The Hidden Potential of 'Girlboss'
© Karen Ballard | Netflix
Girlboss, released on April 21st, 2017, is the trending series on Netflix at the moment. Telling the story of Sophia Amoruso, a self-made billionaire, the American entertainment company has created a series that shows how the young entrepreneur built up an e-commerce business with ‘simply’ an idea and a laptop. While the focus lies on Amoruso´s success, the series bears potential for promoting sustainable shopping alternatives to the viewers.
Amoruso started her career in 2006 by selling vintage clothes on eBay, gradually building up her own brand and online store Nasty Gal. Within ten years, at age 32, Amoruso was listed among the richest American women by Forbes, with a net worth of $280 million. Though Nasty Gal had to announce bankruptcy in 2016, Sophia Amoruso’s life is still a story of success.
In Amoruso’s case, her eye for fashion and quality was worth a mint. She discovered items in thrift shops and at estate sales, beautified the pieces, put them in the limelight, and sold them on eBay. The profit she made through her business shows how valuable second-hand clothes can be.
© Karen Ballard | Netflix
“Don't buy new, search eBay”
The platform eBay, used by Sophia Amoruso to pull up her business, is, with 25 million sellers, 157 million buyers and over 800 million items, an important platform and pioneer for sustainable consumption. In the context of the 'Common Threads Initiative', the American outdoor brand Patagonia promotes eBay as an alternative way to purchase clothes, using the slogan ‘Don´t buy new, search eBay.’ Instead of marketing their own brand-new products, Patagonia encourages potential consumers to consider second-hand options, thereby inspiring different consumption behaviour.
According to The Guardian, Patagonia is the first major brand to carry out such a campaign. Through collaborations such as this one, eBay is said to be influencing the way people shop and what they shop for, while attempting to raise awareness of product life-cycles within the consumers. This way, it provokes people to rethink their own consumption and environmental responsibility.
For these initiatives to actually work out, though, brands need to provide high quality products: “To lighten our environmental footprint, everyone needs to consume less. Businesses need to make fewer things but of higher quality. Customers need to think twice before they buy. […] One of the most responsible things we can do as a company is to make high-quality stuff that lasts for years and can be repaired, so you don’t have to buy more of it,” states Patagonia.
“To make second hand the first choice worldwide” is also the mission of the vintage e-commerce, vinted. As they state on their homepage, they have turned their hobby, to share clothes, into a mindful business. It has 12 million members and offers 22.3 million items, compared to an average of 1000 items in a regular shop. Trading platforms like eBay or vinted follow simple principles and are essential role models for sustainable fashion consumption.
Girlboss might focus on the self-made business, rather than mentioning the aspect of sustainability in second-hand e-commerce. Subtly, the Netflix series still communicates the fashionable potential of used clothing, encouraging viewers to consider options other than stores with brand-new products. It promotes a more sustainable fashion consumption, and is therefore TFL´s entertainment pick for the Fashion Revolution Week.