VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Shopping sustainably: how the Cherry Pit is helping, one garment at a time
Margaret McCann: The Cherry Pit in Syracuse, New York gives CNY residents the chance to find unique vintage clothing for a fraction of the cost you’d see at, say, Destiny Mall. Shop founder Abigail Minicozzi came up with the idea for the store just four years ago simply out of her love of secondhand clothes.
Abigail Minicozzi: Personally, I love it from a fashion standpoint. I love finding something and looking at how it was made, and looking at the material it’s made out of. If you really look at a vintage sweater, it’s like, yeah, it’s cute and it’s detailed and it’s fun to wear, but then if you really look at it, it’s like somebody made this. It was made out of materials that we don’t use anymore, because they are too expensive or take too long. It’s hand embroidered, hand beaded, so I feel like it’s stuff like that that excites me.
McCann: Minicozzi says that thrifting allowed her to find her own style and voice in clothing because of its cheap and unique nature.
Minicozzi: Curating and thrifting made me like fashion so much, and it wasn’t a thing back home, so that opened my eyes to this creative field that I could do.
McCann: The store has a huge following with younger Syracuse residents, and Minicozzi says it’s just fun to see others in town wearing things she once had in her own closet. Vintage shopping isn’t only about finding your style and getting unique things. The clothes here at The Cherry Pit help us slow down the fast fashion industry and help us all be a little bit more sustainable.
Minicozzi: People see other people wearing it, and it’s like word of mouth. It’s like spreading like, maybe it is cooler to do that than go to the mall, or maybe it is better. There’s so much clothes out there that we we could just be cycling more.
McCann: While Minicozzi is swaying Syracuse away from the mall, the issue of fast fashion continues to persist. According to the World Bank, around 87% of discarded textiles end up in landfills, of which most are in fact reusable. Being the second largest water polluter, the fast fashion industry also impacts our drinking water, as its chemicals and microplastics infect our rivers and oceans. That’s why what Abigail is doing is so important, even if it only looks like a little shop in Syracuse.
Minicozzi: I feel like it goes along with slow fashion, and it’s just like slowing down and seeing that these are actually products that someone like put their time into.
McCann: Reporting in Syracuse for NCC News, I’m Margaret McCann.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — When Abigail Minicozzi, Syracuse resident, discovered the world of secondhand clothing and vintage fashion, she knew that she had found her niche. This passion for fashion, though, didn’t just result in some small hobby store.
The Cherry Pit in Syracuse, New York, is a vintage store that resells the collections of Minicozzi, her sister, and a few other collective individuals. The store, which is located on the lower level of 217 S. Salina St., specializes in vintage clothing of all kinds. From holiday sweaters to ‘80s wedding dresses, the store gives individuals the opportunity to shop uniquely.
Minicozzi’s interests don’t just end with fashion, though. She said that sustainability has been a part of her life for as long as she can remember.
“I have a lot of siblings, so hand-me-downs were always a thing and creating clothes out of old clothes that you have was something that was always in my life,” Minicozzi said. “My parents encouraged it.”
Thrifting and shopping second hand has always been a way to help reduce the negative impact that fast fashion has on our environment. The fashion industry is the second-largest contributor to water pollution, after agriculture, making up about 20% of global wastewater, according to the World Bank.
Stores like the Cherry Pit are making sustainable shopping not only smart, but popular and trendy with younger generations. The store has amassed a large following on their Instagram account and adds to their collection very often.
“You don’t always need to get something new. There will always be something out there that is new to you, but old to another person,” Minicozzi said.
For more information on how to shop sustainably, visit EarthDay.org