Thrift Advisor
“Are you a connoisseur of trash in a world full of it?” asks Josephine Giacharo, a self-confessed magpie and founder of bi-annual THRIFT ADVISOR: your firsthand guide to secondhand style. Much like the innards of a charity shop, her publication is a slow-browse trove crammed with articles on retro fashion, sentimentalism and kitsch styling tips. Spending her youth in Italy, the quaint town of Turin, Josephine was always drawn to the fur coats and hand-me-down finery worn by her female relatives. After moving to London, she gained an emotional attachment to thrift stores and how the clothes, “even though they are inanimate: they are not living beings, they were created by someone,” she says. “I felt it was my duty, environmentally and humanly, to ensure they had a much more dignified future.” As Josephine studied, the clash-heavy outfits around her at Central Saint Martins, “mixing edgy and classy, moth-eaten and pristine,” pointed to a subculture emerging from the dusty depths of history. Uplifting these frugal stylists, her magazine exists as a “hymn to originality, celebrating circularity and individualism, in a world of conspicuous consumers and fashion victims.” It proves that secondhand doesn’t have to be stuffy. “From compulsive collectors to those who have fetishes for odd collectibles, to happy hoarders or auctions amateurs, flea-market enthusiasts or archives aficionados of all kinds, I wanted there to be something for everybody,” adds Josephine. Over eight months she worked tirelessly with collaborators, including illustrator Howard Tangye and Bay Garnett, founder of sustainable satire zine, Cheap Date, to create a print product that she hopes will be treasured. Slotted between recycled covers sits a multitude of unseen images and, impressively, not a single item of factory-fresh fashion. “Perseverance and integrity are two important qualities I’ve developed,” she says of the project. “I’ve understood the value of reaching out to people you admire and asking them to collaborate without being too subconscious or fearful of not receiving a response. CSM is fantastic at pushing you to try out new skills that are outside of your comfort zone.” Leaving university behind, Josephine looks to find a stockist for her magazine, ahead of its second issue, and locate an editorial job wherever she can