market is now this a major training facility for the Pittsburgh Steelers, actually.

And in general, the culture of the area is it has a lot of a pretty big social scene, particularly for college students. And there's a lot of—When I went there, there were a lot of coffee shops, restaurants. The Cheesecake factory was also there. Also there were bookstores and there's also a pretty big nightlife over there.

So that's kind of how the area has developed from history to now.

[00:05:37] Chloe: Could you give us a little bit of a background on the history of the Neighborhood Flea Market then?

[00:05:41] Lovina: Okay, so the neighborhood flea market is a pop up Marketplace founded in 2014 by Sarah Nardini. She is also the creator of the “I Made It” market. This was inspired by her love of thrifting and the lively atmosphere of that particular area. The goal of this was to act as an urban marketplace for local businesses and crafters, and it is targeted towards vintage items, handmade goods, food and live music, which in general, the Pittsburgh area has a pretty rich history of antique and vintage stores and collecting.

These kind of night markets, flea markets, they're kind of different from the stores that are physical locations because they offer a recurring marketplace for smaller vendors and shoppers to gather at a particular location.

[00:06:33] Dillon: That's pretty cool. It seems that your overall experience has been pretty positive, but is there anything else that you'd like to share with.

[00:06:38] Lovina: As a personal experience it was pretty interesting to go and see the area, but I feel as though I wouldn't actually really buy anything there. Because personally, whenever I buy things, it's one of my pieces of clothing broke or I have a specific event where I need a specific thing. And that's what I mean by I'm pretty picky is that I'm always trying to look for a very specific thing. And I think with thrift stores, it's mostly you go there and it's more of a discovery type thing. And that doesn't really kind of align with my usual habit. So I thought it was interesting to see, but maybe not that practical for me for shopping purposes.

[00:07:23] [Interview] Lovina: I think these are all Coach bags. See it says Coach. This one doesn't look too bad.

[00:07:35] Dillon: Interesting, interesting.

[00:07:36] Chloe: You call it pickiness, but that sounds like self control to me. And that's a little bit of what I wish I had more of. So honestly, respect. But were you able to talk to some of the shoppers and get their perspectives on thrifting in Pittsburgh?

[00:07:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I went there with my friend, friend and I kind of asked him about his experiences with thrift. He is a also a sophomore at cmu.

[00:08:07] Speaker B: I'm a student. I'm originally from the Bay Area.

You know, I'm.

I'm a Chinese American, you know.

[00:08:16] Speaker C: What was your motivation for coming to this flea market?

[00:08:21] Speaker B: I feel like after, you know, going to college, being on my own, you know, I feel like I should try to be saving more money, saving money, you know, that type of stuff. And I was thinking it's kind of fun to kind of get out of the. Out of the house, kind of walk around, you know, trying to look around, finding some like, kind of cheap, more cheap type stuff, you know.

[00:08:39] Speaker C: So then your motivation is just to save money.

Do you care? You don't do you care about any clothing trends perhaps?

[00:08:47] Speaker B: I'm not really. I feel like I'm more of kind of like a practical and kind of my own style. I don't really look at the trends and so I kind of just see clothing that I'm thinking, oh, that might look nice, it looks kind of cool and I just buy it.

[00:08:58] Speaker C: Describe yourself as a need based shopper.

[00:09:02] Speaker B: I'm not fully sure what that means.

[00:09:04] Speaker C: As in, do you shop, do you thrift for clothes because you can't really afford more expensive clothes or you don't want to pay that much money for clothes?

[00:09:13] Speaker B: I would not say that I would. I need to do it because although I am kind of on my own at the end of the day, I still do have parents with money and if I'm out of clothes, they'll still get me clothes. But I think it's more about trying to feel more independent, you know, trying to be my own person.

And I think that buying and taking kind of a step to try to save money instead of relying on other people, people is a way of making myself feel more independent.

[00:09:41] Speaker C: How do you generally acquire clothing?

[00:09:43] Speaker B: I think usually my clothing is just. I usually just get normal like hand me downs from my brothers and stuff. You know, I'm the youngest sibling so I usually get kind of more or less free clothes from them. And because I have two brothers, I can kind of pick out more or less what I kind of want.

It has led me to having a lot of clothing that I didn't really want as much. And I think that these types of.

[00:10:07] Speaker A: Go ahead.

[00:10:08] Speaker B: I think that these types of thrifting type activities can have me develop my own style rather than depending on their hymnals.

[00:10:16] Speaker C: How do you generally perceive thrifting as an activity?

[00:10:22] Speaker B: I think it's more about the fun that you have kind of walking around, kind of looking at stuff with other people.

I think it's more of kind of like a social activity rather than purely just for getting like, like clothes for cheaper, I think, and like more vintage type clothes. I mean, obviously that's a benefit, but I do think it's more about the social aspect than just the amount of money that you save.

[00:10:43] Speaker C: Do you think your cultural background has.

Has influenced your perception of thrifting?

[00:10:49] Speaker B: I think that something that they kind of push in as like the type of Asian culture is try to save money and you know, try to be very resourceful. I think that thrifting is very much aligned with that ideology.

[00:11:03] Speaker C: How do you think thrifting is perceived by People who are like your friends or people of a similar cultural background.

[00:11:14] Speaker B: I think thrifting is looked kind of highly on, like, these people because, I mean, at the end day, thrifting is good for the environment. Thrifting kind of shows resourcefulness. You know, thrifting shows a lot of that type of stuff and kind of values that other people, like my friends, would value.

[00:11:33] Speaker D: Thank you so much to your friend for agreeing to give us that interview.

[00:11:39] Speaker E: Judging by from where you are, it seems like that where you conducted your interview is very lively and busy place. Like that sounds like something that I want to go to, go with my friends, go a little shopping, you know. Any. Any thoughts, Chloe?

[00:11:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know.

[00:11:54] Speaker D: I really liked his comment about how thrifting was kind of like more a social activity, because I feel like that is generally true for what happens when, like, my friends and I go thrifting. It's like we'll find a bunch of thrift stores and save them all and then kind of go visit them and, like, look through the clothes. But we don't really end up buying much from the stores that we visit, but we have fun, like, trying on different pieces, kind of like picking out different pieces for each other to wear and like, laughing about it. And so I kind of do like the comment that he made about it being more of like, a social activity than like, something just focused on, you know, like maybe spending a little less for a certain piece of clothing.

[00:12:40] Speaker E: Yeah. Especially if I'm going out in that area. Especially during the Craig street, you know, thrifting. If I'm going over to Wuxiland, all my Wushi lovers usually wouldn't stop. Or maybe I'd look a little bit at the accessories and like, paintings, but not really at the clothes. I wouldn't do that unless I was with people to share the experience. It's not really that fun when you're doing it by yourself.

[00:13:03] Speaker D: Yeah, I agree.

[00:13:04] Speaker E: So after that interview with your friend, is there any chance that you have an interview with a store owner?

[00:13:11] Speaker A: Yeah. So I also talked to one of the owners who was at a booth selling clothes. The shop owner, her name is Madison Hopkins. She's from Greensburg, Pennsylvania. She's the founder and fine line artist of the thrift shop Manzilla Art.

It sells clothing on Depop, Instagram, and also obviously holds these physical stands at flea markets, like the neighborhood flea market that I visited.

Yeah.

[00:13:39] Speaker F: You want to stand up?

[00:13:40] Speaker A: Sorry?

[00:13:40] Speaker F: Do you want me to stand up?

[00:13:41] Speaker C: No, I'm just recording audio.

[00:13:43] Speaker F: Yeah, for sure.

[00:13:44] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:13:46] Speaker C: So my first question is, what is kind of the inspiration or the cultural background for this? Your stand or your shop?

[00:13:55] Speaker F: So for my shop, I like to take a lot of variety of different things. I like to take old pieces that maybe are damaged in some way or stained or worn in, and I like to take them and make them into art, wearable art pieces.

And then I sell them here. And then I also do vintage, which is just like, I just love vintage. I love the fact that it's sustainable and that you can go around and find vintage pretty much anywhere. And it's, it's sustainable and you're not doing fast fashion and you're not buying from, you know, big retailers and all their money goes to like, you know, like the CEO or whatever. And when you buy second hand, it usually gets like donated or goes to a small business or there's some sort of good, good meaning behind it, you know? Yeah, yeah.

[00:14:43] Speaker C: So when you're looking for clothing, what specific sources or styles or what's kind of your criteria?

[00:14:50] Speaker F: Yeah, so I look for anything that isn't too badly damaged to sell regularly as vintage. I look for the damage stuff, for the upcycled stuff, but I look for anything from like the 30s all the way up to Y2K.

I like a variety of different styles and I think that if you just feel like you can rock it and have the confidence to do it, then I think go ahead and do it, you know, I think if you just see something and you're like, I can see this in so many different ways. I think that's the best way to like buy something if it has multiple uses. Yeah.

[00:15:22] Speaker C: And what inspired you to get into kind of second hand clothing?

[00:15:29] Speaker F: What got me into secondhand clothing is pretty much just like my mom really liked it and we did it when it wasn't cool, like we did for like school supplies and like school clothes and when it wasn't like popular. And it just kind of followed me through life and, and now it is for vintage and I've just always shopped secondhand. And it's just something that I've grown to love more and more over the years. Now I understand it. It more, I guess. Yeah, yeah.

[00:15:55] Speaker C: Thank you so much.

[00:15:56] Speaker A: You can.

[00:15:57] Speaker C: Do you have like a shop name Instagram account where people can find.

[00:16:01] Speaker F: Yeah, for my Instagram, it's at Madzilla Art underscore with two A's in the middle.

[00:16:05] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah.

[00:16:06] Speaker B: Okay.

[00:16:06] Speaker A: Thank you so much.

[00:16:07] Speaker F: Thank you so much. I really appreciate you guys. You're awesome.

[00:16:10] Speaker A: Thank you.

[00:16:10] Speaker B: Thank you so much. I like your Pokemon shirt, by the way.

[00:16:13] Speaker A: Thank you.

[00:16:13] Speaker B: Thank you.

[00:16:15] Speaker E: Make sure you give that store owner a follow like and follow on Instagram.

[00:16:20] Speaker D: Art with two A's and them middle.

I really like what you said about upcycling. I feel like that's kind of almost a trend, I guess you could call it on Tik Tok nowadays where a lot of people go to thrift stores and buy clothes that are. I know Lavina, you mentioned that you can't find clothes that fit you perfectly because even their small sizes don't fit you well. But you know, a lot of people that I watch on TikTok that do these things that they've called like thrift flips.

They buy like pieces of clothing that are either too big for them or might not exactly be their exact style. And then they take that and you know, turn it into something that they would wear and turn into something that fits them and is some is like a piece that they would gravitate towards every day. And so I think it's really cool that, you know, she doesn't only shop for vintage pieces, but also finds a way to take those more damaged pieces and upcycle them and turn them into something that, you know, and give damaged piece a new life again.

[00:17:19] Speaker A: I think that's pretty cool.

[00:17:20] Speaker E: Yeah. Especially you know, if I'm trying to find something that is particularly that I find stylish, I can go and like find something that's also kind of like a past modern situation.

And restoring all that I find is also pretty cool.

[00:17:40] Speaker D: So after being able to speak to both a shopper and a shop owner, what do you think your main takeaways were from your overall experience at the flea market last Sunday?

[00:17:49] Speaker A: I think my main takeaway is that compared to how. How I've seen thrifting advertised and presented on YouTube, the Where People do it seems like just a type of over consumption where people are still buying a lot of clothes and pretty often but just now they're kind of able to package it as a more sustainable way to do that. Instead of buying from a fast fashion website like Shein, it seems more disingenuous online, whereas here it seems like the local community is doing thrifting in a more actually sustainable way. So for example, like Chloe, you mentioned, when you go thrifting you are not actually buying a lot of pieces and it's kind of a different way of socializing with your friends while kind of looking at different things and exploring the neighborhood. And then also as the store owner mentioned as Madison mentioned the thrifting that she focuses on also includes this aspect of upcycling, and it does mean that she puts more time and more thought into every individual piece, which is very much different from the kind of over consumption that I think is still happening online, even in this thrifting subset of the industry.

[00:19:06] Speaker E: Well, thank you, Lavina, for your time and research into this, into this topic, but that's all the time that we have today.

[00:19:14] Speaker D: Thank you for tuning in to the pilot episode of our podcast, and we'll see you in our next episode where we dive deeper into how the Pittsburgh community is working to make thrifting more sustainable.

[00:19:24] Speaker A: Thank you.

Bye.

[00:19:25] Speaker B: Bye.

[00:19:26] Speaker D: Bye.