I see the makers of Love Island have decided to dress contestants in secondhand clothes from eBay. This counts as good news, sustainability-wise, but I would have been even happier if they’d gone to the local charity shop.
I’ve loved a good chazza, as no one in Leith calls it, since I spent most of my childhood getting dragged around them. Coming across one of those rotating bookcases stuffed with Georgette Heyer and PD James paperbacks is a deeply Proustian experience for me. Charity shops are microcosms of our high streets, telling us all we need to know about the cut of a place’s jib. Anything that’s kind to the climate and mean to capitalism should be welcomed as warmly as a vintage porcelain boxer dog for £3. (No regrets.) There should really be a Great British Charity Shop Off on telly by now.
