On a recent **What Not to Wear ** episode featuring a hippie chick, the hosts said that while they usually donate the rejected wardrobes to charity, in her case the clothes were in such bad shape they would just trash them.
Excuse me? You criticize the clothes up and down for being horrible and then you have the nerve to donate them to charity? Why would you think anyone wants this hideous stuff? Maybe our town is just lucky, but the “charity” thrift store here gets enough decent used clothes to take care of clients and resell to support programs. Even at the clothing room for homeless in DC, where things were somewhat scarcer, the clients had taste and preferences.
Note that in many cases the clothes are not bad, but they are completely wrong for the person wearing them. For instance a number of episodes have dealt with older women who dress too young. Nothing wrong with donating those clothes in the hopes that they are bought by someone age-appropriate. Or the people who have “college student” wardrobes but are now trying to moce into the post-college professional world. Would it be better to throw out clothes that some other college student can wear?
And of course the truly hideous stuff needs to be put back into circulation for use as Halloween costumes.
I agree with Otto . I’m sure, too, that not ALL the really horrible stuff is donated. Some of the participants have really worn out stuff, shoes especially. Also, there are some participants whose main problem is they only wear black or have too many football jerseys or something. Scattered, this stuff is fine.
Eh? Everything I’ve heard is that the “into the trashcan” schtick is just a schtick. The contestant returns home with her new clothes and all her old crap.
IIRC, that was straight from the original US guy-cohost who got canned, who’d posted over for a bit over at the TWoP boards after the new guy started up.
Perhaps the show has changed since that wretched man was [del]donated to charity[/del] canned. I remember at least one instance as the OP described, with Stacy saying that the busted wardrobe was being thrown out instead of donated.
Are they donated domestically or sent overseas? There are lots of places where people will be just ecstatic to receive your tacky Coca-cola t-shirts and Croc polos, and would prefer them to what the participant gets during the show!
And I often trawl thrift stores for hideous prints that get remanufactured into other products: head wraps, drawstring pouches, throw pillows, etc. I’ll even buy worn or stained stuff if I can cut that bit out.
Besides, beneath the layer of people who shop at consignment stores is the group who can only afford to shop at thrift stores, and further still is the contingent who can only afford to dumpster dive at thrift stores. They are truly not in a position to be choosy. If it’s warm, who cares what it looks like?
My wife and I always disagree about donating old clothing to charity. She says that anything in bad shape (sweaters that have lost their shape, shirts with stains or small non-obvious holes, etc.) should just be thrown away so the charity doesn’t have to bother with it. I say give them everything and let them decide whether they want to use it; after all, a misshapen sweater or pants with frayed cuffs still might be a lot better than what a homeless person is wearing now.
I agree with you, Autumn Almanac. People may want clothing for costumes, arts & crafts, practical jokes…whatever. If I have a piece of clothing that is even somewhat salvageable, I send it.
The sort of charity you’re sending it to does make a difference as to whether you should donate it. If it’s a resale shop, badly damaged or stained clothes are probably going to be disposed of rather than sold. Places that distribute clothes free of charge are less choosy but still aren’t going to give out stuff that’s just wrecked.
Also, if you’re donating clothes, please wash them first. The shop may end up laundering them again but wash them anyway. I used to work at a Salvation Army store and the worst part of the job was picking through the crusty clothes people dropped off.
Form what I’ve read, a lot of undesirable clothing is sold in bulk and shipped overseas to Africa and other poor places. Which is why you often see photos of African people wearing random, irrelevant t-shirts.
Re: WNTW, according to the TWOP boards, the make-overees have the option of keeping their clothes or dumping them. So don’t get too upset when they’re forced to discard a t-shirt with a picture of their deceased cat emblazoned on it, they’ll be able to get it back…
I’d have to think they must give the contestant at least most of their clothes back. They can’t go home with just three outfits in their entire wardrobe.
Well, the rules are that the make-overees must pick seven full outfits that are “approved”. They can spend the rest of the money as they like. So they should have a fairly complete wardrobe at the end of the show (although they’ll probably be very lacking in very casual clothes as Clinton and Stacy abhor any form of sweat pants or shorts).
They don’t have just three outfits. The victim gets $5,000 to spend on new clothes which, if they exercise any sort of ability to shop, will net them a decent basic wardrobe even in New York City. The three outfits are exemplars that the fashionistas come up with to help guide the victim. The American version doesn’t focus too much on undergarments and I don’t recall seeing too many bras getting dumped so presumably they still have foundation garments at home. The British version, which when I was watching these shows I always liked better because while the fashionistas could be bitches they also pointed out their own flaws as examples for the victims, often has the women picking out undergarments. Apparently British women have some measure of difficulty in selecting bras of the proper size. Personally I blame the metric system.
While I am certainly no fashion maven…alot of what they do is to teach the person to dress their body type. They may have some usable clothing that would work on someone else but not them. For instance the woman who robbed stuff from her 14 year old daughter’s closet. It was fine for her 14 year old daughter not her. So it is likely there may be some usable clothes to donate.
Also, theater groups frequent resale shops in search of period clothing.
You’ll also notice that MOST of the make-overees are not too thin or too tall or too big. You can get a whole wardrobe for $5000 if you can shop at regular department stores.