Our eighth #FRBookClub, between Meg Pirie and Tansy Hoskins, on Charity Shop World. Tansy spent time volunteering in a London charity shop and sorting through what people donate, including the things that never make it onto the shop floor. Her book blends diary-style notes with investigation into where our unwanted clothes actually go, who profits from them, and what that says about the UK’s relationship with consumption, austerity and class.
Three things that stayed with us after the live discussion:
Charity shops are often the first sorting point in a global waste stream, and they’re paid very little for the bulk of what they receive.
Clothing poverty is still a real issue in the UK, and the “guilt and shame” narrative around consumption rarely accounts for who can afford to donate and who needs to buy secondhand.
Changing consumption means looking at the wider model of society and the policies that shape it, including Extended Producer Responsibility and better design standards.
We also discussed Fashion Roundtable’s Creative Wellbeing Economy Framework: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a1431a1e5dd5b754be2e0e9/t/68223b1989ad7a29031f1c83/1747073825611/Creative+Wellbeing+Economy_Report_2025_V2AC_Revised.docx.pdf
Watch the live back: https://fashionroundtable.substack.com/p/book-club-7-meg-pirie-in-conversation