By Rebecca Rossouw
Into Style has returned once again to end off the spring season in the already blazing hot Stellenbosch.
It has been a year since the Into Style duo, Marize Mulder, a MPhil (Interdisciplinary Arts Studies) student, and Jasmine de Wet, a BA (Humanities) graduate, hosted their first thrift and swop event at the CoCreate Hub on 18 October last year – an event where you can hand in your unworn, unwanted clothing in exchange for “new” (but still second-hand) pieces of clothing.
Exactly a year later, their 365 Spring Into Style event is bigger and better than before. Not only has the duo expanded their team of creatives, but they have also been collaborating with some of Stellenbosch’s favourite influencers, namely Nogue and the CLUM Collective.
Mulder, the co-founder and director of Into Style, reflects on the year she has had working in the sustainable fashion industry. For their first event, Into Style made it their mission to address the “gentrification” of thrifting and how buying second-hand clothing has become increasingly expensive. At this stage, Mulder says, “What we were trying to address a year ago, is still a thing, but there has been a shift.”
Alluding to the expansion of thrift markets in Stellenbosch, Mulder says, “We are very frustrated that these markets are [still] overpriced. We see thrift vendors selling things for [prices that are] way too expensive [and] we know where they source. However, there has been an influx on the Rooiplein market of vendors having sale rails for R20, R50, etc.” Mulder added that she has also seen an influx of clothing from Chinese online retailers, Shein and Temu, emerging into the thrifted space.
On a wider scale, the need for sustainable fashion is coming into play now more than ever. On 6 October, Gayton McKenzie, the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, met with representatives from Shein during the South Africa Focus Week in Singapore. In this meeting, McKenzie made it clear that Shein should continue to “agitate and negotiate for greater participation of the local fashion industry” in South Africa. This frustrated many locals in the sustainable fashion industry, sparking a national conversation about how to prevent cheap imports and sales from destroying our domestic market.
Into Style hopes to figure out how they can address this problem. Mulder assures that, “[even though] a lot of new challenges are coming on, [they] feel very fulfilled about the fact that the sustainable fashion sphere is growing and more and more people are accepting second hand fashion”.
Watch this space – Into Style has plans to make a huge impact in the sustainable fashion sphere of Stellenbosch and beyond. Make sure to keep up with their upcoming events and follow @into_style_ on Instagram.
