Thrift shopping is not just for the penny wise: it is also a good deed,
providing funds for charity and keeping usable goods out of garbage dumps. It
is a way to update one’s wardrobe for a fraction of the price, especially if
the clothes on the racks sport high-end, luxury labels like Gucci and Prada as
they do at the second-hand clothing shop in the town Iolo, near Prato.
Run by Dominican nuns, the thrift store is fully stocked with designer
brand names at ‘bargain basement’ prices. The clothing sold is both new and
used, either donated by local residents or sent directly from fashion
warehouses in Prato and across Italy. All proceeds go to
charity. In an art laboratory, discarded materials and objects are used to make
costume jewellery, bomboniere and postcards.
The shop’s assistants live with the nuns at the Villa Martelli convent
in Iolo. Suffering from a wide range of psychological disorders, the women find
working at the store a meaningful rehabilitation experience, says Mother Paola
Callotto. She explains: ‘People who suffer from psychological problems, like
the 14 girls who live here with us, need to feel useful, and more importantly,
do a job that gives them their dignity back. Our society seems to discard
people with mental disabilities just like they discard their old and used
clothes. Instead, the girls who work in the store and in the laboratory prove
that there is still a lot of beauty in these objects, as there is a lot of
beauty in people with psychological disabilities.’
