Featuring a purple storefront and eye-catching window displays, GetUp Vintage is located between Totoro Japanese Restaurant and Taste of India Svai on South State Street. This vintage shop has been providing environmentally conscious fashion to Ann Arbor for 19 years. Founded by Kelly and Paul McLeod, it was sold in 2015 to long-time employees Lindsay Leyland and Kaylan Mitchell.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Leyland said her love of vintage clothing and obsession with buying used clothing began as a child.
“I was raised by two scientists, and the environment was always super huge,” Leyland said. “I grew up making my own clothes. My mother made her own laundry detergent. That was pretty much imprinted on her from an early age, and she always bought second-hand.”
Each piece is hand-selected by Leyland and Mitchell and undergoes an extensive cleaning and restoration process before being placed on the racks. Leyland said many of the clothes in the store would have been thrown away.
“We can go to people's homes, and most of the time these things will end up in the trash,” Leyland said. “These are people who are cleaning out their great-grandparents' houses. They're finding themselves in situations like hoarding, and they're really stressed out about the situation. And then I go in and the things are… … It turned out that there was a lot of life in it. It stayed in there. There's no need to throw it in the trash.”
Mr Leyland said fast fashion purchases can have a negative impact on carbon emissions and buying clothing second-hand is a good option for consumers.
“When you start looking into the environmental impact of fast fashion, you realize that there are no eco-friendly textiles,” says Leyland. “It's one of the biggest polluters on our planet. So no one is saying you have to avoid buying new stuff at all, even in the small form of buying second-hand. But if you can research a brand for five minutes and think, OK, instead of buying this at ZARA, there are things that are very similar to this that can be frugal.”
Get Up Vintage regularly holds workshops with the University of Michigan, showing students how to repair clothing to reduce textile waste and teaching them about the importance of environmentally conscious fashion decisions.
“We wanted to teach young college students that, 'Even if you don't buy the stuff on Instagram, you might want to go to a thrift store and see if they have something like that.' '' Leyland said. “Or maybe you learn how to take something that's already in your closet and modify it to make it what you want. I always use what I have first before I go out and buy to buy.” That’s all I keep in mind.”
In late March, The GetUp collaborated with several student organizations to host clothing repair workshops in preparation for Zero Waste Week. Residential college club ECO Threads also participated, hosting a monthly clothing swap as part of its mission to slow fast fashion.
Molly Rothhorn, LSA sophomore and co-founder of ECO Threads, said in an interview with The Daily that working with The Getup was a rewarding collaboration because the organizations had common goals and values. Ta.
“GetUp has a very unique perspective on what it means to foster a more sustainable fashion world,” Rosshorn said. “A lot of[their]practices aligned with our values of buying and selling clothing that maybe has seen better days and needs to be upcycled or needs a little extra love. ”
Raina Mahadevan, an LSA freshman at the Residential College, told The Daily in an interview that participating in the event opened her eyes to the possibility of more sustainable clothing options.
“It's really cool. Sometimes you find something you never thought you'd want,” Mahadevan said. “This allows clothing to be reused rather than being left out or thrown away. It's a risk-free way to explore clothing in a more sustainable environment.”
Leyland said the unique system The GetUp uses makes vintage shopping as easy and stress-free as possible.
“I tried to organize the store by decades,” Leyland said. “We've got all the '70s dresses. There's so many different fun aspects to each decade, and that's what's great about vintage to me: mixing and matching things from decades.”
Leyland also notes that because many of the clothing items in the store are made to fit the socially acceptable body types of the time, the store offers professional measurement cards for customers to know if items will fit. He told the Daily that he was doing so.
“It makes it a little easier to shop around to find the decade that best suits your body type,” Leyland says. “There's a historical reason why clothing looks the way it does every few decades, and it's as much an education aspect as it is a fashion aspect.”
Leyland said she is always happy to talk about sustainable fashion on The Get Up and share her favorite eco-friendly places with customers.
“There are a lot of environmentally friendly things coming out now, and some companies are quite successful,” Leyland said. “I feel like if we all start sharing this information with each other, we'll really be able to buy better things and stop buying big brands.”
Daily Staff Reporter Abby Harris can be reached at: abigailx@umich.edu.