By Abby Pan
Staff Writer
An excited rush fills the thrift store, hangers clicking against one another as sophomore Thrift Flip Club co-presidents Lynette Huynh and Ghrista Wangsiri sift through rows of clothing and fill their cart with unique tops, vintage bottoms and fun patterned pieces.
“We usually thrift our own clothes and alter it to match our own style. Because of this shared passion of thrift flipping, we decided to make it a club,” Wangsiri said. “It’s nice to see everyone learning about fashion, learning how to sew and being able to express their creativity.”
Huynh and Wangsiri chartered the Thrift Flip club in Aug. 2023 to teach their members how to design, sew and alter clothing pieces to help reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry.
“We want our club members to learn how to sew and learn how to thrift flip,” Huynh said. “By decreasing clothing and fabric waste, we are teaching people on how to reduce fast fashion waste and decreasing the amount of overconsumption.”
Many people pick up thrifting in hopes of finding unique clothing items that can’t be found in traditional stores. Thrifting saves money and brings back past clothing trends into the limelight. People who participate in thrifting are also able to alter their clothes for a better fit to their bodies.
“A lot of people have never touched a sewing needle in their life, and it is a little bit of a challenge for people to learn how to change the thread or even thread a needle,” Huynh said. “But our members have the freedom to decide what they choose to do with the item they picked, and we are excited to see what they do with what they envision for each item.”
Meetings are every other Tuesday in room 706 and consist of bustling conversations about the thrifted items Huynh and Wangsiri collect. Members gather around tables and exchange ideas as they choose which pieces they want to alter. The club also runs a Discord server where Huynh posts announcements and shares before-and-afters of members’ thrift flips.
Huynh and Wangsiri teach the club through presentations and demonstrations on how to sew and alter clothing pieces. Members then create their own outfits using sewing machines, leftover fabrics from the Principles of Marketing class and thrifted t-shirts and jeans from the Goodwill bins in Los Angeles.
The club is planning future fundraisers to bring in money to buy more clothes for thrift flipping.
Thrift Flip Club teaches new alteration techniques each meeting, starting out with sewing with a needle and moving onto sewing with a sewing machine. They eventually hope to have their members become more familiar with sewing and altering clothes to then sell their creations and donate the money to a women’s clothes shelter.
“I mainly want everyone to be very comfortable with sewing,” Huynh said. “My goal is for my club members to be able to envision what they want to create with each piece of fabric and encourage thrifting overall.”