Second-hand doesn’t have to mean second best. Linley Wilkie meets a woman campaigning to change our point of view.
TAMARA DiMattina loves telling the story of how her French bulldog, Leopold, came into her life. After all, the acquisition of a second-hand hound is entirely in keeping with the philosophy she lives and works by.
The story goes something like this. One year ago, the vivacious anti-consumerism advocate completed an online questionnaire to determine her ideal dog breed. The answer was a Boston terrier, a close relation of her breed of choice, the French bulldog. Soon after, when meeting a friend at a cafe, she saw a French bulldog tied up outside. When she mentioned how much she loved the breed, a woman in the cafe overheard and told her she had a French bulldog she needed to rehouse. Delighted, DiMattina made arrangements to pick up the dog, and as she walked back to her car, found a dog lead lying on the road.
It’s the lead she still uses for Leopold, who came to live with her soon after that serendipitous encounter.
“Leopold is a perfect example of how second-hand is not second best,” says DiMattina, founder of the Buy Nothing New Month campaign.
Recognising that many recycled items come with equally endearing yarns, the 36-year-old has joined forces with Brotherhood of St Laurence to launch the Every Item Tells a Story initiative. Running from June to September, the program invites people to share their stories behind the items they’re donating to Brotherhood stores.
“It encourages people to see second-hand shopping in a new light, highlights the value of existing stuff and gives a little insight into the secret lives of some of our stuff,” says DiMattina. She cites examples including: ‘‘I love these jeans, but I know I’ll never fit in them again – time for them to meet a slimmer partner’’ and ‘‘When we got pregnant, my wife said the drum kit’s going’’.
Brotherhood of St Laurence’s marketing and communications manager, Nat Baxter, says people often explain to staff the history of the items they’re donating, but “customers don’t get to hear all that good stuff, so we’re trying to relay that message on to them’’.
Customers can pick up swing tags at Brotherhood stores to take home and write (abridged) stories on, ready for their next donation. The tags will be displayed in the windows of Brotherhood stores all over Melbourne, including its upmarket Hunter Gatherer stores that stock many vintage and eclectic items handpicked from the thousands of donations to stores across Melbourne.
“That doesn’t mean that we haven’t left some amazing gems at our community stores,” explains Baxter. “They are all jam-packed with goodies at amazing prices, some with equally amazing stories.”
The campaign will be supplemented by social media, with the stories posted on Facebook and snapshots of swing tags uploaded on to Instagram. Visual merchandising students will volunteer their time to create window displays showcasing the ‘secret lives of stuff’.
“The overall message is to help people see second-hand in a different light,” says DiMattina. ‘‘Some people are a bit funny about buying second-hand stuff. But I always ask them, ‘When you go to a restaurant, do you think you’re the first to eat from that cutlery? Or when you stay in a hotel, are you the first to use the sheets and towels?’ You can almost see the penny drop as people’s brains click to thinking about second-hand stuff differently.”
DiMattina’s interest in sustainability stems from her childhood in Camberwell in the 1980s. She fondly recalls wearing quality hand-me-downs while other kids in the playground sported new Target garb. One Christmas she was given a Barbie by her grandmother, only to have the doll taken away by her disapproving mother.
“We never had those toys that other kids in the playground would have, but I don’t remember feeling terribly badly done by,” says DiMattina, who has four older siblings. “I had ducks, lots of brothers and sisters to play with and other exciting things that were more worthwhile, like making cubbies with the bamboo from our next door neighbour’s house.”
Her penchant for pre-loved goods developed as a young adult while living in London and working at Sotheby’s. She recalls that her “depressing” salary forced her to shop in charity stores and buy a second-hand sewing machine online so she could make her own clothes.
What story would she write on a swing tag for one of those home sewn items? ‘‘I made this skirt with silk from an Indian fabric market stall in London. I wore it to work at Sotheby’s the day Mick Jagger rocked in,” she suggests.
Her lightbulb moment came after she moved home to Melbourne and found herself working in public relations, “working to get mums to buy more toys that their kids didn’t need, that were just going to break. I didn’t see the point and didn’t want to use my skills to be pushing ‘buy more stuff’. ’’
In October 2010, she launched Buy Nothing New Month. ‘‘I had thought about it over the years, and was aware I was going to have to create these sorts of things that I wanted to see.’’
It seems she wasn’t the only one fed up with rampant consumerism. The annual campaign has been a huge success and has since been embraced by The Netherlands and the US. “I’ve been blown away, almost nervous by its success,” she says.
DiMattina describes Buy Nothing New Month as similar to Feb Fast, but targeting wasteful consumption instead of alcohol. “It’s not saying, ‘buy nothing new never’,’’ explains DiMattina. ‘‘It’s literally take a month off and really think, ‘Do I need it? If I do really need it, can I get it second-hand? What are my alternatives?’’’
The initiative was also underpinned by a trip to Mumbai, where DiMattina visited Dharavi, the world’s most notorious slum. “You’d see them melting down plastic to make into other things, in really terrible conditions,” she recalls. “But the employment is something like 99 per cent, everyone’s got a job and a purpose. The community is insane, people living on top of each other, but there’s a real vibe of happy, engaged, community spirit. As a Westerner having spent half a day walking through the slums, I’m certainly no expert on the slum psychology, but it really was a big eye-opener.”
A couple of months later, she travelled with a group of like-minded people to Antarctica, to study climate change. It was, she says, like arriving on another planet, an untouched land without shopping centres or beeping car horns. “It got me understanding that there’s this whole undercurrent of people around the world who are working to make the world better for everyone,” she says. “It was a big eye-opener of where I can fit in and feel like a piece in that jigsaw, to globally connect and shift more of our values that are consumer-driven to be community-driven.”
Back in Australia she completed a Fellowship at the Centre for Sustainability Leadership, which she says helped make Buy Nothing New Month the success it is today. Brotherhood of St Laurence came on board last year as an official campaign supporter and DiMattina says it’s a perfect partnership.
“Buying second-hand at places like the Brotherhood also means you’re not only getting a ‘new’ item, but you’re contributing to the fantastic community programs these guys implement,” she says. “Win-win!”
Details: visit buynothingnew.com.au and bsl.org.au.
EVERY ITEM TELLS A STORY
Will run from June to September at these local Brotherhood of St Laurence stores:
• Hunter Gatherer, Royal Arcade, off Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne
• 82a Acland Street, St Kilda
• 1143 Glen Huntly Road, Glen Huntly
