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Planning on donating your old clothes to charity this Xmas? You may be interested to learn that your old t-shirts are actually a valuable part of the $1 billion a year secondhand clothing industry. The Spectator traced the path of hand-me-down clothing and found that only about a third is resold in charity shops and the rest is sent to rag sorting houses. There, the worst clothing is shredded and used for industry and the rest goes to Africa, which imported $80 million worth of U.S. hand me downs last year. While some claim the castoffs are crippling Africa's textile industry, they are also creating millions of jobs for importers, washers, and sellers. Tailors in particular have plenty of work resewing oversized Western clothes to sell to slimmer Africans. [The Spectator] More »
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If you're hoping to sell some of your cast-off finery to drum up a little mad money, the Wall Street Journal has some tips for you, thrifty! Apparently your best bets are to dress like a high school student ("eBay says that in the third quarter, the most searched fashion labels on the site were Ed Hardy, Nike, Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch"), sell clothes size ten and over, and, incongruously, hawk "Austrian-crystal-encrusted Judith Leiber minaudière evening clutch bags," should you happen to have one lying around. If all else fails, your neighborhood SalVa never judges. [Wall Street Journal] More »
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