The Environmental Club and Vintage Locker hosted a thrifting pop-up to promote sustainable fashion within the school community in honor of Earth Week on April 23. Vintage Locker was founded by Beckham Williams ’28 and hosts pop-up thrift shops at Los Angeles high schools to reduce clothing waste.
The Environmental Club placed collection bins around campus for clothing donations from students. The clothing was then sold in the Vintage Locker thrift markets, with all proceeds going to environmental nonprofits.
Williams said he founded Vintage Locker to create positive environmental action.
“I was inspired to start Vintage Locker after learning about the immense environmental impacts of fast fashion and I wanted to do something within my community to effectuate change,” Williams said. “To me, Vintage Locker represents a shift to a more responsible, aware and healthy mindset that fosters a culture of reusability and circularity. By founding Vintage Locker, I hope to inspire this mindset within my peers and drive meaningful change.”
Environmental Science Club Leader James Corman ’27 said he enjoys donating to Vintage Locker because the clothes continue to be worn by others.
“It’s so important to donate clothes to Vintage Locker because you know it’s going to a meaningful cause,” Corman said. “Especially when it’s clothes you don’t need anymore, now other people can wear them and enjoy them.”
Alice Torosyan ’27 said she enjoyed shopping at Vintage Locker because it has a positive impact on the world.
“What made shopping at Vintage Locker fun for me was that you’re able to have fun while doing something good,” Torosyan said. “There’s a lot of fast fashion that’s really repetitive, so a lot of malls feel kind of the same and I get really bored shopping there. With Vintage Locker, it’s great because I get to look at some new things. I found some things that I liked, and I also felt good about myself knowing that I wasn’t destroying the environment.”
Williams said he hopes Vintage Locker will continue to grow and have an impact.
“I founded Vintage Locker last year, and we had our first event on the lower school campus,” Williams said. “Our event last year went really well and we sold approximately 80 pieces of clothing and raised $1,270, which we donated to the California Native Plant Society. This year, I hope to increase both of these metrics with our Upper School event.”
Environmental Science teacher Nadine Eisenkolb said she hopes people have fun purchasing vintage clothing while bringing attention to the harms of the fast fashion industry.
“It’s a good opportunity for us to unite around an environmental cause while doing something fun like shopping,” Eisenkolb said. “I always think secondhand clothes shopping is a bit of a treasure hunt, so I’m hoping that people will be excited to join in. At the same time, I hope it gets some people to question the fashion industry and foster communication about cheap labor.”
